The Return of Mascot Leathers

[pawineguy]

Edward, great thread. The intersection of leather jackets / music / motorcycles leads to some interesting tangents. Brand New Cadillac is a great record, seems like everyone was covering it at one time or another. Shows that while he may have spent his formative years in the U.S., we certainly didn't have a monopoly on early rock and roll.

I saw Chuck Berry live in the late 80s and when you hear him run through all his hits, you just stand there thinking "man, that sounds just like XXXX" for each song that he plays.

 

[zhz]

Seems like you can buy from their website directly, and it is £299 + shipping. The quality seems good from the picture.

PS: It reminds me another brand, leather monkey, they make some lewis copy at £299, but not sure about the quality. http://lmuk.co/.

 

[tropicalbob]

Edward, you're dead wrong about the greatest R&R album: it was Jerry Lee Live at the Star Club in Hamburg (with The Nashville Teens backing him, a um, ******, British band). What got me searching the thrift stores for leather jackets was John Cale's "Slow Dazzle," where I think he's wearing a CR. Cale, who hung out at CBGB's, also produced The Stooges as well as The Modern Lovers first LP.

 

[tropicalbob]

The point I was trying to make yesterday was that the NY scene in the mid-'70's was a very eclectic one, with a mix of artists, etc, as well as "dum-dum boys," and there was no particular look, which was kind of the point. When I then spent almost two years in Ireland and the UK in '77 and '78, there seemed to be much more uniformity in dress and expected behavior.

 

[tonypaj]

I blast the Ramones in my car on the way home after a bad day at the office. Brings me back to my "yute". Then I always go back to Velvet Underground, and the to, of all people, Jonathan Richman. After listening to the Modern Lovers, I find a bit of peace, anger is gone...

 

[tropicalbob]

I was reading an article the other day in which the writer was taking "Pablo Picasso" completely seriously. He missed the humor and thus the point. "I'm in Love With the New Teller" is still at the top of my list.

 

[IXL]

........ Then I always go back to Velvet Underground,.........

" 'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man.......When I put a spike into my vein."
Yep, I hear that one and I'll be humming it for the next four days. Oh.....heck!!!

 

[tonypaj]

I was reading an article the other day in which the writer was taking "Pablo Picasso" completely seriously. He missed the humor and thus the point. "I'm in Love With the New Teller" is still at the top of my list.

Still the best best ever cover of any song, Bowie doing Richman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSccHqk9s64

 

[tropicalbob]

We're a bit off topic, but IMHO I prefer the original. It has that pounding beat, and the song is very much a smirk at the idolatry of the art world. Gotta hand it to Bowie, though, he produced two great LP's for Iggy and revived his career (and him).

 

[nick123]

It seems like it's become a bit of an Easter egg hunt to identify the "first" **** band or where it exactly originated. I wasn't there in the 70s like the few fortunate guys here, but I've kind of come to the conclusion that the "spirit" as well as early sounds of **** was definitely in the air starting with the mid 60s garage bands (think Monks, Painted Ship, Shaggs, etc) and possibly MUCH earlier if we're talking "spirit" alone. (Jerry Lee; he married his cousin, lit his piano on fire, etc...) Maybe even some of the Blues guys were in that mindset. Or even the Classical music composers!

But the movement, it seems, started in NY with the Ramones, Television, Dolls, etc etc then blew into England (though that debate will go on forever-don't forget the Saints from Australia who emerged arguably before the Ramones and had a similar sound; and other little one-off bands right alongside the happening scenes)... Basically a rejection of the popular music at the time and an embrace of artistic endeavors as well as a "return" to rock n' roll!

Cool jackets.

 

[Edward]

Edward, great thread. The intersection of leather jackets / music / motorcycles leads to some interesting tangents. Brand New Cadillac is a great record, seems like everyone was covering it at one time or another. Shows that while he may have spent his formative years in the U.S., we certainly didn't have a monopoly on early rock and roll.

I saw Chuck Berry live in the late 80s and when you hear him run through all his hits, you just stand there thinking "man, that sounds just like XXXX" for each song that he plays.

I saw him in Belfast in 1995. It was a great night - first time I saw the Sabrejets, too (featuring the heart of Rudi, no less, one of many old ****s on the rockabilly retirement plan....). Chuck Berry ain't a nice man, but what a performer...

Seems like you can buy from their website directly, and it is £299 + shipping. The quality seems good from the picture.

PS: It reminds me another brand, leather monkey, they make some lewis copy at £299, but not sure about the quality. http://lmuk.co/.

They're in a similar vein in terms of the classic British rocker jacket look. Probably pitching for the same market, though Leather Monkeys are (almost) a direct, cheaper copy of a Lewis rather than their own thing. What makes me wary of Leather Monkeys is that they're so unashamedly a rip-off of Lewis - I've even seen them using the Lewis name in their eBay titles (not trying ot pass them off as Lewises, but abusing the TM in order to pull in search returns). That sort of thing, fairly or unfairly, tends to suggest to me that they're only looking to glom off somebody else's reputation for a buck rather than doing their own thing. [huh]

Edward, you're dead wrong about the greatest R&R album: it was Jerry Lee Live at the Star Club in Hamburg (with The Nashville Teens backing him, a um, ******, British band). What got me searching the thrift stores for leather jackets was John Cale's "Slow Dazzle," where I think he's wearing a CR. Cale, who hung out at CBGB's, also produced The Stooges as well as The Modern Lovers first LP.

Ah, now BNC is a single song, not an album.... Yeah, though, that Jerry Lee one is something else. JLL is one of my favourites to dance to. I'd love to have seen him at the Star Club. As for those Brits, meh. I hear they were great when they were still rock and roll, but they completely destroyed the British rock and roll boom with their drippy love songs. Never forget, nor forgive, them for that!

The point I was trying to make yesterday was that the NY scene in the mid-'70's was a very eclectic one, with a mix of artists, etc, as well as "dum-dum boys," and there was no particular look, which was kind of the point. When I then spent almost two years in Ireland and the UK in '77 and '78, there seemed to be much more uniformity in dress and expected behavior.

Pvnk was a fairly wide-ranging beast in general, but I think it's fair to say that the London scene certainly had a more uniform feel to it than the likes of NYC, inn many ways. Manchester had its take too, with the Buzzcocks, Glasgow had the Rezillos. Over in Ireland, you had Stiff Little Fingers making it something very charged, combining a Clash influence with an in your face rejection of the politics and mores of the dominant troubles tribes. Derry's Undertones had a poppier sensibility (initially they criticised the Fingers for "exploiting" the troubles, though by '81 they were writing about Bobby Sands) and were more influenced by the American scene, the Ramones especially. Down in Dublin, there was Radiators from Space (which included future Pogue, the now sadly deceased Phil Chevron), Who sounded like the Ramones being fronted by Johnny Burnett, except faster. Very fertile period for music in Ireland, especially the North. Pvnk and its DIY ethos is still deeply ingrained in the music scene in Northern Ireland; it was never a passing fad there. If you were a pvnk (or later a goth or anything else that stood out like that, especially involving makeup for the boys), you did it because it meant something. Sticking out by looking different in Belfast can still be edgy, but back then it took serious balls. The US scene was always much more underground (arguably, pvnk only broke the mainstream in the US in 1991, with the release of Nirvana's Bleach), and there was a big difference between the humour and the human focus of the NYC bands' material, and the much more overly political acts of the West Coast, especially into the eighties with the likes of the Dead Kennedys.

I blast the Ramones in my car on the way home after a bad day at the office. Brings me back to my "yute". Then I always go back to Velvet Underground, and the to, of all people, Jonathan Richman. After listening to the Modern Lovers, I find a bit of peace, anger is gone...

I love JR. Saw him live in London once.... bout 2001, I think. I'd love to see him again. I keep catching myself about to say to an undergrad class "OK, Modern lovers, we've got a lot of fine work to do today...", but I doubt any of them would even have a clue it was a quote...

I was reading an article the other day in which the writer was taking "Pablo Picasso" completely seriously. He missed the humor and thus the point. "I'm in Love With the New Teller" is still at the top of my list.

I think my favourite is probably Little Vampire Girl...

" 'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man.......When I put a spike into my vein."
Yep, I hear that one and I'll be humming it for the next four days. Oh.....heck!!!

First Velvets song I ever heard.... back in '91, on a cassette of the soundtrack to The Doors, the film with Val Kilmer.

Still the best best ever cover of any song, Bowie doing Richman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSccHqk9s64

My favourite cover of a JR cut was probably when the Pistols played Roadrunner live, last time they played in the UK. 2007, in Brixton Academy. Cracking gig.

It seems like it's become a bit of an Easter egg hunt to identify the "first" **** band or where it exactly originated. I wasn't there in the 70s like the few fortunate guys here, but I've kind of come to the conclusion that the "spirit" as well as early sounds of **** was definitely in the air starting with the mid 60s garage bands (think Monks, Painted Ship, Shaggs, etc) and possibly MUCH earlier if we're talking "spirit" alone. (Jerry Lee; he married his cousin, lit his piano on fire, etc...) Maybe even some of the Blues guys were in that mindset. Or even the Classical music composers!

Here we come back to my argument the Mozart was the first ****.

And if not him, Buddy Holly.

But the movement, it seems, started in NY with the Ramones, Television, Dolls, etc etc then blew into England (though that debate will go on forever-don't forget the Saints from Australia who emerged arguably before the Ramones and had a similar sound; and other little one-off bands right alongside the happening scenes)... Basically a rejection of the popular music at the time and an embrace of artistic endeavors as well as a "return" to rock n' roll!

Cool jackets.

Yes, I do lean to the view that the closest identifiable start to what is not thought of as the pvnk genre is probably the NYC scene in the early 70s, building on from the Stooges.

 

[nick123]

This is kind of silly, but I've always equated the position of the belt buckles (front vs rear) on riding jackets as a little metaphor to the UK/US **** origin rivalry!

...the Stooges. Mike Watt, who currently tours on bass with them, lives on the same street I'm moving to in a few weeks. Nice guy. Very much looking forward to that.

 

[tonypaj]

I love JR. Saw him live in London once.... bout 2001, I think. I'd love to see him again. I keep catching myself about to say to an undergrad class "OK, Modern lovers, we've got a lot of fine work to do today...", but I doubt any of them would even have a clue it was a quote...

I'll just comment on this, apart from saying that yours was an excellent post.

I went to a few of JR concerts in the late 70s early 80s, and was just amazed how close to pvnk his music was live. It had an edge to it, just made for small clubs. These days he is older and more mellow, like all of us tend to be. He's one of the few people I'd just like to have a chat with.

Back to the original programming. BTW, I tend to do the same, make an obscure quote in meetings and see if people get it. At times someone does, and we'll have a laugh. Mostly the others think I'm weird...

 

[tropicalbob]

Nick, check out "Nuggets: a collection of "60's garage-band psychedelia" produced and collected by Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith's rhythm guitarist, producer, and arranger. It's a really fantastic collection, including such hits as "Psychotic Reaction" by the Count Four (and lots of other wonderful stuff).

 

[tropicalbob]

Back to sartorial matters, I think very little attention has been paid to the influence Dylan had during this period, particularly he of the Highway 61 manifestation. People couldn't understand why he dropped the protest, folk-singer thing, but take a look at his outfit he was wearing during the "Don't Look Back" British tour. It's pure Rock&Roll, and was imitated everywhere during the early Pvnk scene.

 

[tropicalbob]

When Tommy Erdelyi, original drummer and brains behind The Ramones, passed away last year, I kind of wasn't surprised to read that he was into Bluegrass and traditional British music. As Edward noted, the early '70's was a musical desert, so you started exploring other genres, including those just mentioned, as well as a lot of the experimental, minimalist music that was coming out.

 

[nick123]

Nick, check out "Nuggets: a collection of "60's garage-band psychedelia" produced and collected by Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith's rhythm guitarist, producer, and arranger. It's a really fantastic collection, including such hits as "Psychotic Reaction" by the Count Four (and lots of other wonderful stuff).

I love that comp! Lenny Kaye rules. "Psychotic Reaction" is a classic.

 

[tropicalbob]

It seems like it's become a bit of an Easter egg hunt to identify the "first" **** band or where it exactly originated. I wasn't there in the 70s like the few fortunate guys here, but I've kind of come to the conclusion that the "spirit" as well as early sounds of **** was definitely in the air starting with the mid 60s garage bands (think Monks, Painted Ship, Shaggs, etc) and possibly MUCH earlier if we're talking "spirit" alone. (Jerry Lee; he married his cousin, lit his piano on fire, etc...) Maybe even some of the Blues guys were in that mindset. Or even the Classical music composers!

But the movement, it seems, started in NY with the Ramones, Television, Dolls, etc etc then blew into England (though that debate will go on forever-don't forget the Saints from Australia who emerged arguably before the Ramones and had a similar sound; and other little one-off bands right alongside the happening scenes)... Basically a rejection of the popular music at the time and an embrace of artistic endeavors as well as a "return" to rock n' roll!

Cool jackets.

The first album that I heard that had that garage band sound was the Modern Lovers' first album, recorded in 1972. It was such a breath of fresh air.

 

[rocketeer]

Pvnk Rock, that driving powerful anarchic music of the mid 1970s lasted such a short time in England. I was a biker, soon to join the Teds, the pvnks theoretical enemies, in reality just music fans. 50s style RnR was a bit of a backlash to the effeminate Glam scene which came earlier just before disco, not being a pvnk I cannot vouch for what that represented but the early pvnk scene was meant to shock. You didn't have to believe in Nazism to wear a swastika armband but what really got up Teddy Boys noses was the 'desecration' of their beloved Drape jackets with slashes and safety pins etc, leathers tended to be universal.
I walked to the railway station with a pvnk, he wore his dads pyjamas and spiked his hair with Vaseline, even as an ex Ted I can say the 1976-77 pvnks looked the biz. Soon this look was bast*dized by the media and everyone thought pvnks all had mohawk haircuts like Matt Belgrano.
One thing that has never really taken off in the UK are pvnk revivals. I remember in 1986 a lot of radio stations tried to celebrate 10 years of pvnk but it soon fizzled out. You will find plenty of old Teds and Rockabillies from the 1970s and 80s like me, and a few original 1950s Teds. But where are all the 55 year old pvnks? For some reason you dont see many and when you do I just dont think it works dressing like a teenager as we head into our late 50s and 60s where as the 50s(Ted, Rocker Rockerbilly) look can be toned down.
Who is still around from those days? Steve, Glen and Paul grew up a while back while John Lydon is now an angry old man, though Crazy Cavan still rocks on.
As for Black Leather Jackets, I dont remember anyone saying "I must get a Lewis" bikers just bought what they liked or were given them by their older brothers etc. The only people who I knew had made to measure Lewis jackets were two girls, and they did not ride.
Mascot look just as great as Lewis, probably better quality now than then, both great looking 'classic' bike jackets but no better protection now than way back when.

PS whats with all the censoring of these words? They are not swear words. Or are they?
Johnny Tee

 

[breezer]

Mike Watt, who currently tours on bass with them, lives on the same street I'm moving to in a few weeks. Nice guy. Very much looking forward to that.

Mike Watt is a legend!

But on another tangent completely would anyone care to comment on the emergence of the Aero Highwayman as the jacket of choice for musicians & fashionable types in Glasgow in the 1980's. Around '85 I was buying Converse, tshirts, levis & plaid shirts from Flip in Queen St, being 16 I wasn't really old enough to be considering leather jackets ( though I did eventually get hold of a leather biker jacket like the ones discussed above). I guess the Glasgow crowd were travelling through to the Aero shop in Edinburgh - matching them with levis, a quiff and Wayfarers. Funny how fashion comes full cycle.