... the other Black experience
I'm new -- just want to say 'hey'
I'll be 43 this year and I'm still proudly call myself a punk rocker. Wish I had more time to go out to more live shows, though, but I always do my part to support the bands that are out there trying to make it. I'm a San Francisco transplant (been here since '03), but I'm from Chicago. I first got into punk back in the mid 70s as a curious little kid trying to keep up the big kids. The Ramones' debut album, Blank Generation by Richard Hell and The Voidoids, Black Gold by Nina Simone and (don't laugh) Frampton Comes Alive (okay-okay...you can laugh) were the first albums I bought with the money I saved from my allowance. I saw Bob Marley and the Wailers play the Uptown Theatre ('79 or '80?) on the last tour they did in Chicago before his death, but I started going to punk shows in 1980. We had a lot of great local bands in the early 80s like The Mentally Ill, Strike Under, The Effigies -- and Naked Raygun, to name a few.
I saw bunches of great bands during the early 80s (The Birthday Party, Bad Brains, The Damned, Government Issue, Youth Brigade, Minor Threat, Social D and so many more) -- on through the late 80s and well into the 90s. Chicago had a thriving scene, maybe not quite like the west and east coast scenes, but we held our own. Race issues seemed comparable to what was going down on both coasts, but Chicago was SO FUCKING SEGREGATED...and it still is, in many respects. My friends and I used to joke that the ride from the end-of-the-line on the south side (95th street ) up to the Belmont stop on the north side (an area where the punk/skinhead/goth and mod subcultures thrived and sometimes clashed) was a kind of 'proving ground' for a Black punk. We used to call it the 'Hell ride'. I can't even BEGIN to count how many knock-down-drag out fights happened over just plain mohawks and combat boots. And for a lot of us, that shit happened while we were WALKING INTO THE STATION, before we had even set foot on a train! And for all of us sistahs who even DARED to sport a mohawk or any other sort of 'extreme' shaved haircut or colorful punky hair-do DECADES BEFORE it became fashionable at Hair Shows and the like, the 'Hell ride' could be an especially unforgiving adventure. Black punks were definitely part of the 70s and 80s early punk scenes in Chicago and some of us have the physical scars to prove it.
I'd better stop now before this mini-novel gets any bigger. Anyways, thanx for letting an old grump rattle on a bit about the old days. Hope everyone's new year is getting off to a promising start. Here's to being a survivor. x0x0x
I saw bunches of great bands during the early 80s (The Birthday Party, Bad Brains, The Damned, Government Issue, Youth Brigade, Minor Threat, Social D and so many more) -- on through the late 80s and well into the 90s. Chicago had a thriving scene, maybe not quite like the west and east coast scenes, but we held our own. Race issues seemed comparable to what was going down on both coasts, but Chicago was SO FUCKING SEGREGATED...and it still is, in many respects. My friends and I used to joke that the ride from the end-of-the-line on the south side (95th street ) up to the Belmont stop on the north side (an area where the punk/skinhead/goth and mod subcultures thrived and sometimes clashed) was a kind of 'proving ground' for a Black punk. We used to call it the 'Hell ride'. I can't even BEGIN to count how many knock-down-drag out fights happened over just plain mohawks and combat boots. And for a lot of us, that shit happened while we were WALKING INTO THE STATION, before we had even set foot on a train! And for all of us sistahs who even DARED to sport a mohawk or any other sort of 'extreme' shaved haircut or colorful punky hair-do DECADES BEFORE it became fashionable at Hair Shows and the like, the 'Hell ride' could be an especially unforgiving adventure. Black punks were definitely part of the 70s and 80s early punk scenes in Chicago and some of us have the physical scars to prove it.
I'd better stop now before this mini-novel gets any bigger. Anyways, thanx for letting an old grump rattle on a bit about the old days. Hope everyone's new year is getting off to a promising start. Here's to being a survivor. x0x0x
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kaminelana Cheatem on -
Was it the Peter Frampton album or were you picturing yourself on the Hell ride? Thanx for the welcome :o)
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Permalink Reply by blu girl on -
it was definitely the frampton album :)
BoweryBetty said:Was it the Peter Frampton album or were you picturing yourself on the Hell ride? Thanx for the welcome :o) -
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Permalink Reply by Kaminelana Cheatem on
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Punk rock saved my soul! What about you? What were some of the first albums you ever purchased?
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Permalink Reply by Xombie Panik on -
FINALLY somebody who remembers the fights and kids getting jumped, dumped in dumpsters and what not...it seems like only a handful of people remember that. I'm from 95th and Oglesby (live off Western and Milwaukee now) so I remember those days. I avoided a lot of actual FIGHTS and never actually got jumped (successfully) for my shit, which I credit my youthful big mouth and bipolar aggressiveness for. Lord knows I was about 160 lbs most of those days back in the nineties...so many adventures. It's funny how the public image of punk in this city doesn't reflect any of that, like the scenes in Cali, or some other cities do. The violent responses we used to provoke just by walking around are discredited and a joke coming from Chicago. I guess we just didn't get the media coverage like some other scenes.
I got into punk rock when I took a trip and lived in pensacola, FL for about a year. STreet punks turned me onto mainly The Exploited, New York Dolls, Disorder, Discharge, Chaos UK...and meanwhile I had been looking up stuff like Billy Idol, Devo and what not before I had even left Chicago. I was already patching up my clothes, DIY making new clothes, passing out flyers against stuff that I thought people should speak out on, and looking for bands who reflected my world view...so meeting with the punks, we just "clicked" from the first meeting. From that point I went on collecting, now with a better direction and got UK Subs, 10-96, Vice Squad, X-Ray Spex, etc...
I'm still doing my thing too, minus the knucklehead shit...because I had gotten to a point after a few years of that harrassment that I just pegged everybody besides punks as enemies by default...then I would still talk and give em a chance to be cool. Until I got to a point where I had gotten a little older and I was doing more of the harrassing than the "normal people", then I pulled back and started changing my POV some lol. Well actually that happened when I got real sick about two years ago but still, the longer you stuck with it, I think the more it affects you. Like the saying goes: when you look into the abysss, the abyss looks into you. Good stories Betty, lol. Brings back a lot of memories.
PS. I remember that 95th street L train station was what my crew at the time called "The Dangerzone". GDs would park about a block away, then they would walk fast up to the station and look for targets to fight. In the late 90s it usually because Blackstones they would target up there...but anybody who seemed out of place was a target. They would jump 1 or 2 people usually, then run and jump back over the fences, and ride back to thier safe zones ASAP. This was an everyday thing. I'm all excited that somebody who was there is on AP. -
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Permalink Reply by Kaminelana Cheatem on
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Hey Chi-town punk! I can totally picture where you're from -- I grew up a couple blocks from the 95th street station (99th & LaFayette!). I'm glad someone else remembers, too. I couldn't agree more about the lack of coverage. TO THIS DAY It's like a big white wash (and I guess, in many ways, it's literal). I'm really grateful for the chances I had to visit L.A., San Fran & NYC back in the early 80s. It was so validating to be able to talk to other Black (and non-Black) punks about the violence and racism that was going on in their scenes, too. People forget that we didn't have the fancy, schmansy internet back then -- punk scenes thrived on Maximum Rock n Roll, zines and word of mouth. I definitely hear you. I'm glad to hear you got a clearer sense of yourself and finally let go of the 'knucklehead shit'. It's a real challenge to resist becoming the abuser after we've been the abused. That saying about the abyss is dead-on.
I hope you're in better health and good spirits as we sprint into this new year. Do you still go out to shows? Is the Fireside Bowl still around? Are you digging any new Chicago punk bands? Take care and be good to yourself. Thanx for responding :o)
PS -- I don't know what just happened, but I refreshed my screen to reply to you and noticed a paragraph I didn't see the first time I read your reply. 10-96!!?? It's always so good to hear people remember those cheese-head punks! I saw them play the Fireside a bunch of times in the 90s. Great band. Solid politics.
calvinchaos said:FINALLY somebody who remembers the fights and kids getting jumped, dumped in dumpsters and what not...it seems like only a handful of people remember that. I'm from 95th and Oglesby (live off Western and Milwaukee now) so I remember those days. I avoided a lot of actual FIGHTS and never actually got jumped (successfully) for my shit, which I credit my youthful big mouth and bipolar aggressiveness for. Lord knows I was about 160 lbs most of those days back in the nineties...so many adventures. It's funny how the public image of punk in this city doesn't reflect any of that, like the scenes in Cali, or some other cities do. The violent responses we used to provoke just by walking around are discredited and a joke coming from Chicago. I guess we just didn't get the media coverage like some other scenes.
I got into punk rock when I took a trip and lived in pensacola, FL for about a year. STreet punks turned me onto mainly The Exploited, New York Dolls, Disorder, Discharge, Chaos UK...and meanwhile I had been looking up stuff like Billy Idol, Devo and what not before I had even left Chicago. I was already patching up my clothes, DIY making new clothes, passing out flyers against stuff that I thought people should speak out on, and looking for bands who reflected my world view...so meeting with the punks, we just "clicked" from the first meeting. From that point I went on collecting, now with a better direction and got UK Subs, 10-96, Vice Squad, X-Ray Spex, etc...
I'm still doing my thing too, minus the knucklehead shit...because I had gotten to a point after a few years of that harrassment that I just pegged everybody besides punks as enemies by default...then I would still talk and give em a chance to be cool. Until I got to a point where I had gotten a little older and I was doing more of the harrassing than the "normal people", then I pulled back and started changing my POV some lol. Well actually that happened when I got real sick about two years ago but still, the longer you stuck with it, I think the more it affects you. Like the saying goes: when you look into the abysss, the abyss looks into you. Good stories Betty, lol. Brings back a lot of memories.
PS. I remember that 95th street L train station was what my crew at the time called "The Dangerzone". GDs would park about a block away, then they would walk fast up to the station and look for targets to fight. In the late 90s it usually because Blackstones they would target up there...but anybody who seemed out of place was a target. They would jump 1 or 2 people usually, then run and jump back over the fences, and ride back to thier safe zones ASAP. This was an everyday thing. I'm all excited that somebody who was there is on AP. -
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