X: “We’re Desperate” and “Johnny Hit & Run Pauline”
Here’s a couple of videos of the Los Angeles punk band X. Both videos are guaranteed to be Chuck Norris-free. First up is “We’re Desperate”.
This is less of a music video and more of a photo montage, but there’s some great photos of the early West Coast punk scene. It’s a lot of fun seeing which faces you can recognize. For example, at 1:27, that looks like the same photo that was used for the back cover of the Let Them Eat Jellybeans comp. Is that Su Tissue from the Suburban Lawns @ 1:44? There were so many images I could have used for the frame grab, but that fake newspaper headline cracks me up.
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Below the fold is an honest-to-goodness video for “Johnny Hit & Run Pauline”
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January 27th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Thought I loved “new wave” bands like The Cars and Blondie when I was in middle school, it was the video for ‘Hungry Wolf’ that was my entry point into the underground. As hard as it is to believe, the clip got a lot of play on MTV. It was nothing else on there. Exene looked so cool as the Thrift Store Queen and Billy Zoom tossing out the super fast rockabilly riff while standing still with that half smile. This was so much cooler then the Journey and REO Speedwagon that everyone else was listening to. That also led to me seeking out bands like Husker Du and Big Black. (Please keep in mind, there was not an internet where one could easily find this stuff. If you wanted it, you had to physically seek it out. Let’s just say, being a college radio DJ was a field day for me.)
While I really liked ‘Under The Big Black Sun’, ‘Wild Gift’, ‘Los Angeles’ and ‘More Fun In The New World’, it was their appearance on ‘The Decline Of Western Civilization’ that cemented my love of the band. I loved the Exene had a billboard filled with fundamentalist propaganda. Yeah, she inspired me in some ways.
Even after all these years, ‘We’re Desperate’,'Johnny Hit And Run Pauline’ and ‘Hungry Wolf’ can get me bouncing across the room.
I have not seen a copy of ‘Let Them eat Jelly Beans’ in almost twenty years. Thought it does remind of a couple of my favorite compilation records a few years later,’The Wailing Ultimate’ and ‘Human Music’. Why do punk rock boys go out with new wave girls?
January 27th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
To answer your question, Janine, I think punk rock boys go out with new wave girls because the new wave girls are less likely to have safety pins in dangerous places…
Your journey from new wave to punk sounds a lot like mine. Trust me, there weren’t too many people in Corpus Christi, TX who knew who the Dead Kennedys were in 1981. In a sense, it worked to my benefit. Some of the local record stores actually stocked punk albums, so I never had to fight with anyone over them… with the exception of my brother.
I still have the Let Them Eat Jellybeans comp - it might even have the poster inside. I hear it’s never going to get a CD reissue. My second-favorite comp is Maximum Rock n Roll’s Not So Quiet on the Western Front; fortunately, that was reissued.
I’m with you; I like a lot of X songs, but “We’re Desperate”, “Johnny Hit & Run Pauline” and “Beyond & Back” occupy a special place in my heart thanks to The Decline of Western Civilization.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Great videos! I love New Wave and Punk - I am a fan of the other bands mentioned here, but don’t know much about X…I must look into them.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I had no clue X was played on MTV. I thought I was being such an elite, underground punk, hehe. They’re still a great band to listen to though.