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[Iggy Pop]:
Previously on Punk...

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[Johnny Rotten]:
Songs like "Anarchy"

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are just vital to my very existence.

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Everybody was very frenetic
with excitement.

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[Viv Albertine]:
Punk in Britain

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was aiming to be extreme.

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Tra-la-la-la-la.

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We wanted to have the reins
of our destiny.

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John was literally the antichrist.

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And then punk took off.

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[Henry Rollins]: As a kid,

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basically you're loading yourself up

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with combustible ingredients

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that will be released upon puberty,

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and so around 16...

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[Keith Morris]:
...we were ready to just say

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"Fuck you" to everybody.

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"We're going to do what we want.

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We're going to play the way we want.

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We're frustrated."

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[Flea]:
Punk rock was a vehicle

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for a vicious animal energy,

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because you'd go to see a show,

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it wasn't just like you were
going to see people play music.

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You were going to something
that was physically dangerous.

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The cops were going to be
waiting outside

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with night sticks to crack your skull.

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There were riots all the time.

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It was insane.

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[Iggy Pop]: There were guys
who liked to wear big boots

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and flannel shirts,

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and some of them were just
out to kick your ass

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and start a fight.

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There are people
who go out lookin' for it

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'cause they're good at it.

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[♪♪♪]

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[♪♪♪]

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[Flanagan]: New York.

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New York City in the '70s.

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[♪♪♪]

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I mean, it's really hard to imagine now.

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[siren wailing]

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It's two different planets.

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I mean, I remember the blackouts.

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I remember the garbage strike.

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We had, you know, mountains of garbage,

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like, 10 feet high on the street.

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The whole city stank, you know.

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Son of Sam.

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I remember all that shit,

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all the craziness
of back then, you know?

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<i>With Son of Sam free to prowl the city</i>

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<i>and kill at will,</i>

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<i>he created in New Yorkers
a sense of feeling vulnerable.</i>

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<i>You have to be careful.</i>

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<i>You have to watch where you go now</i>

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<i>and how late you stay out.</i>

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[Flanagan]:
The Lower Eastside,

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there was a lot of crime,
a lot of drugs, a lot of gangs,

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and that's pretty much

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where the punk rock scene was happening.

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The first time I went to CBGBs,

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they didn't want to let me in
because I was a little kid,

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but I was with my aunt,

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and she was like,
"Come on, Hilly, you know,

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it's my nephew,"

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and he's like,
"Okay, I'll let him in."

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[grumbling]..." you know,

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and that was the first time
I went there, '74,

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and they'd only been open
for, like, a year,

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so I really did catch, like,
all of it, you know.

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Debbie was playing shows at night,

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and pretty much,
you know, any given night,

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all the freaks were there,

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whether it was Johnny Thunders,

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or, you know, Wayne County,

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but the first, like,
real punk band that I saw live

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was the Dead Boys,

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and that was nuts.

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<i>[woman]: The Dead Boys</i>

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<i>are the best fucking rock 'n' roll band</i>

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<i>on the east coast.</i>

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<i>Why?</i>

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<i>It's frantic.</i>

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<i>It's high energy.</i>

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<i>[background laughter]</i>

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<i>I like it. [laughing]</i>

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<i>How does that affect you?</i>

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<i>How does it affect me?</i>

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<i>I don't know.</i>

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<i>It made me want to kill my mother once,</i>

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<i>but I didn't do it.</i>

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<i>Really, I didn't do it.</i>

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<i>I wouldn't do that.</i>

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[Flanagan]: Back then,

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CBGBs had rows of seats
bolted into the ground,

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kind of like a movie theatre,

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and Stiv had this jar of bugs

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that he had hidden under his shirt,

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and he came, like,
crawling out on the stage

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and crawled up
to the front of the audience,

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and then he, like, unscrewed this jar,

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and just, like,
doused the crowd with bugs.

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So all of a sudden,

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you've got all these people,
like, freaking out,

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diving out of their chairs
with bugs all over them,

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and I just was standing
on the side of the stage

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laughing my ass off.

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I'm like, "That was just
fucking great," you know?

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<i>[crickets chirping]</i>

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And it was actually crickets,
it turned out,

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because for, like, months after that,

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when you went to CBs,
you could hear crickets.

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It was, like...

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It was pretty funny.

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But, um, yeah, man,

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that pretty much set
the wheels in motion for me.

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[♪♪♪]

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I started playing in a band
called the Stimulators.

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We had this little gay dude on vocals,

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my aunt on guitar,

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and this other chick, Anne, played bass.

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We also had a child on drums.
I was 12.

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♪ You'll never get from me
what you so wanted... ♪

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<i>[laughter]</i>

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<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

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<i>♪ And now you say
that you will listen... ♪</i>

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All the first generation
of New York hardcore bands

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were kind of
in the Stimulators' audience,

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bands like Reagan Youth,

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Cause For Alarm,

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the Beastie Boys,

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and the guys from Agnostic Front
met at a Stimulators show.

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[♪♪♪]

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Harley Flanagan, I know him from a kid.

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I was at his tenth birthday party,

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and I chased him around
Max's Kansas City

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over that oval bar

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all night long, 'til, like,
4:00 in the morning.

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He was 10 years old.

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Harley was so small,

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when he sat down to play the drums,

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his foot didn't reach the pedal,

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so he used to have to stand up
and play drums.

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Now, you know how hard it is
to stand up and play drums?

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[♪♪♪]

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He's got more talent in one finger

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than I got in my whole body.

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He's great. I love him.

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[Flanagan]: To me, punk rock
was about being creative

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with very little,

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making something out of nothing,

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not giving a fuck

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about the rest of the world's standards,

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you know, simplicity,

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and just... freedom.

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We played with a lot

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of the first-generation hardcore bands

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like Black Flag,

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and, of course,
the Bad Brains, and, uh...

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Yeah.

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The Bad Brains, uh,
they changed everything.

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Oh, shit.

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These guys.

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Bad Brains.

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Kick it.

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[♪♪♪]

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<i>♪ I make decisions
with precision ♪</i>

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<i>♪ Lost inside
this manned collision ♪</i>

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♪ <i>Just to see that</i>
<i>what is to be ♪</i>

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♪ <i>Perfectly my fantasy ♪</i>

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[Dave Grohl]:
Still to this day

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when anybody asks me the best
live band I've ever seen,

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it's the Bad Brains.

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<i>♪ That in this world
we all must pay ♪</i>

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<i>♪ Pay to write, pay to play
Pay to cum, pay to fight ♪</i>

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I still can't do it.

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It's like Bruce Lee in a band.

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[♪♪♪]

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<i>♪ And all in time ♪</i>

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<i>♪ With just our minds ♪</i>

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<i>♪ We will soon find ♪</i>

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♪ What's left behind... ♪

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[Flanagan]: The motherfucker
would do a back flip

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and land on the last beat of the song,

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and you'd just be like,
"What the fuck?"

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<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

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<i>(crowd screaming)</i>

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"Holy cow."

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"Who are those guys?"

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"What?"

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"They're black?"

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"Nah."

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"They're from DC?"

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"Get the fuck out of here."

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[chuckles]

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<i>♪ America, America ♪</i>

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<i>♪ May God thy gold refine... ♪</i>

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[Jenifer]:
Being a kid from DC,

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you know, it was a real rough place,

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you know, a lot of
black-on-black tension

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and crime.

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I'm from the Projects.

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They call them the 'Jects.

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You know, I've said before,

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I don't think I even saw
real white people

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'til I was about 17,

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in my... where I was.

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It's like they weren't there.

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<i>Sit back, or get up,</i>

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<i>or do anything you want to do,
but please do it,</i>

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<i>because we are here to do it!</i>

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[♪♪♪]

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The Great Spirit made us
fearlessly inventive with rock.

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That's what it's all about, really.

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When I said I'm going
to make a punk song,

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I said, "I'm going to make it
faster than the Ramones,

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that ain't shit,"

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and I said, "I'm going to put
some wild riffs

220
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and breaks and shit in it,

221
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and it's going to go
bam! Bam!" like a boxer.

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These are the heavy right blows.

223
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Then you've got the flurries,
"Ba-da-da-da!

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Boom, bam, bam!"

225
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and then, "Bang!"
Next time I'm gonna go,

226
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"Bang-atta-bang-atta-bang-atta!

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Bah-bah!

228
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Blap-bang!" you know,
and it's a lot of...

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It's a lot of shit.

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[♪♪♪]

231
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[♪♪♪]

232
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I am not a musician, and I say that.

233
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I am not a musician.

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I play the bass, the drums, the guitar,

235
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at the keyboards.

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I can sing a little bit.

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To me, it's all about the knack.

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That's what I possess.

239
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Never with any musical knowledge.

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It's like somebody goes,

241
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"How are you going to play
E flat, then a G?"

242
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and you're like,

243
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"I don't know,
shit sounds cool to me."

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When I was a kid, you'd go
to the doctor's office,

245
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they had this book "Highlight."

246
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You color in it and shit,

247
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but on the back, it had, like, a puzzle

248
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where, you know, you draw
from one, to two, to three,

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to four, to five,

250
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then it's like an elephant
with a balloon

251
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or some shit.

252
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I look at the fretboard the same way.

253
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You can see there's dots,

254
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there's spaces,

255
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and it's the lines.

256
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So when I would make the music,

257
00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:08,100
I'd be like, "Well,
I did one dot here to here,

258
00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:10,020
and half this one,

259
00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:11,000
and a whole one that one..."

260
00:10:11,020 --> 00:10:12,130
You know, it's more like a Braille

261
00:10:12,150 --> 00:10:15,130
that I was approaching
the fretboard with,

262
00:10:15,150 --> 00:10:18,060
as opposed to musical knowledge,

263
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,140
which I think is the reason
why the Bad Brains

264
00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:22,210
sort of had a unique sound, too,

265
00:10:22,230 --> 00:10:25,200
because the structure
of the chord changes and stuff

266
00:10:25,220 --> 00:10:28,170
are based on shapes on the fretboard

267
00:10:28,190 --> 00:10:29,220
that I imagined,

268
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:32,220
as opposed to G, A, B, C,
and all that shit.

269
00:10:37,110 --> 00:10:39,190
[Rollins]: The Damned
were about to come to America

270
00:10:39,210 --> 00:10:42,190
for their 1979 summer tour.

271
00:10:42,210 --> 00:10:44,210
They had heard that Washington, DC

272
00:10:44,230 --> 00:10:46,190
has a black punk rock band,

273
00:10:46,210 --> 00:10:49,070
so they said, "We want
the Bad Brains opening."

274
00:10:50,130 --> 00:10:51,160
We had not seen them yet,

275
00:10:51,180 --> 00:10:53,150
but we knew of their existence.

276
00:10:53,170 --> 00:10:54,190
Ian MacKaye,

277
00:10:54,210 --> 00:10:56,160
who is incredibly under-aged
at the time,

278
00:10:56,180 --> 00:11:00,090
we make him the worst fake ID
you've ever seen.

279
00:11:00,110 --> 00:11:02,190
I think I took the photo
in his mom's kitchen.

280
00:11:02,210 --> 00:11:03,170
We cut it out.

281
00:11:03,190 --> 00:11:05,210
His head looks like a baked potato.

282
00:11:05,230 --> 00:11:07,110
It's like this bad photo,

283
00:11:07,130 --> 00:11:11,100
and so many people
had to sneak into that gig,

284
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:12,100
and the Damned were amazing.

285
00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:13,120
Are you kidding?

286
00:11:13,140 --> 00:11:14,140
It was great,

287
00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,170
but it was nothing
you'd never heard before.

288
00:11:16,190 --> 00:11:20,190
The Bad Brains was like,
you had never heard that before,

289
00:11:20,210 --> 00:11:23,190
and we became friends with them
and followed them around,

290
00:11:23,210 --> 00:11:25,100
like, you know, like lost puppies.

291
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:26,140
"So are you guys going to eat lunch?

292
00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:27,110
Can we watch?"

293
00:11:27,130 --> 00:11:28,210
We were just their big fans.

294
00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,120
[Ian MacKaye]: I saw
the Bad Brains/Damned show

295
00:11:39,140 --> 00:11:41,030
using a fake ID.

296
00:11:41,050 --> 00:11:44,110
15, 16, 17, 18, those years,

297
00:11:44,130 --> 00:11:48,210
the bands I listened to were
extremely important to me,

298
00:11:48,230 --> 00:11:51,110
so the idea that they would
play in my town,

299
00:11:51,130 --> 00:11:55,140
and I couldn't go see them
because of some law

300
00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:57,070
based on the alcohol industry,

301
00:11:57,090 --> 00:12:00,090
that is an insult to music.

302
00:12:00,110 --> 00:12:02,020
So we went to the 9:30 Club,
and to Dody,

303
00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:04,110
and we said, "Listen, we want
to see this music.

304
00:12:04,130 --> 00:12:06,010
We want to see these bands.

305
00:12:06,030 --> 00:12:09,090
We will wear big Xs on our hands.

306
00:12:09,110 --> 00:12:13,050
If you see anybody with this
'X' on their hand drinking,

307
00:12:13,070 --> 00:12:14,210
let us know,
and we'll get 'em out for you,"

308
00:12:14,230 --> 00:12:16,140
and she said, "Okay, we'll try it,"

309
00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:18,190
and the 9:30 became all ages
at that point.

310
00:12:18,210 --> 00:12:20,200
The 9:30 is still
all ages to this day.

311
00:12:20,220 --> 00:12:22,230
[♪♪♪]

312
00:12:25,150 --> 00:12:28,130
The Bad Brains,
they were the band in DC,

313
00:12:28,150 --> 00:12:30,200
and I think they moved to New York

314
00:12:30,220 --> 00:12:33,220
because that was, in their mind,
the next logical step

315
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,210
in terms of their, like, careers.

316
00:12:36,230 --> 00:12:37,230
Like, they were trying to make it,

317
00:12:38,010 --> 00:12:39,040
which it... fair enough,

318
00:12:39,060 --> 00:12:41,020
but I remember the day
they told me they were moving.

319
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:42,080
I was gutted.

320
00:12:42,100 --> 00:12:44,070
[♪♪♪]

321
00:12:46,110 --> 00:12:47,200
I would talk to people,
and they would say,

322
00:12:47,220 --> 00:12:49,110
"If you want to be a punk,
you've gotta move to New York,"

323
00:12:49,130 --> 00:12:51,010
and I said, "That's crazy."

324
00:12:51,030 --> 00:12:53,000
Like, why would it be geographic?

325
00:12:53,020 --> 00:12:54,100
Why would I have to go to New York?

326
00:12:55,150 --> 00:12:56,190
[Rollins]:
In a lot of major cities,

327
00:12:56,210 --> 00:12:59,050
punk rock scenes
were starting to sprout up,

328
00:12:59,070 --> 00:13:01,130
and it was either around a fanzine,

329
00:13:01,150 --> 00:13:03,190
or two or three bands,

330
00:13:03,210 --> 00:13:05,050
or a small record label,

331
00:13:05,070 --> 00:13:07,070
where that was the thing

332
00:13:07,090 --> 00:13:11,140
that all the moisture molecules
gravitated to,

333
00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:12,210
and all of a sudden, it's raining,

334
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:14,230
and it's happening all over America

335
00:13:15,010 --> 00:13:17,060
kind of at the same time.

336
00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:18,170
[MacKaye]:
The scenes in America

337
00:13:18,190 --> 00:13:21,060
were really recognizable.

338
00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:22,150
Like, there was a regionality

339
00:13:22,170 --> 00:13:26,030
that was so profound
in the early punk days.

340
00:13:26,050 --> 00:13:28,030
Now, I was decidedly not interested

341
00:13:28,050 --> 00:13:29,170
in what was happening in New York,

342
00:13:29,190 --> 00:13:32,230
and instead, I got
right into Los Angeles.

343
00:13:35,110 --> 00:13:38,000
In 1980, I was playing bass
in The Teen Idles,

344
00:13:38,020 --> 00:13:40,100
and our first out-of-town gig
was at the Hong Kong

345
00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,190
in Los Angeles.

346
00:13:42,210 --> 00:13:45,040
We took the bus to L.A.,

347
00:13:45,060 --> 00:13:46,090
four days on a bus.

348
00:13:46,110 --> 00:13:47,190
It was the four members of the band,

349
00:13:47,210 --> 00:13:49,180
and we had two roadies,
one of which was Henry.

350
00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:51,200
We got on a Greyhound bus,

351
00:13:51,220 --> 00:13:52,210
looking all punk rock,

352
00:13:52,230 --> 00:13:57,230
hauling a hi-hat,
a snare drum, bass guitar,

353
00:13:58,010 --> 00:14:00,010
and nothing else.

354
00:14:00,030 --> 00:14:01,150
We were going to borrow the rest...

355
00:14:01,170 --> 00:14:02,140
somehow.

356
00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:04,180
Not all of this was exactly planned out.

357
00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:05,230
I don't know why we brought roadies.

358
00:14:06,010 --> 00:14:07,090
I think we all just
wanted to go to L.A.

359
00:14:07,110 --> 00:14:08,170
[♪♪♪]

360
00:14:08,190 --> 00:14:10,180
<i>♪ Teen Idles, Teen Idles
Fuckin' bored to tears ♪</i>

361
00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:12,090
<i>♪ Teen Idles, Teen Idles
Wait in 20 years ♪</i>

362
00:14:12,110 --> 00:14:14,160
[Rollins]: The band played
in Los Angeles

363
00:14:14,180 --> 00:14:16,140
with a band called
Puke, Spit andamp; Guts,

364
00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,140
a bunch of local bikers

365
00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:21,110
who were incredibly scary people.

366
00:14:21,130 --> 00:14:24,110
I think Ian used their bass rig,

367
00:14:24,130 --> 00:14:27,030
which he promptly blew up.

368
00:14:27,050 --> 00:14:28,130
We were like, "Taxi!"

369
00:14:28,150 --> 00:14:29,220
[♪♪♪]

370
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:31,180
[tires squealing]

371
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:33,040
I mean, they were terrifying.

372
00:14:33,060 --> 00:14:34,130
They were literally terrifying,

373
00:14:34,150 --> 00:14:36,120
because they were very violent,

374
00:14:36,140 --> 00:14:38,030
and it was a little bit much,

375
00:14:38,050 --> 00:14:39,130
but it left...

376
00:14:39,150 --> 00:14:41,080
Yeah, it left an impression,
to say the least.

377
00:14:43,090 --> 00:14:44,160
<i>17.</i>

378
00:14:44,180 --> 00:14:46,070
<i>I'll be 18 in about two weeks.</i>

379
00:14:46,090 --> 00:14:48,160
<i>They're 17.
We're 18.</i>

380
00:14:50,070 --> 00:14:51,070
<i>[chuckling] Yeah.
Of course. We don't lie.</i>

381
00:14:51,090 --> 00:14:53,000
<i>We don't lie.</i>

382
00:14:55,030 --> 00:14:56,090
<i>Well, I like
all kind of L.A. bands.</i>

383
00:14:56,110 --> 00:14:57,150
Skinheads.

384
00:14:57,170 --> 00:14:58,150
<i>Black Flag.</i>

385
00:14:59,220 --> 00:15:01,180
<i>Yep.</i>

386
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:02,230
<i>Henry, our friend, our roadie,</i>

387
00:15:03,010 --> 00:15:04,210
<i>he likes everything.</i>

388
00:15:04,230 --> 00:15:05,170
<i>When you put some...</i>

389
00:15:05,190 --> 00:15:07,140
<i>[whooping]</i>

390
00:15:12,220 --> 00:15:14,030
<i>That back side.</i>

391
00:15:14,050 --> 00:15:16,230
<i>The back side.</i>

392
00:15:17,010 --> 00:15:18,170
[MacKaye]:
So we played in L.A.,

393
00:15:18,190 --> 00:15:21,160
and then I remember
just wandering around Hollywood

394
00:15:21,180 --> 00:15:24,080
trying to find... punk.

395
00:15:24,100 --> 00:15:25,060
Like, where was it?

396
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:26,130
We didn't know where it was,

397
00:15:26,150 --> 00:15:28,090
and every time we'd see a punk,
we'd just ask him, like,

398
00:15:28,110 --> 00:15:29,130
"Where do punks go?

399
00:15:29,150 --> 00:15:32,170
And how can we find
Black Flag?"

400
00:15:32,190 --> 00:15:34,190
I had first heard about Black Flag

401
00:15:34,210 --> 00:15:36,010
reading a Slash magazine

402
00:15:36,030 --> 00:15:38,090
in which they referred to Black Flag as

403
00:15:38,110 --> 00:15:40,140
"some guys that you might expect

404
00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:44,050
standing around in a 7-11 parking lot,"

405
00:15:44,070 --> 00:15:46,010
and that really resonated with me

406
00:15:46,030 --> 00:15:47,200
because my punk sensibility was always

407
00:15:47,220 --> 00:15:49,050
I always dressed down,

408
00:15:49,070 --> 00:15:52,150
and so when I heard about guys
who just wore regular clothes,

409
00:15:52,170 --> 00:15:54,020
that was like, "Yes!"

410
00:16:03,220 --> 00:16:07,030
The thing with punk rock at one point

411
00:16:07,050 --> 00:16:10,050
was there were all of these rules.

412
00:16:10,070 --> 00:16:11,140
What the fuck?

413
00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:12,220
A bunch of rules.

414
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,210
Like, somebody had written
a fucking rule book.

415
00:16:16,230 --> 00:16:18,140
Are you kidding?

416
00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:20,080
You can't listen to this band

417
00:16:20,100 --> 00:16:22,060
because their hair is down to here,

418
00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:27,100
or you can't listen to them
because they're part of this,

419
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:29,210
or they're that, or...

420
00:16:31,130 --> 00:16:32,150
No.

421
00:16:32,170 --> 00:16:35,100
You listen to whatever
you want to listen to.

422
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:38,060
When we started playing music,
we didn't care.

423
00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:41,220
We were going to play
what we wanted to play

424
00:16:42,010 --> 00:16:43,090
because it's what we wanted to play,

425
00:16:43,110 --> 00:16:45,060
and we didn't know any better.

426
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,040
We didn't know about
the punk rock rule book.

427
00:16:47,060 --> 00:16:49,010
We didn't know any of that.

428
00:16:49,030 --> 00:16:53,050
It was just the blind leading the blind.

429
00:16:53,070 --> 00:16:54,190
The deaf trying to talk to each other

430
00:16:54,210 --> 00:16:57,130
without any sign language.

431
00:16:57,150 --> 00:17:00,220
[♪♪♪]

432
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,130
Early on in Black Flag,
we couldn't buy a gig.

433
00:17:04,150 --> 00:17:08,140
It was playing in Greg's living room

434
00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,100
in front of six people,

435
00:17:11,120 --> 00:17:15,020
or eighth grade graduation party
in Hawthorne.

436
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:16,020
"Oh, these kids,

437
00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,040
they're really going to like
Black Flag,"

438
00:17:19,060 --> 00:17:20,170
and they didn't.

439
00:17:20,190 --> 00:17:22,100
They were scared.

440
00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:25,010
We played basements.

441
00:17:25,030 --> 00:17:28,010
We played a basement party
where you rent a keg,

442
00:17:28,030 --> 00:17:29,110
put it in a metal tub,

443
00:17:29,130 --> 00:17:31,010
and you fill the metal tub with ice,

444
00:17:31,030 --> 00:17:33,120
and then that keeps your keg chilled,

445
00:17:33,140 --> 00:17:34,190
but we're playing in this basement.

446
00:17:34,210 --> 00:17:37,010
It's about 120 degrees,

447
00:17:37,030 --> 00:17:41,020
so all of the ice in this tub has melted

448
00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:42,070
and spilled over the sides

449
00:17:42,090 --> 00:17:45,080
onto the floor in front of the stage,

450
00:17:45,100 --> 00:17:46,120
and I reached up,

451
00:17:46,140 --> 00:17:48,050
the band hit that first note,

452
00:17:48,070 --> 00:17:49,160
and I reached up to grab the mic.

453
00:17:49,180 --> 00:17:51,050
Boom!

454
00:17:51,070 --> 00:17:54,030
I was standing in a puddle
of this melted water,

455
00:17:54,050 --> 00:17:56,030
and the room turned white.

456
00:17:56,050 --> 00:17:58,090
It was just a big white flash.

457
00:17:58,110 --> 00:17:59,180
I picked myself up,

458
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,220
and the band was still playing,

459
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:03,060
and they could care less

460
00:18:03,080 --> 00:18:06,040
because of the way that we
approached the music was

461
00:18:06,060 --> 00:18:08,070
we were in attack mode.

462
00:18:08,090 --> 00:18:10,090
It's like you throw yourself into this

463
00:18:10,110 --> 00:18:13,150
and not worry about
what's going on around you.

464
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:18,220
[Ron Reyes]: Nothing, nothing,

465
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:20,200
nothing, nothing, nothing

466
00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:24,120
was as ferocious and raw

467
00:18:24,140 --> 00:18:27,130
as that early Black Flag was.

468
00:18:27,150 --> 00:18:31,090
Dez and I and a group of punks
from Hermosa Beach,

469
00:18:31,110 --> 00:18:34,190
we would just caravan
to every Black Flag show

470
00:18:34,210 --> 00:18:36,040
we could get to.

471
00:18:36,060 --> 00:18:39,020
Being part of that scene was intense.

472
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:40,120
It was not Fleetwood Mac.

473
00:18:40,140 --> 00:18:42,160
It was not Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

474
00:18:42,180 --> 00:18:47,060
It was X, and Fear,
and the Germs, and Black Flag,

475
00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:50,010
and the energy level
was elevated, you know,

476
00:18:50,030 --> 00:18:53,050
far, far beyond anything
that I experienced in music

477
00:18:53,070 --> 00:18:55,030
prior to that.

478
00:18:59,010 --> 00:19:00,070
[Exene Cervenka]:
When you're really young,

479
00:19:00,090 --> 00:19:02,110
you're going to find the most
exciting thing happening,

480
00:19:02,130 --> 00:19:04,170
whether it's, you know,
some kids throwing rocks

481
00:19:04,190 --> 00:19:07,050
or somebody playing music.

482
00:19:07,070 --> 00:19:08,150
You're just going to find it.

483
00:19:08,170 --> 00:19:12,150
[♪♪♪]

484
00:19:12,170 --> 00:19:15,010
<i>♪ Every other week
I need a new address... ♪</i>

485
00:19:15,030 --> 00:19:17,010
The L.A. punk scene,
you'd be on stage,

486
00:19:17,030 --> 00:19:18,070
and when you got off stage,

487
00:19:18,090 --> 00:19:19,130
you were in front of the next band,

488
00:19:19,150 --> 00:19:21,010
who had been in front of you
when you were playing.

489
00:19:21,030 --> 00:19:22,090
I mean, it was a very small scene.

490
00:19:22,110 --> 00:19:23,190
Like, 100 people max.

491
00:19:23,210 --> 00:19:25,100
<i>♪ We're desperate ♪</i>

492
00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:26,190
<i>♪ Get used to it ♪</i>

493
00:19:26,210 --> 00:19:27,200
<i>♪ We're desperate ♪</i>

494
00:19:27,220 --> 00:19:29,020
[Cervenka]: We didn't have
any Internet,

495
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:30,130
no cell phones, no mass media,

496
00:19:30,150 --> 00:19:32,040
no cable television,

497
00:19:32,060 --> 00:19:35,100
no real anything except word of mouth

498
00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:38,060
and a sense of,
"Where's the excitement?"

499
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,130
[Morris]: When we had it
going on here in Los Angeles,

500
00:19:42,150 --> 00:19:44,190
what some would call the first wave,

501
00:19:44,210 --> 00:19:47,080
which would be
the punk rock bands like X,

502
00:19:47,100 --> 00:19:50,060
and the Germs, and the Gears,

503
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:51,200
and the Controllers,

504
00:19:51,220 --> 00:19:53,210
the Bags,

505
00:19:53,230 --> 00:19:54,210
just all great bands.

506
00:19:54,230 --> 00:19:57,040
We would go and see these bands.

507
00:19:57,060 --> 00:19:59,140
Each band had its own personality.

508
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,000
[♪♪♪]

509
00:20:01,020 --> 00:20:04,040
<i>♪ They pick on me 'cause
I really got the beat ♪</i>

510
00:20:04,060 --> 00:20:07,050
<i>♪ Some people
give me the creeps ♪</i>

511
00:20:10,030 --> 00:20:11,070
[Alice Bag]: In Los Angeles,

512
00:20:11,090 --> 00:20:13,140
almost every band had women in them.

513
00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:16,200
Women, people of color, queers,

514
00:20:16,220 --> 00:20:20,070
anybody who had been
shut out in the past,

515
00:20:20,090 --> 00:20:21,170
anybody who felt like

516
00:20:21,190 --> 00:20:24,200
"I have to wait until I reach
a certain level of proficiency,

517
00:20:24,220 --> 00:20:26,180
or until I see myself
reflected."

518
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,020
All of a sudden, punk opened the doors,

519
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:30,050
and you were your own role model.

520
00:20:30,070 --> 00:20:33,080
You weren't relegated to the role

521
00:20:33,100 --> 00:20:36,010
that past music scenes had put you in.

522
00:20:36,030 --> 00:20:38,150
You were no longer just the groupie,

523
00:20:38,170 --> 00:20:40,120
or the girlfriend
that broke up the band.

524
00:20:40,140 --> 00:20:42,080
All of a sudden, you're in the band.

525
00:20:42,100 --> 00:20:44,040
So it was beautiful.

526
00:20:47,010 --> 00:20:49,230
[John Doe]: Even in
the beginning of L.A. punk rock,

527
00:20:50,010 --> 00:20:54,010
there were gay, straight,
black, white, brown.

528
00:20:54,030 --> 00:20:55,020
It was inclusive,

529
00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:56,150
because if you wanted to put up with

530
00:20:56,170 --> 00:20:59,190
the bad living conditions

531
00:20:59,210 --> 00:21:01,090
and poverty,

532
00:21:01,110 --> 00:21:04,090
and persecution for looking weird,

533
00:21:04,110 --> 00:21:06,050
and if you wanted to be
part of this club,

534
00:21:06,070 --> 00:21:07,150
it's like, "Come on in."

535
00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,150
We developed this clubhouse

536
00:21:15,170 --> 00:21:18,090
for all of the punk rock kids
in the South Bay,

537
00:21:18,110 --> 00:21:20,080
and it was fun.

538
00:21:20,100 --> 00:21:23,140
All of the people
that gathered at the Church,

539
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,170
it was kind of a meeting place.

540
00:21:26,230 --> 00:21:29,030
<i>Well, I'm...
Puerto Rico.</i>

541
00:21:29,050 --> 00:21:31,000
<i>But I like to live
♪ in America ♪</i>

542
00:21:31,020 --> 00:21:31,210
[laughter]

543
00:21:31,230 --> 00:21:35,020
[Reyes]:
Penelope Spheeris, we met,

544
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,220
and it was just an afternoon
at the Church

545
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,030
doing some filming of us
just hanging around.

546
00:21:41,050 --> 00:21:43,210
The Church was this place
in Hermosa Beach

547
00:21:43,230 --> 00:21:45,110
that the hippies took over,

548
00:21:45,130 --> 00:21:48,140
but by the time Black Flag
was rehearsing there,

549
00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:50,170
the hippies were kind of moved out,

550
00:21:50,190 --> 00:21:53,220
and there was a room
available downstairs,

551
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:57,140
and I managed to rent it

552
00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:01,090
under the guise of just
using it as storage.

553
00:22:04,100 --> 00:22:05,180
<i>You mean, like, specifically?</i>

554
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:06,160
<i>Like, where I sleep?</i>

555
00:22:06,180 --> 00:22:07,230
<i>Yeah.</i>

556
00:22:08,010 --> 00:22:10,050
<i>Well, it's not exactly
what you would call a penthouse</i>

557
00:22:10,070 --> 00:22:11,010
<i>or anything like that,</i>

558
00:22:11,030 --> 00:22:12,190
<i>but this is where...</i>

559
00:22:12,210 --> 00:22:14,000
<i>Whoo!</i>

560
00:22:14,020 --> 00:22:17,190
<i>...this is where all
the action goes on, right?</i>

561
00:22:17,210 --> 00:22:19,130
[Reyes]: I was not
supposed to live there.

562
00:22:19,150 --> 00:22:21,020
Sometimes I would wake up,

563
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:22,160
and there'd be the hippies
in the hallway,

564
00:22:22,180 --> 00:22:25,030
and I could not open my door,

565
00:22:25,050 --> 00:22:26,130
because they would have busted us.

566
00:22:26,150 --> 00:22:28,060
The hippies would have
busted me for sure.

567
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,110
So I'd have to, like,
have a can where I can...

568
00:22:31,130 --> 00:22:32,090
in there

569
00:22:32,110 --> 00:22:33,230
to use the bathroom if I needed to.

570
00:22:35,050 --> 00:22:37,180
<i>Uh, $16 a month.</i>

571
00:22:38,170 --> 00:22:39,220
[Morris]: We'd throw a party,

572
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,080
and people from Venice,
and Santa Monica,

573
00:22:43,100 --> 00:22:44,200
and Hollywood, and Los Angeles,

574
00:22:44,220 --> 00:22:46,020
they'd all come down.

575
00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,160
We could have a couple
of hundred people in the Church,

576
00:22:48,180 --> 00:22:49,220
and it was fun.

577
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,050
[Reyes]: But we had a couple
of parties that, you know,

578
00:22:53,070 --> 00:22:54,220
spilled out into the street.

579
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:56,090
It wasn't long

580
00:22:56,110 --> 00:22:58,200
before the cops caught wind
of what was going on there.

581
00:22:58,220 --> 00:23:00,200
With Black Flag

582
00:23:00,220 --> 00:23:02,150
and our relationship

583
00:23:02,170 --> 00:23:04,230
with the Hermosa Beach
police department,

584
00:23:05,010 --> 00:23:08,080
we were constantly under scrutiny.

585
00:23:08,100 --> 00:23:13,130
Their mentality became that
we were the local terrorists.

586
00:23:13,150 --> 00:23:16,030
We were there for anarchy and chaos,

587
00:23:16,050 --> 00:23:18,040
and we're burning stuff down,

588
00:23:18,060 --> 00:23:20,010
and we're blowing stuff up,

589
00:23:20,030 --> 00:23:23,030
and it was time to get out of town,

590
00:23:23,050 --> 00:23:25,070
and...

591
00:23:25,090 --> 00:23:28,230
that happened right about
the time I quit the band

592
00:23:29,010 --> 00:23:32,150
and joined the Circle Jerks.

593
00:23:32,170 --> 00:23:33,160
<i>One, two, three, four!</i>

594
00:23:33,180 --> 00:23:35,170
<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

595
00:23:42,010 --> 00:23:44,010
♪ <i>I don't want to live ♪</i>

596
00:23:44,030 --> 00:23:46,050
♪ <i>To be 34 ♪</i>

597
00:23:46,070 --> 00:23:48,060
♪ <i>I don't want to die ♪</i>

598
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:50,130
♪ <i>In a nuclear war ♪</i>

599
00:23:50,150 --> 00:23:52,210
♪ <i>Live fast ♪</i>

600
00:23:52,230 --> 00:23:55,050
♪ <i>Die young ♪</i>

601
00:23:55,070 --> 00:23:57,130
♪ <i>Live fast ♪</i>

602
00:23:57,150 --> 00:23:59,210
♪ <i>Die young ♪</i>

603
00:23:59,230 --> 00:24:02,090
♪ <i>Live fast, die young! ♪</i>

604
00:24:02,110 --> 00:24:05,040
<i>[cheering]</i>

605
00:24:06,030 --> 00:24:07,220
<i>Circle Jerks!</i>

606
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,110
<i>Come on, let's go!</i>

607
00:24:09,130 --> 00:24:11,030
<i>[drummer taps kick drum]</i>

608
00:24:11,050 --> 00:24:12,080
<i>Hey, Keith!</i>

609
00:24:12,100 --> 00:24:13,220
<i>You're all suckers.
Ha, ha, ha.</i>

610
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:15,080
<i>Scream at the fuckers!</i>

611
00:24:15,100 --> 00:24:17,200
<i>[drummer plays a rimshot]</i>

612
00:24:19,100 --> 00:24:20,220
[Flea]:
I love the Circle Jerks.

613
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,110
I think "Group Sex"
is an absolutely perfect album.

614
00:24:24,130 --> 00:24:28,020
I mean, it's just like
song after song after song

615
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,230
that is, like, fast
and noisy and ferocious,

616
00:24:31,010 --> 00:24:32,220
but you can sing along with every one.

617
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:34,050
All the words are memorable.

618
00:24:34,070 --> 00:24:35,220
All the weird little melodies
are memorable.

619
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,140
All the riffs are memorable.

620
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:39,200
It's a masterpiece,
"Group Sex."

621
00:24:42,070 --> 00:24:44,140
All through my childhood,

622
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,140
I had no interest in rock music.

623
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,000
I was a jazz snob.

624
00:24:48,020 --> 00:24:49,040
I was a kid,

625
00:24:49,060 --> 00:24:50,230
but I wanted to be
Dizzy Gillespie when I grew up.

626
00:24:52,020 --> 00:24:54,000
Like, sometimes people think of it

627
00:24:54,020 --> 00:24:56,170
as this sort of, like,
soft, mellow music.

628
00:24:56,190 --> 00:24:59,110
I'm talking ferocious,

629
00:24:59,130 --> 00:25:00,100
violent,

630
00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:02,090
revolutionary music.

631
00:25:06,170 --> 00:25:08,180
You know, guys going crazy.

632
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,020
It's fucking intense.

633
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:11,130
This isn't like a...

634
00:25:11,150 --> 00:25:14,040
You know, this is the intellectual

635
00:25:14,060 --> 00:25:17,040
revolutionary art form of the century,

636
00:25:17,060 --> 00:25:19,110
and I had no interest in rock music.

637
00:25:19,130 --> 00:25:21,070
I thought it was music for dummies.

638
00:25:21,090 --> 00:25:22,080
I thought it was music

639
00:25:22,100 --> 00:25:23,110
for people who cared about haircuts

640
00:25:23,130 --> 00:25:25,110
more than they cared about music,

641
00:25:25,130 --> 00:25:28,030
and then one night, I took acid,

642
00:25:28,050 --> 00:25:31,010
and I went to a place
called the Club Lingerie,

643
00:25:31,030 --> 00:25:32,210
and I saw the band Fear playing.

644
00:25:32,230 --> 00:25:33,200
[distant gong rings]

645
00:25:33,220 --> 00:25:35,030
When you take LSD,

646
00:25:35,050 --> 00:25:36,230
all your kind of heady judgments

647
00:25:37,010 --> 00:25:39,160
of how things fit together
can kind of disappear,

648
00:25:39,180 --> 00:25:41,150
and you just sort of
see the spirit of things,

649
00:25:41,170 --> 00:25:44,090
and they were rocking so hard,

650
00:25:44,110 --> 00:25:46,210
and I was so blown away by what it was,

651
00:25:46,230 --> 00:25:48,080
and at that point, I was like,

652
00:25:48,100 --> 00:25:50,150
"Man, I think I love punk rock."

653
00:25:50,170 --> 00:25:52,030
Here's the thing with punk.

654
00:25:52,050 --> 00:25:54,000
Either you get it or you don't.

655
00:25:54,020 --> 00:25:56,170
It's really simple, you know?

656
00:25:56,190 --> 00:25:59,130
You get it, and you are it,

657
00:25:59,150 --> 00:26:01,150
or you don't get it, and you're not it.

658
00:26:01,170 --> 00:26:02,230
It's just so simple to me.

659
00:26:03,010 --> 00:26:04,120
[♪♪♪]

660
00:26:04,140 --> 00:26:08,060
The music I like was
when it was very aggressive

661
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:09,160
and expressed anger,

662
00:26:09,180 --> 00:26:12,030
and did it in a way that the Germs

663
00:26:12,050 --> 00:26:13,110
and Black Flag

664
00:26:13,130 --> 00:26:15,160
and the Circle Jerks did.

665
00:26:15,180 --> 00:26:18,050
That's why I made<i> The Decline</i>
<i>of Western Civilization,</i>

666
00:26:18,070 --> 00:26:22,100
to kind of let people understand
what was happening back then,

667
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:25,010
because they were really
too afraid to go to shows

668
00:26:25,030 --> 00:26:26,120
and figure it out for themselves.

669
00:26:26,140 --> 00:26:28,070
[Flea]: One night,
I went to this party,

670
00:26:28,090 --> 00:26:31,100
and I heard this music playing.

671
00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:33,130
These songs have a couple of chords.

672
00:26:33,150 --> 00:26:34,160
You couldn't even understand

673
00:26:34,180 --> 00:26:37,010
if the singer was singing
a melody or not,

674
00:26:37,030 --> 00:26:38,050
and I remember

675
00:26:38,070 --> 00:26:40,000
I was standing with
the drummer of Fear, Spit Stix,

676
00:26:40,020 --> 00:26:40,220
and I said, "What's that music?"

677
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,070
He goes,
"Oh, they're the Germs."

678
00:26:42,090 --> 00:26:43,080
He said, "They couldn't play.

679
00:26:43,100 --> 00:26:44,160
The singer was a creep," you know.

680
00:26:44,180 --> 00:26:48,010
The next day, I went out
and got that Germs record,

681
00:26:48,030 --> 00:26:51,180
and I remember, like, so vividly,

682
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,070
I lay down on the floor
and put on the headphones.

683
00:26:55,090 --> 00:26:58,040
From the first note to the last note,

684
00:26:58,060 --> 00:27:02,050
I was gone into a new place
that I'd never been before,

685
00:27:02,070 --> 00:27:03,160
and everything that I'd ever...

686
00:27:03,180 --> 00:27:05,180
and I love music.
I love music.

687
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,050
Music touched my heart.
Music always made me weep.

688
00:27:08,070 --> 00:27:10,090
Music made me feel everything,

689
00:27:10,110 --> 00:27:14,170
but this changed the way
that I saw music completely

690
00:27:14,190 --> 00:27:15,190
for the rest of my life.

691
00:27:26,110 --> 00:27:27,160
<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

692
00:27:27,180 --> 00:27:29,070
<i>♪ Standing in the line
we're aberrations ♪</i>

693
00:27:29,090 --> 00:27:30,220
<i>♪ Defects
in a defect's mirror ♪</i>

694
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:32,060
<i>♪ And we've been here
all the time ♪</i>

695
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,130
<i>♪ Real fixations
Hidden deep in the furor ♪</i>

696
00:27:35,150 --> 00:27:37,190
<i>♪ What we do is secret,
secret! ♪</i>

697
00:27:37,210 --> 00:27:39,190
<i>♪ We're influential guys
for the D.C.C. ♪</i>

698
00:27:39,210 --> 00:27:42,000
<i>♪ We can lie so perfect ♪</i>

699
00:27:42,020 --> 00:27:43,230
<i>♪ We got a party line
to every call ♪</i>

700
00:27:44,010 --> 00:27:45,210
<i>♪ It's a very short circuit ♪</i>

701
00:27:45,230 --> 00:27:48,080
[singing along]
What we do is secret, secret!

702
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:51,030
Says it all.

703
00:27:51,050 --> 00:27:52,110
[♪♪♪]

704
00:27:57,050 --> 00:27:59,030
<i>♪ Licensed to drill
with the torch in our lives ♪</i>

705
00:27:59,050 --> 00:28:00,200
<i>♪ Walking on shallow water ♪</i>

706
00:28:00,220 --> 00:28:03,120
<i>♪ Progressed to the point
of no distinction ♪</i>

707
00:28:03,140 --> 00:28:05,200
<i>♪ Dementia of a higher order ♪</i>

708
00:28:05,220 --> 00:28:08,040
<i>♪ What we do is secret,
secret! ♪</i>

709
00:28:10,110 --> 00:28:11,180
[Don Bolles]: There's a lot
of stuff like it now,

710
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,040
but there wasn't really
anything like it at the time,

711
00:28:14,060 --> 00:28:16,200
and that album still holds up.

712
00:28:16,220 --> 00:28:20,200
I think the same qualities
of Darby's singing

713
00:28:20,220 --> 00:28:22,230
that kept it from being radio-friendly

714
00:28:23,010 --> 00:28:26,170
also made it so every
generation of 15-year-olds

715
00:28:26,190 --> 00:28:29,020
rediscovers the Germs.

716
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:30,080
It's real, you know,

717
00:28:30,100 --> 00:28:31,190
and you can't mistake it.

718
00:28:32,220 --> 00:28:34,090
[McKagan]:
You instantly realized

719
00:28:34,110 --> 00:28:36,080
Darby's lyrical content,

720
00:28:36,100 --> 00:28:38,120
because you get this on vinyl, right,

721
00:28:38,140 --> 00:28:40,050
so the lyrics were in there,

722
00:28:40,070 --> 00:28:42,130
that he was a genius and a poet...

723
00:28:43,180 --> 00:28:45,210
but you couldn't understand
a word he was saying.

724
00:28:45,230 --> 00:28:48,140
That was kind of a new thing, too.

725
00:28:49,130 --> 00:28:52,050
I'll tell you, they were a fun band,

726
00:28:52,070 --> 00:28:53,130
but live,

727
00:28:53,150 --> 00:28:56,010
they were kind of... messy.

728
00:28:56,030 --> 00:28:59,080
They had an opportunity
to make an album,

729
00:28:59,100 --> 00:29:00,200
and I think it was Darby

730
00:29:00,220 --> 00:29:02,150
who asked me if I would produce it.

731
00:29:02,170 --> 00:29:03,180
I didn't do much.

732
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,010
It was just, "Make sure
you get everything down,

733
00:29:06,030 --> 00:29:07,160
and make everything
sound equal."

734
00:29:07,180 --> 00:29:11,120
That was my first...
production,

735
00:29:11,140 --> 00:29:12,160
and my first chance

736
00:29:12,180 --> 00:29:17,070
to do something
for another band like that.

737
00:29:17,090 --> 00:29:19,140
People loved the Germs back then,

738
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,090
and, yeah, they went out on stage

739
00:29:22,110 --> 00:29:25,070
and sometimes stayed there
for five minutes and left.

740
00:29:26,180 --> 00:29:30,030
The whole premise of that movement

741
00:29:30,050 --> 00:29:36,030
was to do things contrary to the norm.

742
00:29:37,190 --> 00:29:41,100
Hardcore was born out of
that punk rock movement,

743
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:43,120
and it is very different music.

744
00:29:43,140 --> 00:29:44,190
It's very, very different.

745
00:29:44,210 --> 00:29:47,090
You know, not so artsy-fartsy,

746
00:29:47,110 --> 00:29:50,170
and very uncompromising,

747
00:29:50,190 --> 00:29:54,110
and it's very male-oriented,
too, isn't it?

748
00:29:56,010 --> 00:30:00,070
[Bag]: It started to get
very white and very male.

749
00:30:00,090 --> 00:30:04,150
Like, women were relegated
to the back again,

750
00:30:04,170 --> 00:30:06,160
and when hardcore came around,

751
00:30:06,180 --> 00:30:10,030
it really felt like things
had to be a certain way.

752
00:30:10,050 --> 00:30:13,000
Like, there was an appropriate attire.

753
00:30:13,020 --> 00:30:15,030
There was an appropriate way to dance,

754
00:30:15,050 --> 00:30:18,070
and the appropriate way to dance
was very jock-centered.

755
00:30:18,090 --> 00:30:21,000
They started calling it hardcore punk

756
00:30:21,020 --> 00:30:23,000
because it was getting more hardcore.

757
00:30:23,020 --> 00:30:25,060
It was getting faster, more aggressive,

758
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:26,120
and eventually,

759
00:30:26,140 --> 00:30:29,060
they just started
calling it "hardcore."

760
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,130
The dancing started to get
more aggressive, you know.

761
00:30:32,150 --> 00:30:34,180
Pogo dancing turned into slam dancing,

762
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,080
and moshing,

763
00:30:36,100 --> 00:30:38,110
and stage diving, and all that shit.

764
00:30:38,130 --> 00:30:42,110
Stage diving, southern California.

765
00:30:42,130 --> 00:30:45,060
We're the swimming pool
capital of the world.

766
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:46,150
What are you going to do?

767
00:30:46,170 --> 00:30:50,000
You're going to jump
off the diving board.

768
00:30:50,020 --> 00:30:54,040
That's all stage diving is.

769
00:30:54,060 --> 00:30:55,180
At the time that<i> The Decline</i>
<i>of Western Civilization</i>

770
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:56,230
came out,

771
00:30:57,010 --> 00:31:00,030
I think everyone was kind of
pissed off at Penelope,

772
00:31:00,050 --> 00:31:01,220
because she showed a scene

773
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,010
that was very nihilistic and dark,

774
00:31:04,030 --> 00:31:05,220
and we had just come out of a period

775
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:07,140
that was very optimistic,

776
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,060
and her movie was not.

777
00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:11,030
But in retrospect,

778
00:31:11,050 --> 00:31:14,170
I think it was actually
a really good time capsule,

779
00:31:14,190 --> 00:31:17,180
because that's really
where it was going.

780
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,190
The poor kid in Penelope's movie

781
00:31:21,210 --> 00:31:24,090
with the "X" shaved in his head,

782
00:31:24,110 --> 00:31:26,080
there was one point
he was at the Starwood,

783
00:31:26,100 --> 00:31:28,080
and he had a big dog chain,

784
00:31:28,100 --> 00:31:30,150
and he was swinging it around his head.

785
00:31:30,170 --> 00:31:31,190
That was like...

786
00:31:31,210 --> 00:31:33,220
That's fucked up.

787
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,070
That's not just, like,
"Let's get crazy."

788
00:31:37,090 --> 00:31:39,120
That's psychotic, and
"I want to hurt people."

789
00:31:39,140 --> 00:31:42,150
<i>I put a guy in the hospital
a little while back.</i>

790
00:31:42,170 --> 00:31:44,170
<i>What happened?</i>

791
00:31:44,190 --> 00:31:47,220
<i>I broke his nose and his jaw,</i>

792
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:49,140
<i>cut up his face.</i>

793
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,120
<i>They said I hit him with a chain.</i>

794
00:31:51,140 --> 00:31:53,080
<i>I guess I did.</i>

795
00:31:53,100 --> 00:31:55,120
<i>I was a little bit drunk.</i>

796
00:31:55,140 --> 00:31:57,010
<i>I didn't remember.</i>

797
00:31:57,030 --> 00:31:58,150
<i>Where's your real father?</i>

798
00:31:58,170 --> 00:32:01,040
<i>I don't know.</i>

799
00:32:01,060 --> 00:32:03,100
<i>Don't even know who he is.</i>

800
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:05,230
<i>Society stinks.</i>

801
00:32:06,010 --> 00:32:08,100
<i>[laughing]</i>

802
00:32:13,190 --> 00:32:15,210
[Spheeris]: Well, I don't care
what society thinks.

803
00:32:15,230 --> 00:32:16,180
You know what I mean?

804
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,210
I really don't, and that's...

805
00:32:18,230 --> 00:32:20,180
If you're punk, you don't.

806
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,210
They got their own thing going on.

807
00:32:22,230 --> 00:32:26,190
I mean, if they're
a criminal or an asshole,

808
00:32:26,210 --> 00:32:28,200
to me, they're not a punk rocker.

809
00:32:28,220 --> 00:32:30,190
You're just something else...

810
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,200
But if we're talking about
violence in the world?

811
00:32:35,220 --> 00:32:37,140
Think about it.

812
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,200
Do you really think punk rock is violent

813
00:32:39,220 --> 00:32:41,190
compared to the rest of the world?

814
00:32:41,210 --> 00:32:44,040
I mean, I've seen teeth
on the floor before,

815
00:32:44,060 --> 00:32:46,170
and luckily they weren't mine,

816
00:32:46,190 --> 00:32:49,140
but in general,

817
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:51,130
it was a safe environment.

818
00:32:54,050 --> 00:32:55,160
You know anybody who's not pissed off?

819
00:32:55,180 --> 00:32:57,020
Everybody's pissed off, okay?

820
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:59,050
It's how you deal with it,

821
00:32:59,070 --> 00:33:02,180
and, you know,

822
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:04,180
punks deal with it by writing lyrics,

823
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,230
and by hitting their instruments
really hard,

824
00:33:07,010 --> 00:33:09,140
and by slamming in the pit.

825
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,060
It's better to express it,

826
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:13,210
like how the Germs and Black Flag

827
00:33:13,230 --> 00:33:15,210
and the Circle Jerks did.

828
00:33:15,230 --> 00:33:17,050
<i>It's Black Flag.</i>

829
00:33:17,070 --> 00:33:18,150
<i>[microphone feedback]</i>

830
00:33:18,170 --> 00:33:22,110
[Reyes]: Keith Morris
left Black Flag,

831
00:33:22,130 --> 00:33:24,060
and I was like, "Yeah, why not?"

832
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,000
I mean, you know, we're buddies.

833
00:33:26,020 --> 00:33:27,050
It's a great band.

834
00:33:27,070 --> 00:33:28,170
I'm here, let's do this.

835
00:33:28,190 --> 00:33:30,120
[♪♪♪]

836
00:33:54,100 --> 00:33:55,220
In<i> The Decline</i>
<i>of the Western Civilization,</i>

837
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,180
I think they gave up trying
to find me on the stage.

838
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,020
I mean, it's like, "Oh, there he goes.

839
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:01,020
There he goes again.

840
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:02,060
There he goes. Where is he?

841
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:03,180
There he goes!" You know?

842
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,000
That's just my nature.

843
00:34:06,020 --> 00:34:09,170
You know, I had to run around
and just cut loose.

844
00:34:09,190 --> 00:34:11,140
[♪♪♪]

845
00:34:27,050 --> 00:34:29,150
[McKagan]: My first gig ever
was the Vains,

846
00:34:29,170 --> 00:34:32,030
opening for Black Flag.

847
00:34:32,050 --> 00:34:34,110
Ron Reyes was the singer
of Black Flag at that point.

848
00:34:34,130 --> 00:34:36,220
He came out in the crowd
and started fighting people.

849
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,000
Somebody threw a coin, I think,

850
00:34:39,020 --> 00:34:41,040
and it hit his face, and he...

851
00:34:41,060 --> 00:34:44,130
I've become really good friends
with Ron since then,

852
00:34:44,150 --> 00:34:46,120
but my first impression of Ron

853
00:34:46,140 --> 00:34:49,120
was he was this
terrifying dude from L.A.

854
00:34:52,070 --> 00:34:56,060
[Reyes]: Halfway during
my time in Black Flag,

855
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,220
there was this huge influx
of very young kids

856
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,010
who had nothing but anxiety

857
00:35:03,030 --> 00:35:05,210
and oppressive anger in them.

858
00:35:07,220 --> 00:35:09,130
You can't hold that in.

859
00:35:09,150 --> 00:35:10,160
It's got to come out.

860
00:35:10,180 --> 00:35:12,160
So it came out,
and some people got hurt,

861
00:35:12,180 --> 00:35:15,210
and then maybe some people
liked the fact

862
00:35:15,230 --> 00:35:17,010
that people were getting hurt.

863
00:35:17,030 --> 00:35:18,160
I went to see a Black Flag show,

864
00:35:18,180 --> 00:35:21,080
and I was really appreciating the band,

865
00:35:21,100 --> 00:35:23,000
and then, but every five seconds, like,

866
00:35:23,020 --> 00:35:24,170
someone was being beaten,

867
00:35:24,190 --> 00:35:26,010
you know, having their face kicked in

868
00:35:26,030 --> 00:35:27,060
for not having the right haircut,

869
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:28,130
and I was like, "These
motherfuckers are stupid.

870
00:35:28,150 --> 00:35:29,130
Fuck this."

871
00:35:31,050 --> 00:35:33,050
[Reyes]: I eventually
walked off the stage.

872
00:35:33,070 --> 00:35:34,140
I felt like

873
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:38,090
we could have been singing
about polka-dotted elephants,

874
00:35:38,110 --> 00:35:41,180
and, you know,
it wouldn't have mattered.

875
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:42,230
I walked off saying,

876
00:35:43,010 --> 00:35:44,070
"I don't want to be the background

877
00:35:44,090 --> 00:35:48,050
to this violence,"

878
00:35:48,070 --> 00:35:49,110
and then I came to Vancouver,

879
00:35:49,130 --> 00:35:52,040
which, uh, didn't have that.

880
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:57,170
[Joey "Shithead" Keithley]:
The record companies

881
00:35:57,190 --> 00:36:00,100
were in Los Angeles,
New York, or London,

882
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:03,010
and Vancouver, where the hell is that?

883
00:36:03,030 --> 00:36:04,180
It's like a village in snowy Canada.

884
00:36:08,220 --> 00:36:11,220
The early days of punk rock
in Vancouver,

885
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:12,230
the shows were great

886
00:36:13,010 --> 00:36:15,170
because there were
so few people involved.

887
00:36:15,190 --> 00:36:18,020
The scene was so small,
you maybe had 50 people,

888
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:19,200
and everybody played in a band.

889
00:36:19,220 --> 00:36:21,220
We got D.O.A. started,

890
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:23,060
and it ended up being the three of us,

891
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:24,110
Chuck, Randy, and I,

892
00:36:24,130 --> 00:36:26,110
and we played about six shows.

893
00:36:26,130 --> 00:36:29,060
We thought, like, why go across Canada?

894
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:30,050
It's covered with snow.

895
00:36:30,070 --> 00:36:32,010
There's not many people,

896
00:36:32,030 --> 00:36:34,160
and it was like 3,000 miles
to get to Toronto.

897
00:36:34,180 --> 00:36:37,080
You'd, like, starve to death
trying to go back and forth

898
00:36:37,100 --> 00:36:38,190
between Toronto and Vancouver,

899
00:36:38,210 --> 00:36:40,080
so we thought,
"Well, let's put out a record.

900
00:36:40,100 --> 00:36:42,010
Like, it can be done."

901
00:36:43,210 --> 00:36:46,060
We'd saved up enough money
to put out a 7-inch single,

902
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:47,190
and I just started mailing them

903
00:36:47,210 --> 00:36:49,120
to New York, L.A.,
San Francisco.

904
00:36:49,140 --> 00:36:51,020
Like, all over North America,

905
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:52,090
with a handwritten note

906
00:36:52,110 --> 00:36:54,070
that said, like,
"Hi. We're D.O.A.

907
00:36:54,090 --> 00:36:55,190
We're a punk rock band from Canada.

908
00:36:55,210 --> 00:36:57,230
We'd like to come and play in your town.

909
00:36:58,010 --> 00:37:01,050
Could you write me back
and see if we could get a show?"

910
00:37:02,100 --> 00:37:05,210
We were part of a thing
called "Do It Yourself,"

911
00:37:05,230 --> 00:37:07,090
DIY,

912
00:37:07,110 --> 00:37:09,150
because we had no choice.

913
00:37:09,170 --> 00:37:14,060
Word of mouth, flyers, fanzines.

914
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:15,210
There was no Internet.

915
00:37:15,230 --> 00:37:17,140
We're not sitting around

916
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:20,110
waiting for anybody
to make things happen for us.

917
00:37:20,130 --> 00:37:21,210
We're going to do it now.

918
00:37:21,230 --> 00:37:24,220
Just fucking do it.

919
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:26,160
Don't overthink it.

920
00:37:26,180 --> 00:37:28,120
We didn't know how to write
fucking songs.

921
00:37:28,140 --> 00:37:29,230
We didn't know there was keys.

922
00:37:30,010 --> 00:37:31,170
We didn't know any of that shit.

923
00:37:31,190 --> 00:37:33,040
We just wrote a song.

924
00:37:33,060 --> 00:37:36,160
We felt great, and went out
and rented a union hall,

925
00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:38,100
and went and played those fucking songs.

926
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,120
Just write the song
and go out and play it,

927
00:37:40,140 --> 00:37:41,200
if that's what you're feeling right now.

928
00:37:41,220 --> 00:37:43,140
Who cares if it's got a chorus or not?

929
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:45,000
It was doing it for yourself.

930
00:37:45,020 --> 00:37:46,190
I mean, the DIY thing, man,

931
00:37:46,210 --> 00:37:48,200
it was kids put on the shows,

932
00:37:48,220 --> 00:37:52,030
kids played in the band,
kids made the album covers.

933
00:37:52,050 --> 00:37:53,170
Kids did everything.

934
00:37:53,190 --> 00:37:55,100
It was beautiful.

935
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:57,160
<i>This is...
this is our new issue.</i>

936
00:37:57,180 --> 00:37:59,130
<i>[laughing]</i>

937
00:37:59,150 --> 00:38:02,010
<i>We really want everyone
to go out and buy this.</i>

938
00:38:02,030 --> 00:38:04,050
<i>It's got a really good
interview of bands</i>

939
00:38:04,070 --> 00:38:05,180
<i>that you probably never...
Oh.</i>

940
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,140
<i>[laughing]</i>

941
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,120
[Morris]: We had
what are called fanzines

942
00:38:10,140 --> 00:38:14,060
from all of these different areas,

943
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,020
which is one way
to learn about who's cool

944
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:19,050
and who's not cool.

945
00:38:19,070 --> 00:38:23,100
That was our line of communication.

946
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,140
We had no choice.

947
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,160
We couldn't afford to run an ad
in the Sunday Times

948
00:38:29,180 --> 00:38:33,090
saying we're playing
a party at Gazzarri's.

949
00:38:33,110 --> 00:38:37,010
I mean, the whole thing
that we're talking about,

950
00:38:37,030 --> 00:38:38,150
this punk rock thing,

951
00:38:38,170 --> 00:38:41,160
the fact of the matter
is it's us against them,

952
00:38:41,180 --> 00:38:44,170
whether it be us against the government,

953
00:38:44,190 --> 00:38:46,130
us against the police,

954
00:38:46,150 --> 00:38:50,200
up against any kind
of authoritative figure.

955
00:38:50,220 --> 00:38:53,180
It's gone on since that kid in the cave

956
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:55,170
picked up the fucking rock

957
00:38:55,190 --> 00:38:57,210
and threw it against
the side of the cave

958
00:38:57,230 --> 00:39:00,150
just to piss his parents off.

959
00:39:02,110 --> 00:39:04,200
[Keithley]: So we had mailed
all these records out.

960
00:39:04,220 --> 00:39:06,200
The first reply we really got back

961
00:39:06,220 --> 00:39:09,030
was from the Mabuhay Gardens
in San Francisco,

962
00:39:09,050 --> 00:39:12,050
which is one of the great
punk rock Meccas of all time.

963
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,090
We played at the Mabuhay,

964
00:39:15,110 --> 00:39:17,100
and hung around on the Sunday night

965
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:19,110
because the Dead Kennedys were playing.

966
00:39:19,130 --> 00:39:22,150
Of all the bands
that there were in America

967
00:39:22,170 --> 00:39:24,160
in the early '80s,

968
00:39:24,180 --> 00:39:25,220
they were like a sensation,

969
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:27,180
because it was like, "The Dead Kennedys!

970
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,230
Who could name a band
such a thing?"

971
00:39:30,010 --> 00:39:32,090
And of course, the kids loved it.

972
00:39:32,110 --> 00:39:34,040
[♪♪♪]

973
00:39:36,020 --> 00:39:37,200
[Biafra]:
The Stooges were dangerous,

974
00:39:37,220 --> 00:39:40,180
and I definitely wanted
Dead Kennedys to be dangerous.

975
00:39:42,060 --> 00:39:46,110
Our first show was at Mabuhay Gardens,

976
00:39:46,130 --> 00:39:49,040
and Will Shatter had given me
a little bit of speed

977
00:39:49,060 --> 00:39:51,040
and a drink to kind of warm me up.

978
00:39:51,060 --> 00:39:53,040
We were so nervous,

979
00:39:53,060 --> 00:39:57,110
we went through
our 25-minute set in 12 minutes.

980
00:39:57,130 --> 00:39:59,000
But then when I got
off stage afterwards,

981
00:39:59,020 --> 00:40:00,050
I collapsed,

982
00:40:00,070 --> 00:40:02,070
and my heart was about
to jump out of my chest.

983
00:40:02,090 --> 00:40:05,070
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,

984
00:40:05,090 --> 00:40:06,130
and I figured,

985
00:40:06,150 --> 00:40:08,140
"Okay, that must have been
the speed."

986
00:40:09,210 --> 00:40:13,050
So no more speed before shows

987
00:40:13,070 --> 00:40:15,050
ever again.

988
00:40:17,180 --> 00:40:20,040
I got a postcard in the mail one day,

989
00:40:20,060 --> 00:40:23,190
and it was a still
of Kennedy's brain exploding

990
00:40:23,210 --> 00:40:27,080
from the Abraham Zapruder film
of the assassination in Dallas,

991
00:40:27,100 --> 00:40:29,140
but grainy and in weird colors,

992
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:32,080
"If you want more,
write me back."

993
00:40:32,100 --> 00:40:34,150
Okay, this could be interesting.

994
00:40:34,170 --> 00:40:36,000
He wrote back to me.

995
00:40:36,020 --> 00:40:37,090
You know, this was before email,

996
00:40:37,110 --> 00:40:39,030
and I didn't even have a telephone,

997
00:40:39,050 --> 00:40:41,230
and he went through
some portfolios of mine,

998
00:40:42,010 --> 00:40:43,150
and, "That one, that one.

999
00:40:43,170 --> 00:40:45,170
I want that one for my record cover,"

1000
00:40:45,190 --> 00:40:49,120
and one was a cross
made out of dollar bills

1001
00:40:49,140 --> 00:40:53,080
against a pattern
of universal product bar codes.

1002
00:40:53,100 --> 00:40:55,080
It wasn't attacking religion.

1003
00:40:55,100 --> 00:40:56,160
It was attacking our worship of money.

1004
00:40:56,180 --> 00:41:00,160
The record came out called,
"In God We Trust, Inc."

1005
00:41:00,180 --> 00:41:03,090
Since then, we've been, as Biafra says,

1006
00:41:03,110 --> 00:41:04,150
partners in crime.

1007
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:08,050
Winston may have not have been
versed in punk very much,

1008
00:41:08,070 --> 00:41:13,050
but he had all this Dadaism in him,

1009
00:41:13,070 --> 00:41:16,020
but didn't really totally know

1010
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:17,150
what to do with it,

1011
00:41:17,170 --> 00:41:20,080
or be inspired to make
all this stuff he'd made

1012
00:41:20,100 --> 00:41:23,060
until punk entered his veins.

1013
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:25,230
[Smith]:
For me, the punk movement,

1014
00:41:26,010 --> 00:41:28,080
and punk rock in general,

1015
00:41:28,100 --> 00:41:29,120
it lets everyone know

1016
00:41:29,140 --> 00:41:31,210
that being creative is a possibility.

1017
00:41:31,230 --> 00:41:36,140
My point of view artistically
was very sarcastic.

1018
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,100
People were outraged by lots of things

1019
00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:39,230
that were happening at the time,

1020
00:41:40,010 --> 00:41:41,140
such as the neutron bomb
being developed.

1021
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,180
The days of Reagan were very grim.

1022
00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,130
He was telling
as many lies as Trump does.

1023
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:53,130
I incorporated him
in lots of my photo collages

1024
00:41:53,150 --> 00:41:56,070
because he had a record
of all his movies

1025
00:41:56,090 --> 00:41:57,220
going back to the 1930s.

1026
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,120
A lot of things I didn't have
to even change much

1027
00:42:00,140 --> 00:42:02,230
because he gave it to me.

1028
00:42:03,010 --> 00:42:04,170
<i>Yes, sir.
I'm afraid it was me.</i>

1029
00:42:04,190 --> 00:42:08,030
[Smith]: But it's something
that I've always had in me,

1030
00:42:08,050 --> 00:42:11,050
an outrage over injustice,

1031
00:42:11,070 --> 00:42:15,020
and to be able to put
a light on it through artwork

1032
00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:19,020
was my way of finding a voice
in the punk movement.

1033
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,140
It kind of beat going out
and marching in the streets,

1034
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:25,120
because I could reach
more people through artwork

1035
00:42:25,140 --> 00:42:27,150
than I could, you know,
carrying a protest sign

1036
00:42:27,170 --> 00:42:29,010
in Berkeley.

1037
00:42:29,030 --> 00:42:32,230
I've never really thought of
punk as a "movement," you know.

1038
00:42:33,010 --> 00:42:35,180
I think of movements
as political movements.

1039
00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:37,030
Eye on the prize.

1040
00:42:37,050 --> 00:42:39,090
It's a movement to achieve something.

1041
00:42:39,110 --> 00:42:41,180
What was the punk movement to achieve?

1042
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:42,220
More punk?

1043
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,120
I think that was accomplished
really, really fast.

1044
00:42:45,140 --> 00:42:49,170
Punk is a culture, a rebel culture,

1045
00:42:49,190 --> 00:42:53,010
a high-energy, inspiring culture

1046
00:42:53,030 --> 00:42:55,080
that gets the adrenaline
and the brain moving,

1047
00:42:55,100 --> 00:42:57,000
makes you want to do stuff,

1048
00:42:57,020 --> 00:43:00,230
even if it's just going out
and breaking things.

1049
00:43:01,010 --> 00:43:03,150
But it also meant we had to
stand up for ourselves,

1050
00:43:03,170 --> 00:43:06,060
and not play up to a bunch of goons.

1051
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:07,170
Some of these people were showing up,

1052
00:43:07,190 --> 00:43:09,160
and surfers and whatnot,

1053
00:43:09,180 --> 00:43:12,030
whose idea of punk or hardcore

1054
00:43:12,050 --> 00:43:13,130
was to jump off the stage

1055
00:43:13,150 --> 00:43:14,210
and punch somebody
in the back of the head

1056
00:43:14,230 --> 00:43:15,180
and run.

1057
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:20,160
So "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" was hatched.

1058
00:43:20,180 --> 00:43:22,010
<i>What are we gonna play now?</i>

1059
00:43:22,030 --> 00:43:23,220
<i>"Nazi Punks Fuck Off."</i>

1060
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,120
I wasn't necessarily
against Nazis at the time.

1061
00:43:27,140 --> 00:43:28,140
It was more like

1062
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:32,130
these people who are here
to fuck up the show

1063
00:43:32,150 --> 00:43:33,120
for everybody else,

1064
00:43:33,140 --> 00:43:35,140
they're acting like a bunch of Nazis,

1065
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,100
so we had to say something.

1066
00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:38,090
One, two, three, four!

1067
00:43:38,110 --> 00:43:39,140
♪ Punk
ain't no religious cult ♪

1068
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:40,210
♪ Punk means thinking
for yourself ♪

1069
00:43:40,230 --> 00:43:42,100
♪ You ain't hardcore
'cause you spike your hair ♪

1070
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:43,180
♪ When a jock still lives
inside your head ♪

1071
00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:45,150
♪ Nazi punks, Nazi punks ♪

1072
00:43:45,170 --> 00:43:47,050
♪ Nazi punks, fuck off! ♪

1073
00:43:47,070 --> 00:43:48,180
♪ Nazi punks, Nazi punks ♪

1074
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:50,120
♪ Nazi punks, fuck off! ♪

1075
00:43:50,140 --> 00:43:52,150
[♪♪♪]

1076
00:43:53,140 --> 00:43:56,080
♪ Ten guys jump one
what a man ♪

1077
00:43:56,100 --> 00:43:59,050
♪ You fight each other
the police state wins ♪

1078
00:43:59,070 --> 00:44:02,110
♪ Stab your backs
when you trash our halls ♪

1079
00:44:02,130 --> 00:44:05,110
♪ Trash a bank
if you've got real balls ♪

1080
00:44:05,130 --> 00:44:07,000
♪ You still think swastikas
look cool ♪

1081
00:44:07,020 --> 00:44:08,110
♪ The real Nazis
run your schools ♪

1082
00:44:08,130 --> 00:44:09,200
♪ They're coaches,
businessmen, and cops ♪

1083
00:44:09,220 --> 00:44:11,120
♪ In a real fourth Reich
you'll be the first to go ♪

1084
00:44:11,140 --> 00:44:14,140
♪ Nazi punks, Nazi punks
Nazi punks, fuck off! ♪

1085
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:16,020
♪ Nazi punks, Nazi punks ♪

1086
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:17,190
♪ Nazi punks, fuck off! ♪

1087
00:44:17,210 --> 00:44:19,020
[♪♪♪]

1088
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:20,130
♪ You'll be the first to go
You'll be the first to go ♪

1089
00:44:20,150 --> 00:44:24,000
♪ You'll be the first to go
Unless you think! ♪

1090
00:44:24,020 --> 00:44:26,120
We debuted "Nazi Punks Fuck Off"

1091
00:44:26,140 --> 00:44:27,190
at 10th Street Hall,

1092
00:44:27,210 --> 00:44:29,010
and, yeah, I mean,

1093
00:44:29,030 --> 00:44:31,120
caught a lot of shit for that song.

1094
00:44:31,140 --> 00:44:33,040
I mean, people who actually

1095
00:44:33,060 --> 00:44:36,140
did have fascist and Nazi sympathies,

1096
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,030
they came out of the closet,

1097
00:44:38,050 --> 00:44:39,150
and they were a little more organized.

1098
00:44:39,170 --> 00:44:40,190
They threatened me.

1099
00:44:40,210 --> 00:44:43,140
You know, death threats at home,
attacks on stage.

1100
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:47,000
Somebody set dynamite off
in front of my house.

1101
00:44:47,020 --> 00:44:49,090
I got stabbed with a bottle
across my head once,

1102
00:44:49,110 --> 00:44:52,130
during the "Bleed for Me" song, no less,

1103
00:44:52,150 --> 00:44:56,140
but no one was going
to help the hardcore scene

1104
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:57,160
from up above.

1105
00:44:57,180 --> 00:45:00,090
It all had to be built from below.

1106
00:45:00,110 --> 00:45:02,140
I think Black Flag did the most

1107
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:04,160
to just take a chance
on just about anybody

1108
00:45:04,180 --> 00:45:06,140
inviting them to their town

1109
00:45:06,160 --> 00:45:10,070
and hoping the show went okay.

1110
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,100
[Rollins]: I met Black Flag
in the spring of 1981,

1111
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,110
when they played in New York
and Washington, DC.

1112
00:45:17,130 --> 00:45:19,010
We drove up to New York to see them

1113
00:45:19,030 --> 00:45:20,140
so we could say we saw them twice.

1114
00:45:22,030 --> 00:45:23,130
They come back in July.

1115
00:45:23,150 --> 00:45:25,040
They're not going to play
Washington, DC.

1116
00:45:25,060 --> 00:45:26,210
So, me being the fan,

1117
00:45:26,230 --> 00:45:29,050
I get in my wounded 1968 VW,

1118
00:45:29,070 --> 00:45:31,030
and I drive up to New York to see them.

1119
00:45:31,050 --> 00:45:32,110
I still have the ticket stub.

1120
00:45:32,130 --> 00:45:34,040
So I request a song.

1121
00:45:34,060 --> 00:45:36,140
I say, "Clocked In,"

1122
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:38,000
it's a song about going to work,

1123
00:45:38,020 --> 00:45:39,230
and I look at Dez,
I look at the microphone,

1124
00:45:40,010 --> 00:45:41,080
and suddenly I'm standing on stage,

1125
00:45:41,100 --> 00:45:43,020
I have no memory of walking on stage,

1126
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:44,120
and I looked at Dez,

1127
00:45:44,140 --> 00:45:46,070
and there's something
on my face that said,

1128
00:45:46,090 --> 00:45:47,120
"Give me the microphone,"

1129
00:45:47,140 --> 00:45:48,120
and he kind of went...

1130
00:45:48,140 --> 00:45:49,150
and I went, "Okay,"

1131
00:45:49,170 --> 00:45:51,060
and the guys in Black Flag
went, "Oh, cool,

1132
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:52,130
Henry's going to sing,"

1133
00:45:52,150 --> 00:45:55,080
and I sang this
minute-and-a-half-long song

1134
00:45:55,100 --> 00:45:56,090
as best I could,

1135
00:45:56,110 --> 00:45:57,130
and I remember two things,

1136
00:45:57,150 --> 00:45:58,230
the audience going, "Aah,"

1137
00:45:59,010 --> 00:46:00,170
and the band going, "Huh."

1138
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:03,200
I went back to DC.

1139
00:46:03,220 --> 00:46:07,030
Later that day, at my job,
the phone rings.

1140
00:46:07,050 --> 00:46:08,050
"Hey.

1141
00:46:08,070 --> 00:46:09,130
We're holding auditions.

1142
00:46:09,150 --> 00:46:11,140
Dez wants to move to rhythm guitar.

1143
00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:12,170
You're pretty insane.

1144
00:46:12,190 --> 00:46:14,200
Do you want to come up here
and audition?"

1145
00:46:14,220 --> 00:46:16,040
I'm 20 years old,

1146
00:46:16,060 --> 00:46:18,230
wearing an apron covered in ice cream.

1147
00:46:19,010 --> 00:46:22,180
You can have one of those jobs
and die in it 20 years later.

1148
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:24,020
Bruce Springsteen will come in

1149
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:26,080
and do a three-LP
concept record about you

1150
00:46:26,100 --> 00:46:28,010
eventually,

1151
00:46:28,030 --> 00:46:30,090
and that was my life as 20-year old.

1152
00:46:30,110 --> 00:46:34,130
It went from this to this in one day.

1153
00:46:34,150 --> 00:46:36,080
<i>Live at Target,</i>

1154
00:46:36,100 --> 00:46:38,070
<i>a band from L.A. that really...</i>

1155
00:46:38,090 --> 00:46:40,050
<i>pow! pow! ...comes at ya,</i>

1156
00:46:40,070 --> 00:46:41,090
<i>Black Flag.</i>

1157
00:46:41,110 --> 00:46:43,000
<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

1158
00:46:50,170 --> 00:46:51,160
<i>All right!</i>

1159
00:46:51,180 --> 00:46:54,140
[♪♪♪]

1160
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:06,100
♪ Jealous cowards
try to control ♪

1161
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:08,190
♪ Rise above!
We're gonna rise above! ♪

1162
00:47:08,210 --> 00:47:10,220
♪ They distort what we say ♪

1163
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:13,030
♪ Rise above!
We're gonna rise above! ♪

1164
00:47:13,050 --> 00:47:15,080
♪ Try to stop what we do ♪

1165
00:47:15,100 --> 00:47:17,140
♪ Rise above!
We're gonna rise above! ♪

1166
00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:19,100
♪ When they can't
do it themselves ♪

1167
00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:21,110
♪ Rise above! ♪

1168
00:47:24,180 --> 00:47:26,190
[Rollins]: Black Flag was
a very hard band to be in.

1169
00:47:26,210 --> 00:47:28,020
It was never easy.

1170
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:32,140
We played in every major city
and every single town,

1171
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:36,060
but D.O.A.
was there before us.

1172
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:38,140
Like, you want to find
the other five cities to play

1173
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:40,020
in Illinois?

1174
00:47:40,040 --> 00:47:41,160
Call up Joe Shithead and ask him,

1175
00:47:41,180 --> 00:47:43,160
because he's already
got his nose broken there.

1176
00:47:43,180 --> 00:47:44,230
They were hardcore.

1177
00:47:47,050 --> 00:47:48,130
[Keithley]:
Some magazines said,

1178
00:47:48,150 --> 00:47:50,050
"Yeah, there's
this new style of music out.

1179
00:47:50,070 --> 00:47:51,140
It's hardcore.

1180
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:52,180
It's, like, Black Flag,

1181
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:54,200
D.O.A., Minor Threat,"
bands like that.

1182
00:47:54,220 --> 00:47:56,090
Bad Brains, right?

1183
00:47:56,110 --> 00:47:58,080
"They aren't trying to sound
like they're from New York.

1184
00:47:58,100 --> 00:48:00,120
They're not trying to sound
like they're from London.

1185
00:48:00,140 --> 00:48:01,120
It's original."

1186
00:48:02,170 --> 00:48:05,030
So we came up with the idea
to call an album "Hardcore '81,"

1187
00:48:05,050 --> 00:48:07,030
and then we did a tour
around North America

1188
00:48:07,050 --> 00:48:10,050
for, like, 50 shows,

1189
00:48:10,070 --> 00:48:11,200
and I think that put the expression

1190
00:48:11,220 --> 00:48:13,040
into the common vernacular.

1191
00:48:13,060 --> 00:48:14,170
<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

1192
00:48:14,190 --> 00:48:15,170
<i>We'll play it for you.</i>

1193
00:48:15,190 --> 00:48:18,050
<i>[drummer beats time on drumsticks]</i>

1194
00:48:18,070 --> 00:48:22,020
<i>It's called,
"Get Out of My Life."</i>

1195
00:48:22,040 --> 00:48:23,180
<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

1196
00:48:30,170 --> 00:48:32,170
<i>♪ Where you at
you're makin' me weak ♪</i>

1197
00:48:32,190 --> 00:48:34,200
<i>♪ A knife in my back
but I'm beginning to think ♪</i>

1198
00:48:34,220 --> 00:48:37,010
<i>♪ Your new wave's shit
Your new wave's shit ♪</i>

1199
00:48:37,030 --> 00:48:42,030
<i>♪ And I'm gonna get sick
all over... you ♪</i>

1200
00:48:43,110 --> 00:48:44,120
[Flanagan]: The first time

1201
00:48:44,140 --> 00:48:47,090
that the term was actually
used commercially

1202
00:48:47,110 --> 00:48:49,040
was by D.O.A.

1203
00:48:49,060 --> 00:48:51,220
They had a record called Hardcore '81.

1204
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:53,100
I think before that

1205
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:57,080
the only time you heard
the term was, like,

1206
00:48:57,100 --> 00:48:59,000
related to pornography, you know?

1207
00:48:59,020 --> 00:49:00,130
Hardcore porn.

1208
00:49:00,150 --> 00:49:02,180
<i>♪ Where you at
you're makin' me weak ♪</i>

1209
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:04,230
♪ <i>A knife in my back</i>
<i>but I'm beginning to think ♪</i>

1210
00:49:05,010 --> 00:49:06,230
♪ Y<i> our new wave's shit</i>
<i>Your new wave's shit ♪</i>

1211
00:49:07,010 --> 00:49:09,210
<i>♪ And I'm gonna get sick
all over ♪</i>

1212
00:49:09,230 --> 00:49:13,110
<i>[♪♪♪]</i>

1213
00:49:15,220 --> 00:49:16,190
<i>♪ I never never wanna... ♪</i>

1214
00:49:16,210 --> 00:49:17,200
[Keithley]: The two bands

1215
00:49:17,220 --> 00:49:19,180
that were really
criss-crossing North America

1216
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:20,180
and playing all the time

1217
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:22,150
were D.O.A. and Black Flag,

1218
00:49:22,170 --> 00:49:24,100
so we would exchange information.

1219
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:26,010
Like, you know, I'd say to Chuck,

1220
00:49:26,030 --> 00:49:28,150
"Okay, don't go and play
with this guy in Sacramento.

1221
00:49:28,170 --> 00:49:29,120
He'll rip you off,"

1222
00:49:29,140 --> 00:49:30,170
and Chuck would go, like,

1223
00:49:30,190 --> 00:49:32,020
"Oh, you should try this place,
you know,

1224
00:49:32,040 --> 00:49:33,230
the guy will give you 50 bucks
and somewhere to stay."

1225
00:49:34,010 --> 00:49:37,020
If you could get a dozen beer,
50 bucks, and somewhere to stay,

1226
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:38,060
you were doing pretty good.

1227
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:40,080
So we kind of this, like,
built up this circuit.

1228
00:49:40,100 --> 00:49:43,020
[♪♪♪]

1229
00:49:44,170 --> 00:49:46,200
[MacKaye]:
D.O.A., they had gone out

1230
00:49:46,220 --> 00:49:49,150
like some crazy Johnny Appleseed dudes,

1231
00:49:49,170 --> 00:49:52,150
and they had done a tour
around North America.

1232
00:49:52,170 --> 00:49:56,030
Dukowski in Black Flag
got numbers from them,

1233
00:49:56,050 --> 00:49:57,140
and then he started to book a tour

1234
00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:59,060
using those numbers.

1235
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:01,130
Then for us, like, Minor Threat,

1236
00:50:01,150 --> 00:50:03,200
I would go to Chuck and say,
"Can you give me numbers?"

1237
00:50:03,220 --> 00:50:07,140
and we would pass out
photocopies of people's numbers,

1238
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:08,220
and you have, you know, Chuck Dukowski,

1239
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:09,220
Jello Biafra,

1240
00:50:10,000 --> 00:50:11,180
Kevin Seconds, Al Barile,

1241
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:13,050
whatever, just a long list,

1242
00:50:13,070 --> 00:50:16,080
and then you'd just
photocopy it and hand it out.

1243
00:50:17,110 --> 00:50:18,220
[McKagan]: There was
the current place to play

1244
00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:20,110
in Sacramento,

1245
00:50:20,130 --> 00:50:21,150
in Portland,

1246
00:50:21,170 --> 00:50:23,170
in San Francisco, in L.A.,

1247
00:50:23,190 --> 00:50:26,050
kind of any place you wanted to go to.

1248
00:50:26,070 --> 00:50:27,200
We'd stay at the D.O.A. house,

1249
00:50:27,220 --> 00:50:30,070
and to me, as a 14-year-old kid,

1250
00:50:30,090 --> 00:50:32,070
these guys, really,
they took care of you,

1251
00:50:32,090 --> 00:50:34,120
you know, on that really base level,

1252
00:50:34,140 --> 00:50:37,030
and I was in a hardcore band
called The Fartz.

1253
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,060
[MacKaye]: The tour network

1254
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,000
was something that I would
largely lay at the feet

1255
00:50:43,020 --> 00:50:44,030
of D.O.A.,

1256
00:50:44,050 --> 00:50:46,000
and, of course, Black Flag.

1257
00:50:46,020 --> 00:50:47,090
Like, everyone had that template,

1258
00:50:47,110 --> 00:50:48,180
and we just toured, and toured,
and toured,

1259
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:50,050
and it was so underground

1260
00:50:50,070 --> 00:50:51,230
that nobody knew it was happening.

1261
00:50:52,010 --> 00:50:53,110
You just did gigs.

1262
00:50:53,130 --> 00:50:54,130
You played everywhere,

1263
00:50:54,150 --> 00:50:56,150
and it just was completely

1264
00:50:56,170 --> 00:50:59,000
of no interest to the industry
whatsoever,

1265
00:50:59,020 --> 00:51:00,220
because there was no money.

1266
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,130
That's all they really
respond to, ultimately.

1267
00:51:03,150 --> 00:51:04,160
You could tell

1268
00:51:04,180 --> 00:51:07,140
some scenes were, like,
really, um... friendly,

1269
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:08,230
and that really cared,

1270
00:51:09,010 --> 00:51:11,170
so if somebody
got knocked down in the pit,

1271
00:51:11,190 --> 00:51:14,070
then somebody would help them up,

1272
00:51:14,090 --> 00:51:15,060
and then...

1273
00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:17,150
but in some other towns, they wouldn't.

1274
00:51:17,170 --> 00:51:18,230
They would just be like...

1275
00:51:19,010 --> 00:51:20,020
they would be in peril.

1276
00:51:20,040 --> 00:51:23,220
[♪♪♪]

1277
00:51:27,030 --> 00:51:30,120
[Rollins]: From '81 to '86,
when I was in the band,

1278
00:51:30,140 --> 00:51:33,210
punk rock was just
a violent environment,

1279
00:51:33,230 --> 00:51:36,010
and I think it's everything
from testosterone,

1280
00:51:36,030 --> 00:51:38,010
hormones, Reagan,

1281
00:51:38,030 --> 00:51:40,180
law enforcement, bouncers,

1282
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:42,110
but it was a thing,

1283
00:51:42,130 --> 00:51:45,090
and you could find it
in America, Canada,

1284
00:51:45,110 --> 00:51:47,000
Scotland, Germany, Belgium.

1285
00:51:47,020 --> 00:51:48,220
We found it everywhere.

1286
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:53,100
The music got more
and more and more extreme,

1287
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:56,050
and I'd seen stuff in L.A.,

1288
00:51:56,070 --> 00:51:59,000
like at the Fleetwood,
down in Redondo Beach,

1289
00:51:59,020 --> 00:52:01,030
where these packs of super muscular guys

1290
00:52:01,050 --> 00:52:02,110
would find one person,

1291
00:52:02,130 --> 00:52:04,120
then just beat the crap out of him,

1292
00:52:04,140 --> 00:52:07,050
but it started to happen
in San Francisco too.

1293
00:52:08,210 --> 00:52:10,160
[Morris]: We had
the police showing up,

1294
00:52:10,180 --> 00:52:13,130
knocking heads around, arresting people.

1295
00:52:13,150 --> 00:52:19,030
We had gangs that were
associated with certain bands.

1296
00:52:19,050 --> 00:52:22,010
It turns into the warfare

1297
00:52:22,030 --> 00:52:25,120
that a lot of these people
brought along with them.

1298
00:52:26,110 --> 00:52:27,220
[Rollins]: Black Flag
was one of those bands

1299
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:31,040
where we drew all the local skinheads,

1300
00:52:31,060 --> 00:52:33,150
who sometimes liked us,
but a lot of times didn't,

1301
00:52:33,170 --> 00:52:34,170
but they just came

1302
00:52:34,190 --> 00:52:37,070
'cause a lot of
punchable meat was there.

1303
00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:41,100
That sent me to the hospital many times,

1304
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:42,130
concussions.

1305
00:52:42,150 --> 00:52:44,070
I would get pulled off stage and kicked,

1306
00:52:44,090 --> 00:52:46,020
and I'm not a tough guy.

1307
00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:47,140
I am not good at fighting,

1308
00:52:47,160 --> 00:52:53,030
but hitting a man in the face
became such a utilitarian task,

1309
00:52:53,050 --> 00:52:56,090
I could do it and not lose the lyric.

1310
00:52:56,110 --> 00:52:57,220
♪ And I'm gonna... ♪
Boop!

1311
00:52:58,000 --> 00:52:59,050
♪ Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-
doo-doo ♪

1312
00:53:04,100 --> 00:53:06,040
That was my life in Black Flag.

1313
00:53:06,060 --> 00:53:09,030
It made me completely feral.

1314
00:53:09,050 --> 00:53:12,000
Like, I was a very wild animal

1315
00:53:12,020 --> 00:53:17,010
who would react very quickly
to what I thought was a threat.

1316
00:53:17,030 --> 00:53:18,090
"Hey, man!" Pow!

1317
00:53:18,110 --> 00:53:19,080
"Oh.

1318
00:53:19,100 --> 00:53:20,050
Oh, you're a friendly.

1319
00:53:20,070 --> 00:53:22,030
I'm sorry, are you okay?

1320
00:53:22,050 --> 00:53:24,030
Oh, I'll do an interview
for your fanzine.

1321
00:53:24,050 --> 00:53:25,180
You want some ice?"

1322
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:30,020
[Flanagan]: There was a time
in the early '80s

1323
00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:34,070
where hardcore shows really did
start getting pretty violent.

1324
00:53:34,090 --> 00:53:35,100
For a while,

1325
00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:37,110
they stopped having them
at CBs, you know?

1326
00:53:37,130 --> 00:53:38,170
Hilly just wasn't into it.

1327
00:53:38,190 --> 00:53:40,160
Who knew, you know?

1328
00:53:40,180 --> 00:53:45,110
It was just teenagers, you know, just...

1329
00:53:45,130 --> 00:53:46,180
doing our thing, you know?

1330
00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:49,120
I mean, for me, it was just a release.

1331
00:53:53,190 --> 00:53:55,080
[Jenifer]:
I wrote a lot of hardcore

1332
00:53:55,100 --> 00:53:58,230
after I stopped being a punk fan,

1333
00:53:59,010 --> 00:54:00,050
and it wasn't like I didn't like punk.

1334
00:54:00,070 --> 00:54:01,170
It's just like I grew out of it.

1335
00:54:03,070 --> 00:54:05,050
I used to bleed
playing Bad Brains music,

1336
00:54:05,070 --> 00:54:06,170
be completely out of breath.

1337
00:54:06,190 --> 00:54:07,150
You know what I mean?

1338
00:54:07,170 --> 00:54:10,120
We're the ones that's firing it up,

1339
00:54:10,140 --> 00:54:13,050
but it never was a fun time.

1340
00:54:13,070 --> 00:54:14,190
I think it was fun

1341
00:54:14,210 --> 00:54:18,170
maybe the first... six months.

1342
00:54:22,020 --> 00:54:23,160
[McKagan]: Mostly,
the music was great,

1343
00:54:23,180 --> 00:54:25,110
but I witnessed...

1344
00:54:25,130 --> 00:54:26,210
I saw this thing,

1345
00:54:26,230 --> 00:54:28,160
these kids coming in from the suburbs.

1346
00:54:28,180 --> 00:54:30,200
They'd shaved their head.

1347
00:54:30,220 --> 00:54:34,030
They got the mistaken information

1348
00:54:34,050 --> 00:54:37,070
that this was about white power,
or whatever,

1349
00:54:37,090 --> 00:54:39,130
and these gangs would start up,

1350
00:54:39,150 --> 00:54:41,080
and it came in, and it spread,

1351
00:54:41,100 --> 00:54:44,100
and it came in fast, and it was brutal.

1352
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:49,180
At a point, to me,
punk rock was over by '82.

1353
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:51,060
It was completely over,

1354
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:55,200
so whatever was going to be next
rock music-wise

1355
00:54:55,220 --> 00:54:57,130
was on our shoulders.

1356
00:54:57,150 --> 00:54:59,220
[♪♪♪]

1357
00:55:15,170 --> 00:55:16,220
[Kathleen Hanna]:
So I went to punk shows

1358
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:18,190
in Portland, Oregon,

1359
00:55:18,210 --> 00:55:20,110
where I went to high school,

1360
00:55:20,130 --> 00:55:23,030
just as, like, punk
had turned into hardcore,

1361
00:55:23,050 --> 00:55:25,170
and just became a bunch of guys
beating each other up.

1362
00:55:25,190 --> 00:55:27,030
[laughing]

1363
00:55:27,050 --> 00:55:28,050
I mean, it just felt like

1364
00:55:28,070 --> 00:55:31,120
we were supposed to, like,
eat up this music

1365
00:55:31,140 --> 00:55:34,210
that was so mean towards women.

1366
00:55:34,230 --> 00:55:38,070
I mean, everything was about
being a damaged male,

1367
00:55:38,090 --> 00:55:41,010
and how bad women
had injured these white men,

1368
00:55:41,030 --> 00:55:42,080
and blah, blah, blah,

1369
00:55:42,100 --> 00:55:44,080
and we were just
supposed to be, like, dancing,

1370
00:55:44,100 --> 00:55:46,070
and having so much fucking fun to it,

1371
00:55:46,090 --> 00:55:49,000
and I was just like...

1372
00:55:49,020 --> 00:55:50,190
realized that I had been trained.

1373
00:55:50,210 --> 00:55:52,090
I had been trained since I was born

1374
00:55:52,110 --> 00:55:55,090
to, like, just
lick that big fucking dick,

1375
00:55:55,110 --> 00:55:58,000
and I wasn't going to do it anymore,

1376
00:55:58,020 --> 00:55:59,220
and I wanted to just start talking about

1377
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:01,100
what was really happening,

1378
00:56:01,120 --> 00:56:05,060
which was that we were, like,
starving ourselves.

1379
00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:06,040
We were starving for art.

1380
00:56:06,060 --> 00:56:07,140
We were starving for music.

1381
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:11,180
We were starving
to expand punk to include us.

1382
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:14,160
I mean, I'm allowed to say
stuff like "dick" and "fuck,"

1383
00:56:14,180 --> 00:56:17,000
'cause this is, like,
a punk documentary, right?

1384
00:56:17,020 --> 00:56:19,150
[♪♪♪]

1385
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:26,090
[♪♪♪]


