X – MARKS THE SPOT
(by Slimedog)
WE’RE DESPERATE
I play too hard when I ought to go to sleep
They pick on me ’cause I really got the beat
Some people give me the creeps
Every other week I need a new address
Landlord, landlord, landlord cleaning up the mess
Our whole fucking life is a wreck
We’re desperate, get used to it (x4)
Its kiss or kill
Coca-cola and a Motorola kitchen
Naugahyde and a tie-dyed t-shirt
Last night everything broke
We’re desperate, get used to it (x4)
Its kiss or kill
I play too hard when I ought to go to sleep
They pick on me ’cause I really got the beat
Some people give me the creeps
Every other week I need a new address
Landlord, landlord, landlord cleaning up the mess
Our whole fucking life is a wreck
We’re desperate, get used to it (x4)
Its kiss or kill
“We’re desperate, get used to it,” that’s the lyric. And I guess that could be taken in different ways. I take it as- Hey, look, we’re desperate, for money, for a place to live, but more importantly for a society that accepts and respects what we’re about- namely, truth, beauty and art. ”Aww, flush that down the toilet- we’re here to make some dough!”that’s what America says. But when they say, “We’re desperate, get used to it,” I take it as- “Look, we’re here, we are not going away. Nor are the people after us. You’ve created this impossible hell….congratulations! We’re going to be disturbed, upset, noisy and depressed about it. Not only us, but all intelligent and aware young people now and in the future on this planet. And we’re not going away. We can’t turn a blind eye to your decrepit dishonesty- we’re desperate, get used to it.
The fact is, no one sounds like X and no one ever will.
It’s not surprising when you consider the group’s unique beginnings, which can only be attributed to fate. On the same day with nearly the exact same wording, two want-ads appear in a local music rag. One was sent in by a guitarist named Billy Zoom, the other by bassist who called himself John Doe.
Zoom, a rockabilly rebel who’d performed with Gene Vincent, had read a negative review of a band called the Ramones. It said they only played three chords and they played ‘em too fast. So naturally, he went to see them. The show was at the Golden West Ballroom in the L.A. suburb of Norwalk in early ’77, and as soon as the Ramones started to perform, Zoom realized that, musically, he’d found exactly what he wanted to do with his life.
Doe, who was originally from the Baltimore area, was already down with the East Coast CBGB’s scene and by the time the two got in the same room together after responding to each other’s ads, it seemed it was meant to be. They performed a few shows with various drummers before a poet with no ambition of being a singer would enter the picture.
Doe found her in Venice Beach, at a poetry reading. He liked her poems so much he offered to perform them in his band. The poet, Exene Cervenka, had just moved to town from Florida and she told him, no offense, but if anyone was gonna perform her poems, it would be her, and she soon ended up in the band. Zoom was skeptical about someone’s girlfriend being in the band. After they did their first show with Exene, he didn’t know exactly what it was she had, but he knew it was magic.
After a succession of drummers, Doe was at the underground punk club the Masque in Hollywood one night, checking out a band called the Eyes, which featured a pre-Go-Go’s bass player named Charlotte Caffey. He called Zoom immediately and said he’d found their drummer. Doe told him he played with a parade snare and hit it hard as a hammer. Zoom told him to promise him anything. His name was D.J. Bonebrake and he quickly signed on. The band was now complete, and X would soon emerge from the young punk scene as one of its most successful offspring.
I’ve heard X referred to as “Literary Punk” and I think it’s a valid comment. Exene Cervenka (Vocals) and John Doe (Bass/Vocals) met in a poetry class. John, putting a band together, asked her if he could use her lyrics. She said, “Yeah, if you let me sing them.” There’s lots of literary references on their first album (which this article is covering), Johnny Hit and Run Pauline has William Burroughs references, “Nausea” is a novel by Jean Paul Satre, they cover Jim Morrison’s “Soul Kitchen” who considered himself a poet above all else.
And there’s a history of Los Angeles literature with Raymond Chandler, Nathaniel West and my favorite writer Charles Bukowski. Also, my second favorite writer, Jim Thompson spent his last decades here.
LOS ANGELES (a poem by Charles Bukowski)
there is an old saying:
that those who the gods wish to
destroy,
they first make
angry.
Driving the freeways
each day
it appears to me
that
the gods are getting
ready
to
destroy the entire
City
of
Angels.
L.A. Is this seedy, scummy city with a lot of tasteless trash- pornos, strip clubs. No real culture, no history, just transplants here. People who want to whore themselves to be a star is what mostly makes up L.A. But still some great bands out of there- X, The Doors, Fear, Guns and Roses along with the authors already mentioned. It’s kind of a mix of a placid, beautiful scenery, nice weather, beach atmosphere versus strip clubs, porno industry, phoney music and film industry with punk culture and metalheads hanging around it all.
Here they are from about three years ago, still kicking ass- but we can’t hear the naughty word anymore.
Although it got less attention than the scene in New York, the California punk scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s, specifically in L.A., was creating punk music that would be as influential and good as its East Coast cohorts. Here are 10 early songs you should know by heart.
X – “Los Angeles” (1980)
Formed in 1977, X, despite limited commercial success, is arguably the most influential band born of L.A.’s early punk scene. In fact, this song, featuring the dual vocals of Exene Cervenka and John Doe, was considered an anthem for L.A. from the moment it was released, and earned X an Official Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles in acknowledgment of their important contributions to Los Angeles music and culture.
One of X’s best songs is “Your Phone’s Off The Hook But You’re Not.” You gotta realize this is thirty years ago. Terminology and technology was different then. When X said, “Your Phone’s Off The Hook,” they we’re referring to a “land phone” that you could take off not to receive calls. And when they said, “But You’re Not,” that meant “you can not take my calls but you’re not getting off that easy.” Nowadays, “Off the hook,” means something or someone that’s really good. So now this same phrase means, “You’re phone is really good but you’re not!” I guess it works, either way.
And thirty years later, I’m still not off the hook- but X are!
You also have to realize that when these words of X were written the world WAS in a mess. It was turbulent times with people questioning the world they live in. And maybe even in a kiss, a sign of affection, the whole rotten world around came through like a bad aftertaste. But words like, “We’re desperate” and “The world’s a mess” only have nostalgic meaning now. Because we don’t live in a world where money has more value than anything and any person. We don’t live in a world where our health system is just another big business making money off people illness by keeping them ill. We don’t live in a world where our education system becomes more inadequate every day and is just another business with no greater goal. We don’t have a society where we’re told art is something you don’t need. So we don’t have any reason to be mad, discouraged, angry, pessimistic, nihilistic, sarcastic or afraid. That’s why we don’t have any punk bands, punk fans or websites. THERE IS NO NEED FOR PUNK BECAUSE THERE IS NO NEED FOR TRUTH.
But, hey, I could be mistaken.
L.A. (A poem by Slimedog)
L.A.
What does the letters mean to me?
L.A. Woman?
Yeah, The Doors- First band I loved
Charles Bukowsk
First writer I loved
It’s Hollywood
It’s palm trees and sunshine
Movie Stars and actors- impressive
Ah, not so much
I’ve been there
I’ve seen the tawdry decay
There’s the American dream
And the Hollywood one, too
And it’s as valid as the Hollywood stars
X, the band
Literary punk
Like Bukowski, like Chandler
The Hot Sun
Beats hotter here
Than in San Francisco
Too hippie up there
L.A.
It’s the end of America
Starts in Boston (My hometown)
And ends
Here
In the sea
L.A.
Where films are king
Just advertisements for the American dream
That never did exist
Porno’s industry’s big here
Likewise the music industry’s
Is there any surprise?
Illusions and delusions sold on a big scale, dreams for sale
Is there any surprise?
That the moral fall down
Superficial facelift America
Money is power, money is art
Phoney, baloney, laid back, hippie/yuppie
Bullshit, insincere, shallow
Lifestyle is America, is here
L.A
Where the dreams
Are Fake
As they are real
Take it as that
(And who cuts a slice through all of it?- X, marks the spot)
