Punk Turns 30

Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones Gibson Guitars liked this image so much they used on their site illustrating an interview with Jonesy! Ninety-four year old musical technology innovator and guitar hero, Les Paul passed away this week. The guitars that bear his name link him to my favorite genre of music. Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones played a Gibson Les Paul. Its an awesome solid-body guitar... heavy as can be... I should know. I've schlepped many a Gibson Les Paul in my day... once in the hot hot humid NYC summer of 1981, I carried Sham 69/Wanderers guitarist Dave Parsons 's black Gibson Les Paul in its flight case through JFK airport. The Wanderers rehearsing in LA - Stiv Bators, Dave Tregunna and Dave Parsons Another guitarist who played in a Stiv Bators-led band wielded the Gibson Les Paul as well -- George Cabaniss originally of Akron, OH's Hammer Damage, pictured below. Oh - and today is his birthday! Happy Birthday George! George Cabaniss during the recor...

Flyer by Dawn Wirth Andy Warhol coined that term "15 minutes of fame" and whether he was a visionary about the way of the postmodern world or whether he merely picked up on and articulated a fledgling phenomena, he had his finger on THEE meme of the 20th and now 21st Century. Everyone who wants to make a splash in the public eye is looking for that 15 minutes ... On August 6, we celebrate what would have been Andy's 81st birthday. It difficult for me to wrap my around the fact that my late mother was born just two years before Andy. They're in and of the same generation - but one rarely thinks of their mom as "hip" and "trendsetting," although my mother was an artist and fashion designer... she was also my mom, the disciplinarian... but I digress. Andy Warhol, in the 60s, mid-wifed the precursors of punk rock, The Velvet Underground. John Cale He was their patron and he designed that famous album cover with the banana - The Velvet Underground ...