Many people take a lyric literally, as if their is no irony, metaphor, symbology, or alternate meaning to it. Often, as you know, there are many meanings for a song, not just what is on the surface. As I stated before, I always put myself in the role of the persecutor in certain songs, hopefully to have more impact.

With the discomfort you experienced at your shows, my heart goes out to you. I’m sure it was not pleasant to deal with!

With appreciation for your thoughts,

Jim Skafish

But one thing I came to realize later is how little control an artist has in how the content of music is understood and who is in the audience. A friend and I - both of us black - expressed our discomfort at the fact that skinheads would show up to watch (and dance to!) our respective bands.

The point was made even more plain when I read an article about some music festival in which the Dead Kennedys performed. The writer interviewed some kid, whom he described as “obviously missing the point” in commenting on the DK’s song Kill the Poor: “Yeah, kill the poor! Fuck ‘em!”

Thanks for your insights — I did slip between the roles of tormentor and tormented quite often. I loved doing that!

In Chicago, people more or less got that. It was when I was on the international stage that I started gleefully hearing from people that I was this mean spirited person who would make fun of people.

The strangest part of it was that these people were really angry with me that I wasn’t the persecutor — Hello? Look at the way I looked, LOL!

Jim Skafish

the way you could slip so effortlessly between the roles of tormenter and tormented in your stage shows was truly unique….