These people don’t want someone like me, who they perceive to be a “faggot,” someone stripping down to an old ladies one piece bathing suit and someone is so utterly strange to represent the Chicago punk movement, even though I created it. Punk, like rock n roll, is a conformist art form. Not only did I create it in Chicago and helped to pioneer it worldwide, I attempted to blow the roof off of what people’s aesthetic limits and perceptions were, and I will continue to do so with my new art as well. I’ve come to accept that the same alienation that I wrote about is the same alienation I’ve met with by the art form I created in Chicago.

Remember, I didn’t just appear out of nowhere sometime in 1977. I started writing songs as early as 1969-1970, and creating the really edgy musical aspect of what I’ve done with Skafish as early as 1973. By February 1976 in Chicago, I was doing what you later saw me do in 1977. In the fall of 1976, Skafish did a two-month Chicago area tour which met with resistance and physical danger. The riot of 2-4-77 at the Arie Crown Theater Skafish caused in front of 6,000 people was written about in Billboard magazine. As you know, I first played CBGB’s in April 1977 which was written about in Variety magazine. I was the only Chicago punk artist from back then to receive national and international press, perform all over the US, in the UK and Europe and get an international record deal. So no one can claim that I was too obscure, as if I only played clubs in Chicago.

I started performing in Chicago almost a year and half before La Mere Vipere became a punk dance club in May 1977 and before any other punk bands were on the scene. People like to rewrite history as if fits their fancy. There are not enough credible journalists and musical historians in Chicago to police what is being said, so it’s a free for all. If someone wants to know the real truth, I’m easy to find. My band and I did not drink or do drugs, so we have crystal clear memoires of what really happened back then, but that means that the truth may not be what people emotionally want to hear.

Of course they’ll never be stupid enough to admit that they just don’t like me, as that makes them look non-credible. So they’ve just managed to write me off, or include me alongside a pack of bands starting in 1977 or 1978, as if I was just one of a bunch of bands. Gantry changed his wiki entries about me right around the time the film You Weren’t There came out. And of course, that film completely dismissed my musical contributions to Chicago, obviously, on purpose.

People like Cheap Trick, Miles Copeland, Bob Kurson, and George Gimarc of the Post Punk Diary books, know and speak the truth. For those who want the truth, I tell it, just like I’ve always done with my music. I like what writer Jake Austen said in his Time Out Chicago review of “What’s This? 1976-1979,” when he stated that I was too punk for Chicago. Jim Skafish

I missed this blog entry when it came out…but it reminds me of how much the brevity and inaccuracy of your punk wiki entry bugged me, and how i did plan to write a more comprehensive, accurate write-up to replace the one there. It is still on my to-do list! Noone who saw your very brave, confrontational performances back then would ever say you weren’t punk!

The wiki can be a wonderful resource,and Gantry, who runs it is to be commended for starting it, but it is reliant on geezers like me for input and accurate info…these young whippersnappers just weren’t there after all

and btw, I am glad you have nice things to say about Club Foot! !

You’re right, punk has been way too conformist. I knew that back then in 1976, and refused to limit my expression to what could “work.”

Thanks for your insightful comments!

Jim Skafish

I am so honored that you were there and for your irreplaceable contributions along with the rest of the band.

Of course it was overlooked, as things that are different often are. But what we shared was priceless.

I’ve thought of making it all into an opera or a musical! Let’s see where the ride goes and thanks so much for everything!

Jim Skafish

More importantly, an astute friend of mine enjoyed listening to What’s This this eveining, and asserted the music would make an incredible rock-opera, rock-musical, “Disgracing the Family Name”, (music by Jim Skafish). With “Rent” and “Jersey Boys” out there, why not a period piece about the 70’s’, about “Everyman” Jim Skafish? Autobiographical music, yet everyone can relate to it. There is a continuity in the compositions, tailor-made for Broadway, with the original compositions from the 70’s.

Just thought I would throw that out at you, Jim, however, I did respond that it is entirely possible that others would see the same potential , (and, need, if I might.)

Thank you for compiling the recordings, adding your commentary, and sharing with the world. It was an extraordinary time, extraordinarily personal expression on your/our part, and an important and over-looked facet of pop music history,

I again assert, playing music with you was among some of the finest music-making I have ever participated in. Literally.

Thank you and best to you always, Greg

But if one can distort the facts as it suits them, they don’t have to look like it’s their opinion, which of course, can be refuted. If it is presented as factual truth, then there’s more of a likelihood of people getting away with whatever.

Jim Skafish

And this whole “wiki” concept is for the birds, too, because anybody CAN just add any old thing they want, with no credentials. They should at least have to provide sources to be able to edit those things.

Jim Skafish

Thank you,
Justin