Official Skafish Blog

A young aspiring songwriter that I know was so impressed with Led Zeppelin’s songwriting yet couldn’t figure out how they wrote their songs, so he recently asked me where these songs actually came from. As songwriters, we’ve all asked ourselves these questions: “Do songs come from us through our talents, thoughts, and emotions? Are the songs we write merely based on absorbing and assimilating ideas we’ve heard from others?” Many of us have asked, “Is it possible that songs come from a higher power?” Some of us, including music fans, just consider it to be an unanswered mystery.

First, I want to let all of you know that I am not some Johnny-come-lately who suddenly discovered spirituality. The reason I say this is because I recall a fun night I had at the Metro in Chicago in the late1980’s when Polygram Record’s executive and Chicago area native Billy Cox invited me to go with him to see one of his bands from England who was performing there. At the time, he was trying to get me signed to Smash Records, which used to be a very successful label decades earlier. Polygram had acquired ownership of the label and was resurrecting it and looking for Chicago talent to sign.

At the concert, I remember Billy hysterically joking with me about how big rock stars get bored with being multi-millionaire egomaniacs, suddenly find God, then dress in all white and start stupidly running off their mouths about spirituality which they know nothing or very little about.

Some of you may already know that I have been seriously studying metaphysics and spirituality consistently since I was 16 years old and I’ve been extensively trained by highly enlightened spiritual masters. To many, it was considered a campy joke when I listed credits on my first records for spiritual guidance, psychic assistance, and astrologers, as certainly no one was really doing that in the world of punk, new wave and indie.

However, I was dead serious – and I knew back then that most folks would not associate being a hard core rock n roller, (one who has even raised the eyebrows of those in the rock n roll community) with understating the laws of the universe, being able to talk freely to the spirits of the dead, prophetically seeing the future, karma, past lives, and knowing what happens to people when they die. However, for any of you who really know me, you’re probably aware that I have always defied generic classification and stepped outside of the limits of what an audience would be able to accept – and paid for it dearly, lol.

So as I began explaining the spiritual truth of where songs come from to this young songwriter, I also felt inspired to also share this with all of you as it is something that has been clear to me for decades, and a great source of inspiration.

I want you to first think of eternity and how big you can imagine that to be. Then, think of eternity being created by universal mind: the mind that originated, created and joins all (yes, even those of us who feel disconnected, alienated and angry). Then, think of how big that is, and imagine for a moment just how many songs could fit into that infinite space.

Even for those who are non-spiritual and consider it to be corny, remember that I’m the one who challenged organized religion by writing the first blatantly sacrilegious rock song in history with “Sign of the Cross.” So I differentiate between spirituality and organized religion in that one can exist with or without the other.

Keep in mind that physics proves that everything in this universe is interconnected. Whatever a child is doing in India right now affects what I’m doing in Chicago — in real time. So if you’re having a hard time with the “spiritual” part, think of the provable truth that physics teaches regarding connectedness.

In universal mind, there is a treasure trove of infinite masterpieces that are just waiting to be freely channeled and brought into physical manifestation to entertain, enjoy, offer emotional catharsis, promote connection, provide social commentary, lead, enlighten, heal, and bring about anything else you can imagine! The artist is simply the vehicle to bring this through and should do so with utter humility.

Regardless of one’s spiritual beliefs, writing a song is a transcendent spiritual process, whereby our higher self channels the song directly from universal mind where all ideas originate from by literally plugging into this consciousness and bringing it through themselves and into physical manifestation: therefore, a creation! It’s just like plugging your guitar into an amplifier and Voila! There is sound!

The more the artist “gets out of the way” by surrendering themselves (especially their ego), the purer and more universal the work is. When the artist interferes with the process through worry, doubt, feeling blocked, self criticism, to opening their energy then shutting down, the more their personal stuff pollutes the creation. Let the song lead you on a wondrous journey; not you try to lead the song. To whatever degree your mind and spirit is truly open, the more access you’ll have to this incalculable treasure trove of masterpieces just waiting to be channeled.

Often, different artists who don’t know each other simultaneously “plug into” the same or similar ideas that exist in universal mind. Have you ever noticed how exact or near exact song titles and ideas appear in songs at the same time? I have. This would be where the songs were created independently of each other without either party being able to hear the other’s creations, as these songs weren’t released yet on record.

Or have you ever noticed how certain styles manifest in different parts of the world at the same time independent of each other where artists have not heard each other yet? I experienced it first hand, when I started dreaming of a new revolutionary sound as early as 1973 and started bringing it into style, sound, concepts and songs, which ultimately gave birth to the Chicago punk movement in February 1976. The Ramones were doing it in New York. In England, it was happening with the Sex Pistols and others there. It was also brewing in Los Angeles and many other places throughout the world.

That, of course became punk, new wave, alternative, then indie. Remember, this was way before the internet where information was instantaneous. For example, I didn’t hear the Ramones until their debut album in August 1976, and they didn’t hear me till they saw me perform at CBGB’s in New York in April 1977. Of course, the pace things cross pollinated at then was far slower.

Back then, it wasn’t just that people were fed up with long air, extended guitar solos and that in and of itself changed the musical world forever. These new styles and songs that came into being have always been present in universal mind as linear time doesn’t exist there as it does here on earth. So when it was ready to occur on earth, these new sensibilities were released into the ether for artists to channel and provide to the world as part of the natural evolution, growth and innovation that occurs in the physical plane.

For artists to be a part of this utter magic of songwriting and creation, they need to build and keep their connection with universal mind. It’s of crucial importance to not sever that delicate, precious connection for even a moment by closing your mind and shutting down, engaging in criticism of others or condemning yourself. Celebrate everyone, everything and be grateful for all the ideas you’ve been given as they are free gifts! Whatever criticism you receive should not be internalized, and perhaps more importantly, don’t attach to praise or approval as that greatly weakens you.

Every artist must keep improving their skill sets, fine tuning the process and continuing to grow, as whatever degree one evolves, just gives them a wider access to this infinite treasure trove of great universal masterpieces. These divine gifts are freely given and freely received by us on earth – from the spiritual planes to the radio waves that blast it back into infinity. Each and every song is a gift — a moment of divine transcendence which will then continue to be shared and experienced by all who are touched by its creation.

From universal mind to the songwriters who channel the work to everyone who is touched by these creations, it is an eternal connection that transforms all of us. Think of the first time you heard a song that just blew you away: it could have been the Beatles, Elvis, or a one-hit wonder. I recall a friend of mine, a great blues guitarist and photographer named Keith Boyan who had been afflicted with polio before there was a vaccine. When we first met around 1975, I remember him telling me how he started spinning uncontrollably on the floor the first time he heard Little Richard and couldn’t stop. The power of Little Richard made someone who had polio move – and in that moment he felt healed.

When any of us have been touched by the utter magic of music (which is all of us), it lifts us above and beyond our five mundane, stuck, heavy and weighted down senses into the world far beyond. Just like the eagle that soars high into the heavens above the clouds: music is cathartic, joining, challenging, healing, connecting, freeing, empowering and more. Whether it’s death metal, a sweaty blues riff, a protest song, a gospel hymn or anything else, it is exactly the same as it all comes from the same spiritual source.

That is what songs are all about as they “plug you in” and get you outside of yourself. They take you above to where you’ve never been before to somewhere magical, other-worldy and transcendent: physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. You’re entire being gets lit up! Whether it’s Keith Boyan spinning on the floor to the great Little Richard, a teenager in their room pretending to be Mick Jagger, a young girl crying to a love song that touches her deeply, or a stadium of people at a concert unified joyously, songs are the one thing that cross all social, cultural, religious and racial barriers — all divides, and every sense of primitive tribal human prejudice there is. The “song” forever unlocks every single door – and sets us free.

October 18th, 2009
Categories: Musings . Author: Skafish . Comments: 2 Comments

In less than 5 minutes, you can help to stop hunger and it won’t cost you a penny. Here’s all you have to do: Go to this webpage, The Hunger Challenge and you will see a list of hunger facts and suggested tweets. Then, just tweet (on Twitter) one of the facts listed on the page and 100 pounds of food for each tweet (a total of 100,000 pounds) will be donated to the San Francisco Food Bank by Tyson Foods for all of September 2009. It is literally that simple.

My longtime associate and partner, Glinda Harrison, wrote a wonderful blog entry about this last night and made me aware of this program. Therefore, I immediately felt compelled to let everyone know ASAP since we’re near the end of the month and running out of time for this great opportunity.

Hunger is something that has touched my life, as not only have my band, associates and I lived through it, but the current government statistics reveal that 1 in every 8 Americans is hungry. That is just too shocking of a figure to be tolerated, especially from what is called “the richest country in the world.”

I would hope that something so fundamental and universal as hunger would motivate everyone to act, regardless of whether they’ve lived through it directly or not. When I heard about this program last night, I started flashing back through the memories of some of my band members and associates who have had to send their children to bed without food, and I recalled the fear, desperation and hopelessness that we graphically experienced. 

In 1982-1983, I remember all of us frantically scraping together change to put gas in the car to be able get to the studio to record the second Skafish album and then eating the cheapest McDonald’s hamburgers we could all afford. Over a decade later, I was so broke and just a few steps away from being out on the street when my former band member Barbie Goodrich ordered a pizza for me on my birthday in 1994 because I hadn’t been able to afford one for years. In the same way I’ve written songs to try and directly confront and heal my pain, these memories I’ve mentioned here provide me with the motivation to make a difference!

Yet, what I’ve been through is not what’s important here, as many of us have suffered. What matters is that we can all do something to help others now! So make sure that you take the less than 5 minutes needed immediately and help to feed those who literally don’t have enough food to survive. This is not just about “pie in the sky” good will, but about living and dying – and you can make a difference! 

Thanks so much for your time and effort!  It is greatly appreciated!  Jim

September 22nd, 2009
Categories: News . Author: Skafish . Comments: 2 Comments

I wanted to let everyone know that the Chicago Reader did a story about the re-release of Urgh! A Music War by Warner Brothers in which I was interviewed and quoted.  The article came out in print yesterday and posted online today, 9-3-09.  Here is the link if you want to check it out: http://bit.ly/6MggL

Also, you might enjoy this rarely seen promotional lobby card originally used to promote Urgh! back in 1981. It is from my personal memorabilia collection (Click the image to enlarge the photo):

As always, feel free to let me know what you think!  Jim Skafish

September 3rd, 2009
Categories: News . Author: Skafish . Comments: No Comments

Once again, the strange and twisted saga of the film Urgh! A Music War logs another installment in its nearly 30 year history, as Warner Brothers films has released it as a made for order DVDR from their website on August 4, 2009. 

I’m sure that many of you will be excited to finally see this legendary live concert film re-released, but from the point of view of someone who has been in the film, I have a more complex perspective about all of this.  Even though it’s Warner Brothers releasing the film as opposed to bootleggers, it may not be a legal release to begin with.

There are at least two factors that come into play: First, the original contracts with all of the artists only allowed Urgh! to be released in the physical formats that existed at that time.  As inept as this may sound, there were no standard provisions written into those original contracts to allow for the film to be released in any all formats available now and those that would be created in the future. 

Therefore, new contracts would need to be renegotiated with each of the artists to allow the film to be legally released. With Klaus Nomi and Lux Interior of The Cramps already dead and 33 total acts in the film, getting everyone to sign off would be quite problematic for sure.  For me, I would have no problem signing off, as I would be elated to see things done correctly.

In addition, all of the intellectual property/copyright owners of the film (besides Warner Brothers) include at least Michael White, Derek Burbidge, and Miles Copeland.  They, presumably, would all need to agree to this release as well.  So to make sure what was really going on with all of this, I decided to call Miles Copeland on Friday, August 7, 2009.  His office told me that they had not heard anything at all about Urgh! being released by Warner Brothers.

As of this writing, I have not been contacted by Warner Brothers or anyone else involved in the project either.  I would be willing to bet that Warner Brother’s lawyers simply advised the company to just put it out and hey, if they get sued, just take it down off the internet.

On top of the legal issues brewing here is the fact that Warner Brothers indicated right on their website that they have not remastered the film, or done anything to insure it being of the highest quality possible.  They stated that all they did was take the best tape copy they had which will be dubbed onto each DVDR order that comes through.  So they spend no money and can perhaps make a lot of money without paying any out.  How clever and corporate! 

This film may not mean anything to them, but because of how big they are, I would expect more from a major film company such as Warner Brothers regarding a release of Urgh!: Remastering the footage, and remixing the audio into 5.1 surround sound would be great.

The original release of Urgh! A Music War only featured one song by each artist, with the exception being The Police, who appeared at the beginning and at the end of the film. However, back in 1980, three songs were actually filmed by each artist and hopefully, the inclusion of all three numbers would help to offer a richer package.  Also, wouldn’t it be great to interview everyone who was involved in the project to put the film in perspective?  Now that could make a worthwhile release on DVD — not DVDR.

With this new less than stellar release, it underscores the many problems that have plagued Urgh! for decades.  The origins of the project date back to 1980, when various cutting edge acts were filmed performing live in several locations throughout the world, including London, France, New York, and various parts of California. 

My band and I were filmed in Frejus, France on August 28, 1980 in an ancient Christian Coliseum in front of 20,000 people.  For us, it was perfect:  The first blatantly sacrilegious rock song ever written being performed in an ancient Christian coliseum and in gorgeous sunlight which made our segment look like a Catholic Holy Card!  We couldn’t have been luckier.

At the time, Skafish was on tour with Sting and the Police, XTC, UB-40, Squeeze, and U2 and everything seemed possible in that moment.  When the film was theatrically released in 1981, Skafish appeared twice in the original edit: performing Sign of the Cross, and appearing in the film’s finale on the song So Lonely with Sting and the Police, members of XTC, UB-40 and Jools Holland.  When it was first released theatrically in 1981, the film clocked in at 124 minutes.  Also, the soundtrack double LP was released on A&M Records – and for just a few years, everything regarding Urgh! seemed good.

However, the film was only in release for a short time and after it went out of circulation, bootleggers took it upon themselves to blatantly and aggressively pirate copies, making up to hundreds of dollars of profit per copy. They even posted erroneous information all over the internet to justify their thievery that because Urgh! had fallen into the public domain, it was ok for them to do this, which is absolutely not true. 

Then, they attacked me for trying to stop some of them, as if I was the ogre of Urgh! simply because I didn’t want them ripping off the artists who made this film what it is.  These greedy parasites claimed to be so about punk (like “Hey man, this film is for the people so let’s get it out there for everyone”).  However, at $80.00 per DVDR sold plus S&H, they were so about profit – not about punk.  One of them even tried to cut me in on the profits if I would just go along with the scam, which of course, I didn’t consider.

Yet another icky twist occurred in recent years when the film was censored and cut down to 98 minutes when being shown on VH1 and The Sundance Channel.  The Cramps number Tear It Up, and the Skafish number Sign of the Cross, both considered too controversial for television, were edited out.  Being left out of the film that I helped to champion was of course, a very hard pill to swallow.

So when I received an email on August 6, 2009 from someone who wanted to let me know that Warner Brothers had just released Urgh! on their website, I certainly had lots of mixed emotions.  If I wasn’t in this current release, that hurts because of being left out; and if I was in it, then there’s all of these questionable legal issues.  It’s not about money for me at all; it’s about the principle of things simply being fair for all concerned.

Still, out of curiosity, I wanted to see if The Cramps, Skafish, and everyone else from before was in the film, so I purchased my own copy.  At almost $27.00 including S&H, I got it in the mail a couple of days ago on Thursday, 8-13-09.  When I opened the package, the cover of the DVDR box has some silly, random picture I’ve never seen before of a punk, club, new wave looking kid and the package has nothing but a DVDR in it.  On the back cover is a short, meaningless written blurb with basic credits, so the package is unimpressive, to say the least.

When I put in the DVDR, the only menu features are the original trailer and the film.  Each performance is not a separate scene, but instead, one has to select the scenes in 10 minute intervals, so finding your favorite act is not that easy to do. 

So as I began watching the film, it was more like watching an old home movie for me: “Klaus is in,” I fondly noted.  When Miles Copeland stayed at my tiny apartment in the spring of 1983, he told me that Klaus Nomi had died of AIDS – I barely knew what AIDS was back then. 

“Even Gary Numan is in.  I thought I heard that he didn’t want to be in the movie anymore,” I said. 

“Oh!  There’s Lux – The Cramps are in it!  Good for Lux.  I remember performing with the Cramps at CBGB’s in 1977,” I recalled. 

“It’s Sign of the Cross — My nose, it looks so huge! It’s all over the screen — I love it – Larry’s drumming is so phenomenal and Barbie’s having her religious seizure — Go Barbie!” I cheered.

“There’s Sting and me on So Lonely – I actually threw fruit into the audience – I didn’t remember that…. Oh my God, Sting is smiling and he seems so much happier then!” I noted. 

So it seems that all of the original acts, including The Cramps and Skafish are in this release.  The picture quality is good (although I did watch it on an HDTV) and the sound seemed adequate.

However, in all of my momentary excitement, I knew that the mixed emotions were bound to creep up on me pretty soon, so I just went on about my day and tried to live in the moment.  After all, it’s almost 29 years to the day that I was first filmed for Urgh! and what has happened since regarding this film has not always been pleasant to deal with, both artistically and from a business perspective.

So, now it’s Saturday evening, and I’ve been emotionally up and down, yet I refuse to wallow in the past; so as I’ve done my entire artistic career, I’ll find a way to do something positive with this energy like writing some new songs.  I’ve always said that if I had the money, I would get everything worked out correctly regarding a proper and exciting release of Urgh! and pay for it myself.

However, for now, I can take comfort in knowing that the number my band and I performed for Urgh! A Music War was beyond the pale, tremendously courageous, and a musically/theatrically flawless performance of great artistic triumph.  For that and the experience itself, I am forever grateful.

August 15th, 2009
Categories: News . Author: Skafish . Comments: 56 Comments

The most beautiful web search engine experience yet. Here’s what I got when I searched for Skafish: http://www.spezify.com/#/skafish

July 12th, 2009
Categories: News . Author: Skafish . Comments: 1 Comment

Chicago’s O’Hare International airport became the launching pad for You Tube’s newest video sensation. Just posted this past Tuesday (July7, 2009) on the same day as Michael Jackson’s Los Angeles memorial, the song United Break Guitars by Canadian musician Dave Carroll has already had over 2 million views.

When Dave Carroll, a member of the folk rock group Sons of Maxwell was changing flights in Chicago to reach his destination from Halifax to Nebraska, a fellow passenger noticed that the baggage handlers were literally tossing guitars outside of the airplane. Carroll’s valuable Taylor acoustic guitar which he had recorded 8 albums with was among the casualties, and when he met up with his guitar, he thought it was completely destroyed.

So what did he do? First, in trying to get fair compensation from United Airlines for over a year, he was predictably denied and given the run around. In the midst of that frustration, Carroll spent $1,400.00 dollars to have his main axe repaired, but it still doesn’t play right.

So like any good artist, he wrote a protest song about it, and shot a video in a mere 12 hours with his friends. The result: You Tube gold. Carroll has seen an avalanche of Facebook friends requests, and even an offer for an interview from Oprah Winfrey.

So now, amidst all the fuss, United Airlines is changing their tune (obviously due to the bad publicity), and is trying to “work” with Mr. Carroll so that he is fairly compensated. As Dave himself said, “Every musician wants to get their stuff out there. I just didn’t necessarily expect it to happen in this way.”

Like Carroll, almost every musician can tell you a horror story about catastrophes that happen while travelling on the road. As I’m writing this, I can recall a few personal incidents that were quite hellish at the time: our equipment never made it from London to Ireland when touring with the Police in 1980, and the semi truck that carried the gear on that same tour overturned in France, leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere for 12 hours.

What Dave Carroll has done is to use music and video to make a social statement, as this is something I’ve always tried to do myself as an artist. Plus, Mr. Carroll did it with humor and grace, which is quite hard to do when you’ve been as wronged as he had been. In addition, he promised United Airlines to write a trilogy of three songs about this incident, so there are two more pieces to come. Hopefully, he can turn this very unfortunate event into bringing him a larger audience for his work – even if it happened in the most unusual of ways.

July 11th, 2009
Categories: News . Author: Skafish . Comments: 4 Comments

With Michael Jackson’s death, we see how the attention span of pop culture regarding entertainment “history” is just centered in the ever fleeting moment of what is considered (and how I hate this word) “relevant” at the time. What’s considered “relevant” is what those who are talking about “history” can relate to. That usually pertains to someone or events that are current, as it’s all about “Now!”

Remember that America is a country that replaces grand old magnificent architecture with generic shopping malls and cheap pre-fab construction, which is also “Now!” So on cable “news” television shows where the question is asked, “Who’s the greatest and biggest entertainer of all time?” I’m sure we can all guess who wins that pseudo-historical contest: Michael Jackson. Because he just died, and with all the fanfare surrounding his passing, Michael predictably wins the top vote over the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

What’s even more disingenuous than Jackson being rated higher than the Beatles or Presley without any analysis of factual historical data to back it up, is that just a few years ago, I heard scores of musical critics referring to Jackson as not being “relevant” any longer. Oh geez. He was yesterday’s news because he didn’t sing through vocoder pitch correction like Chris Brown, or shoot anybody and/or get shot, like a rapper. But suddenly, because his death is a sensationalized media event with all of the obligatory controversy needed to boost ratings, he is now once again deemed, “relevant.”

Even though Jackson holds the records for the biggest selling album of all time with Thriller, both Elvis Presley and the Beatles have had more number one records than Michael. In total, both Presley and the Beatles have sold more records as well. But let’s put all three of them aside for a moment and look at two other factors in the debate of who is king.

There are two other major 20th century phenomenons who have been forgotten in this supposedly historical media analysis of who’s the biggest and the greatest – and those two are Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Most of you could probably buy Frank Sinatra as a contender for the crown, but Bing Crosby!?!

I bet some of you are not even sure who Bing Crosby actually is, except that he’s the guy who sang White Christmas, which by the way, was the only song to ever enter the American pop charts 20 separate times, from 1942 to 1962. Before I lay the true stats on you, let me say that I am not particularly a fan of Bing Crosby’s, but I am a fan of Michael Jackson.

As I Tweeted on Twitter a few days ago, Michael and I share the same birthday and we grew up only ten minutes apart. Plus, when my father was the president of the local musicians union, he booked the Jackson’s for some shows long before Michael become famous. Energetically, I have always felt a connection with Jackson.

However, separate from my likes and dislikes, I am passionate about wanting entertainment/musical history to be told accurately, which is something that hardly ever happens. I’ve witnessed it personally being done to me, especially in Chicago, where revisionist history is at a shocking high. My own historically provable contributions to musical history have been attempted by many to be erased in Chicago, or at the very least, greatly trivialized.

First, in real history, not pop culture history, Bing Crosby was the king of entertainment in the first half of the 20th century and can arguably be considered the top entertainer of all time. He was the first to ever be a major force in the development of three emerging mediums back then: recordings, movies, and radio broadcasting. Crosby conquered all three and merged them together.

Simply as a recording artist alone, it is estimated that Crosby made over 2000 commercial recordings, which is far more than any other singer in history – even 400 more than Sinatra. With 38 number one records to his credit, Bing scored more number ones than anyone else in the 20th century. From 1927 and 1962, he scored 368 charted records under his own name, with an added 28 as a vocalist with various bandleaders, for a grand total of 396. With Sinatra at 209, Elvis with 149, and the Beatles having 68, no other artist even remotely can compete with Crosby. By 1980, Bing had sold 400 million records, and the number has greatly increased since then to over a half a billion. In addition to that statistic alone is that most of those sales occurred when the world was infinitely less populated and the recording industry was far smaller than during the times of Presley, the Beatles, and especially the heyday of Michael Jackson in the 1980’s.

As a film actor, Bing has sold an estimated one billion, seventy-seven million tickets, and is rated as the third most popular film actor ever, behind Clark Gable and John Wayne. Crosby was an Academy Award best actor nominee three times and won once. He introduced 14 Academy Award nominated songs and won for 4, which is more than any other film star ever. From the years of 1915 to 1980, he was the only film actor to be the number one annual box-office attraction five times, while between 1934 and 1954 he appeared in the top ten 15 times. A staggering 29 of the 55 feature films in which he starred between 1932 and 1971 placed in the top-10 grossing pictures of the year.

As a radio star, Bing’s radio show attracted an audience of 50 million, which was simply unheard of. (Again, remember that the world was less populated then.) He appeared on approximately 4000 radio broadcasts, with nearly 3400 of them being his own programs. From 1931 until 1954 on network, and from 1954 until 1962 in syndication, Crosby was a major radio star longer than any other performer in history.

He was also the first person to have radio broadcasts recorded to tape, and was even taken to court by NBC for doing so. After Bing won that court battle, other entertainers began doing the same thing and recorded their own radio shows, which then became an industry standard. Billboard magazine referred to Bing’s daring move and subsequent victory to be the most important entertainment story since the invention of talking pictures.

So popular was Crosby, that during the Second World War, he raised an unequaled $14,500,000 in war bonds and also raised millions for charity by creating the first and longest running celebrity pro-am golf championship, where he played host for 35 years.

So, if we look at the stats, Bing Crosby should certainly be considered the king of entertainment, surpassing Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles and Michael Jackson. So why isn’t he universally considered to hold that crown?

It’s because that as an icon, he was already an older man when he died in 1977, unlike Elvis, Jackson or John Lennon, who all died young, and people hardly look back through time to find the truth. There’s always the sense that those who identify with and relate to a time period want to immortalize THAT period, as they feel it belongs to them – and that means making their icon or icons the biggest and the best, even when it isn’t historically accurate. Hypothetically, if their idol is the biggest and the greatest, they can vicariously be a part of that number one position as well. So, just as I’ve experienced in Chicago, people make up history as they go along which is designed to suit their fancy, and if enough people say something, then it becomes perceived as fact.

Keep in mind that Sinatra and Crosby must be considered in any accurate debate over who’s the biggest entertainer of the 20th century, not just the names of Elvis, the Beatles, and Jackson. With all of these legends, they have had an incalculable impact on culture in similar and varying ways and have changed the world at large. However, defining and quantifying that impact is somewhat a matter of opinion, and unfortunately, a popularity contest.

If you’re a fan of Jackson’s, then he’s the best and vice versa with Elvis. Again, I’m not a particular fan of Bing Crosby’s even though I respect his greatness and talents. But in this media circus regarding Michael Jackson’s death where history may be revised once again, someone needs to advocate for the historical facts – and if we look at what is provable, Bing Crosby wins that contest, hands down.

What is so unfortunate to me is that the very definition of the term “history” is supposed to deal with what happened long before as it actually occurred, not just now or in recent memory — and revised to suit people’s fancies at that. As our culture becomes ever more opinionated, disposable, fickle, and immediate, the sense of accurate, dispassionate entertainment history becomes more and more lost to the sensationalistic, inaccurate media explosions and exaggerations of the moment.

Bing Crosby statistics from bingcrosby.com

July 3rd, 2009
Categories: Current Events . Author: Skafish . Comments: 21 Comments

I wanted to let everyone know that I just lost my virginity a few moments ago on Twitter by posting my first Tweet, and feel free to follow me there if you would like. Click on this link www.twitter.com/skafish to sign up!

The challenge for me is going to be to try and say something worthwhile and relevant with only 140 characters per message. It’s sort of like trying to squeeze a symphony into a 3-4 minute pop song. I think I’ve already done that and bet I can again! Skafish

June 27th, 2009
Categories: News . Author: Skafish . Comments: 4 Comments

At around Midnight a few days ago on Tuesday, April 14^th, 2009, I happened to notice a news story on CNN about an 11 year old boy named Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover from Massachusetts, who had been taunted, bullied and harassed daily for almost one year straight because he was perceived as gay.  Days before he would have turned 12 on April 17, unable to take it any longer, Carl committed suicide by hanging himself with an electrical cord in his home.

At the time, his mother was cooking dinner, and when Carl didn’t come downstairs from his third floor bedroom to eat, his mother went upstairs to find out why.  To her indescribable shock and horror, she lived every parent’s worst nightmare when she found her son.  Immediately, she cut the electrical cord with a knife given to her by her daughter, Carl’s sister, to try and free her son, but it was too late.  He was dead.

All of the torture, abuse, threats, names and relentless bullying got the best of him, and as no one at the school or any authorities came to his defense in any meaningful way, Carl couldn’t take it anymore.  He was an African American boy who dreamed of growing up, becoming President one day and changing the world – but those dreams are forever gone.

According to the story, his mother, a woman who had survived breast cancer and homelessness, called the school every week, pleading for them to intervene and do something to stop this and protect her son; and of course, as usual, the school didn’t do enough to protect Carl.  Predictably, the school tried to defend itself with some prepared official media statement designed to exonerate themselves of any wrongdoing which was probably drafted by a lawyer.  Why?  Because now they really do care; not about the safety and life of Carl Hoover, but about getting sued.

I felt such a rush of sadness, emotional grief, and tears, not only for him, but for so many people who have been so relentlessly tortured, bullied, harassed and abused.  Some have committed suicide as they felt there was no way out, while so many others have even been murdered – all because of perceived sexual orientation, and gender identity.

When I heard Carl’s story, it was painfully easy for me to relate to, as I’ve been through it myself as well: from the kids on the playground constantly making fun of me, alienating and abusing me, to junior gang bangers chasing me home threatening me with knives in grade school.

In high school, I was harassed daily by students and teachers alike. I remember the high school band teacher choking me on an out of town choral band trip while everyone just stood there casually and watched.

When I was playing piano accompanying talent show singers at a high school talent show, the football jocks kept slamming the lid that covered the piano keys on my fingers to try and break my fingers while I was playing.  Here’s how it went: they’d slam the lid down, I pulled my fingers back just in a knick of time, then they did it again, and so on, till I eventually slipped and fell off the riser I was on.  The fall gave me a serious bleeding gash on my leg – enough to get stitches, but as you would probably expect, I kept playing.  Even back then, the show must go on was my motto and creed.  Later I found out the wound did indeed need stitches, but it was too late for that, so the scar remains, as do so many from that time period.

Emotionally, psychologically, physically and systematically, I lived through this abuse virtually every day I was in school — and I never threatened, harassed or physically hurt anyone else — ever.  So no, I didn’t deserve it as some people have cynically said, merely just because people didn’t like me for being different, a “faggot,” or because I was considered annoying or strange.  One moronic local even had the audacity to recently post a blog that it was my strangeness that actually killed my father, who transitioned into spirit when I was just 15 years old.

Upon graduating high school, I thought I could live my life as I wanted, and be forever free of this abuse, but I quickly learned how that wasn’t true when someone pulled a gun on me in a Hammond, Indiana White Castle hamburger joint parking lot because my friends and I looked so strange.  This person didn’t pull the trigger thankfully, but just stood there pointing the gun and laughing at me for a while, then he smugly walked away.

I had the same shocking disappointment again when I entered the world of rock ‘n’ roll, as I naively thought that rock ‘n’ roll housed the disenfranchised.  Again, I thought the abuse would finally end – but it didn’t at all.  It was just now done by narrow-minded vicious audiences and critics, as rock ‘n’ roll is a tremendously conformist art form and not a place for real misfits, but only for “acceptable” ones.  Being just a smidgen different is hailed as brilliant, but if you’re really out there like I’ve been, you’re in trouble.

Where do you think the ideas came from to write such songs as Knuckle Sandwich, Joan Fan Club, and No Liberation Here?  They were written from a lifetime of horrible personal experiences and a sense of the never ending pain and terror that one only knows if they’ve lived through it or seen someone they love experience it like Carl Hoover’s mother and sister did.  I frequently receive emails from people as young as early teenagers who have been touched by the message of my work, sharing their stories of alienation, social ostacization and abuse wilth me.   

In Knuckle Sandwich, I say the words that people use to taunt me with:

Hey little boy you want a sandwich to eat
It can make your mouth flow
and it tastes pretty neat
I can feel good when I feed you some food
You’re gonna eat my knuckle sandiwich on white 
Can’t throw a football you don’t know how to fight

Your legs are thin and your arms of flab
And your stomach is mush
and you walk like a fag
Don’t come around I’m gonna give it to you
You’re gonna eat my knuckle sandwich on white
Can’t throw a football you don’t know how to fight
©Copyright 1976

With Joan Fan Club, I put myself in the role of the tormentor in the song.  Journalists knew that the piece was autobiographic by proxy, but there were some “fans,” who actually thought that I was just some asshole rock star getting off on making fun of someone for being fat.  Remember, I was the one who was abused — never the abuser.  This was just my very singular artistic way of writing protest songs.

I knew the composition was a social statement that needed to be said, and that it would be relevant decades later, as proven today where the cultural obsession with females being thin is probably at it’s all time highest.

However, I had no idea who painfully prophetic and close to home the song would one day hit.  In recent years, a young boy committed suicide with his father’s gun because of being tormented at school for being different and fat.  His father is a friend of mine I grew up with who used to listen to the very early Skafish band rehearse, and is now a local police officer.  I remember going to the wake in support of him and his son.

The lyrics to Joan Fan Club mirrored this exact kind of bullying:

Hey fat pig we’re gonna push you down the stairs
That’s right, we’re gonna touch your little pizza face
Fat! Hey fatty, you’re a real fox
You know the whole school wants to go out with you
Can I have your autograph?
©Copyright 1977

No Liberation Here was written for people like Carl Hoover and those who have been murdered, or were tormented to the point of feeling that they needed to commit suicide, for being perceived as gay, “acting gay,” being gay, or not manly by our archaic cowboy culture standards:

We don’t have a right
No liberation here
We can’t walk the streets now
Our faces get beat now
We will not pretend
that we have real rights
Here prison does not need bars
Bloodshed today and we know it will not change
We live in shame
©Copyright 1977

Back in the 1970’s, many in the world of rock music accused me of whining about my fucked up shitty little life, and furthermore, who the fuck cares anyway, they mocked.  Of course they’d say that – they didn’t suffer in the same way I did, so they have no empathy.  But I wasn’t just writing about me – it also represented the overwhelming social issues that I clearly saw that hardly anyone else noticed, and I wrote those pieces as modern protest songs.  Back then, I saw the present for what it really was, and I psychically saw how it would evolve in the future.  I knew over thirty years ago that the brief and seemingly real freedom that was enjoyed if the 1970’s was not going to change anything in the long run or last.  In fact, I knew it would get much worse – and it did.

I have the battle scars to prove it, but thankfully, I’m alive and well, so I’m not complaining.  But unfortunately, what happened to Carl Hoover happens all too often, and the list of those who have lost their lives to suicide and murder for these reasons is too long to mention here.

And it speaks to something much bigger than just one child who unnecessarily and tragically lost his life.  It reflects on the tremendous hypocrisy of America.  If Carl Hoover was bullied for being black, and called the “N” word, there would have been tremendous outcry and swift action taken against anyone would have even uttered such a word.

But of course in this culture, it’s still ok to attack, harass, discriminate, taunt, physically assault and even murder someone for being perceived as gay.  Keep in mind, he wasn’t a young man who ever identified himself as being gay – it was merely the perception that he “acted gay” that did him in – meaning, he didn’t talk like a junior thug and had a more feminine demeanor, which in our cowboy culture, is the ultimate sin.

And one might ask how a country that prides itself on freedom and equality for all is so terribly hypocritical, where gender orientation and sexuality is still such a hot button?  Fortunately, at least there seems to be some awareness and sensitivity regarding racial discrimination and people with disabilities, but even in those areas, there is still a very long way to go.

If the school officials and proper authorities would have acted to protect Carl Hoover in the way they should have and could have done, he would still be alive today.  According to one report, right before his suicide, a girl threatened to beat him up and kill him, and the school’s solution was to make Carl and the girl eat lunch together for several days to “work it out.”

There are several factors that spell out America’s hypocrisy quite clearly:  First, religion plays a huge part in all of this.  With the Christian right morphing Jesus Christ into the ultimate homophobic hit-man, anyone who is perceived as gay (therefore labeled as gay), is ok to attack.  We all hear religious zealots citing the “Word of God” as explaining why it’s ok to discriminate, hate, and even murder.  Have you ever seen the posters that say, “God hates fags?”  Well supposedly, if God said it, then it is a fact, just like the sun rises in the morning.

But there is no way of really proving that God ever said any of this.  People assume that their religious beliefs are irrefutable facts.  And even within the different groups of those who do believe, there are so many variations on such ideologies, that it is ludicrous to simply use the “Word of God” as the justification for such attitudes and actions.  But religion is a terribly powerful and damaging force in this instance as it incites hysteria and mindless action in the masses who don’t think for themselves.

Secondly, we live in a culture that embraces and celebrates the worst and darkest sides of masculinity: men who are violent, ruthlessly powerful, greedy and rich, recreationally cheating on their wife or girlfriend as a validation of their manhood, sexually promiscuous with lots of “hot babes” who are used and dismissed, and asserting controlling, domineering behavior.

To be perceived as gay is to be viewed as weak, effeminate, someone not manly, and ultimately less than a real man.  So just as dogs attack the weaker of the pack to assert primitive dominance, the same thing happens to those who are perceived as gay.  They are attacked verbally, physically and on all levels.

Third, many people are consciously or unconsciously afraid of what might be lurking within their own sexuality.  They might fear that they have gay tendencies and that it’s like a cancer growing within them.  So by hating, it means that they’re normal, manly and a regular guy.  Since many are not as comfortable with their own sexuality as they pretend to be, their internal insecurities become hot buttons and are turned around on others who don’t represent male stereotypes as it holds up a mirror.

Boys who are young are especially sensitive about these issues, because they’re understandably insecure in their own sexuality and manhood, only beginning to come into their own male identity, and filled with fear.  So it gets projected outward and onto someone who can be perceived as gay.

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover paid the ultimate price for other’s insecurities and hatred thrust upon him, and he took his own life because of it.  How many more times will someone die before our primitive society grows up and simply allows people to live in freedom and peace?

Most of us have all heard of the Matthew Shepard story, who was a 21 year old student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and subsequently murdered in October 1998, near Laramie, Wyoming.  This was all done for only one reason – because he was gay.

Another example of this heinous type of torture was the murder of 15 year old Lawrence King, an eighth grader in California who came out as being gay and wore makeup and nail polish.  He was shot in his school classroom by a 14 year old fellow student and died in February 2008.

Forget the illusion that the entertainment field and pop culture presents: that everyone is happily living in harmony together: gay, bisexual, straight, transgender, the weird folks side by side laughing with the normal folks, tra la la.

If you’re perceived as gay, “act gay,” or are gay, the reality, as it stands now, is that your job, reputation, social standing, property, legal rights, physical safety and actual life are still all at risk in America.

For more information on how to stop the bullying, here are some valuable websites:

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network:

http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html

Resources for stopping bullying:

http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/

http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp?area=main

In the uk:

http://www.beatbullying.org/?gclid=CPfa2ZfG-ZkCFQENDQodjCinEQ

© 2009 Jim Skafish 

April 19th, 2009
Categories: Current Events . Author: Skafish . Comments: 16 Comments

As an artist who has pushed many an envelope in my career, I have been on the receiving end of vicious personal attacks, always disguised as legitimate criticism. Wouldn’t it have to be? If it is admitted to be merely a personal attack, the “criticism” loses all credibility or ability to be taken even remotely seriously. I get that…But would any of you think that Bruce Springsteen has recently had to face the same type of personal attacks — not from a critic – but from his own audience that paid to see him perform live?

What really shocked me, more than the hits I’ve taken, is a blog entry  I just read a few days ago, which talked about how Bruce Springsteen used to get booed at his own concerts by his own fans who paid a lot of money to see him during the Bush years. This was because Bruce’s political views were the opposite of the Bush administration’s, and when he would voice his own political views or sing songs that represented them, HIS audience loudly expressed their disapproval and booed him, as Bruce’s audience obviously endorsed the politics of Bush and all he stood for at the time.

So it goes to show that anyone who has ever created any kind of art gets attacked, even blue collar regular guy everyman Bruce Springsteen, (not just someone wearing old ladies’ one piece bathing suits and sprinkling audiences with authentic blessed Catholic holy water like me). I felt empathy for Bruce, especially because this was HIS audience doing this, not just some critic.

One personal attack I recall vividly happened back in early 1978 when a Chicago writer named David Witz unleashed a scathing story on Skafish in the Chicago Reader entitled: The Importance of Fleeing Skafish. In it, he begged and pleaded with people to stop coming to my performances, because he was afraid that the worst of all possible things could happen, which was that I would continue to represent Chicago to the rest of the world as I had already been doing and ruin Chicago’s reputation. Wow, I thought I was only disgracing my own family name, but I guess I was also actually disgracing the name of one of the biggest cities in the world, lol! Obviously, David Witz didn’t like who I was and felt threatened by the fact that I was the first and only Chicago punk/new wave/alternative/indie artist back then who was able to take it to the national and international stage.

He wrote that real punks couldn’t stand me, which is why I guess I’ve performed multiple dates with The Ramones, Iggy Pop, The Stranglers and that Sid Vicious came specifically to see me play in New York. Obviously, none of them are real punks, lol.

In the story, he claimed that my band could literally only play one chord together which is hysterical, as my drummer Larry Mysliwiec had a Bachelor’s Degree in percussion from De Paul University and went on to play for Iggy Pop. My bassist Greg Sarchet went on to receive a Master’s Degree from the Julliard School of Music in New York, which is one of most prestigious music schools in the world. He now plays for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and is simply of the greatest bassists in the world. David Prochazka, my keyboardist then, was highly classically trained and could have established a strong classical music career had he chosen to do so.

Witz tried to say that my value as an artist was merely that I couldn’t decide whether I was a 12 year fat ugly boy or a 12 year old fat ugly girl. But he didn’t stop there. He quoted lyrics sung by Debbie Harry of Blondie that had nothing to do with me and implied that these lyrics: “A case of partial extremes” were actually written about me, as if to say that Debbie Harry was dissing me in one of her songs—which is not only completely untrue, but a false way of Witz vicariously trying to back up his points. Debbie Harry and Blondie’s song clearly had absolutely nothing to do with me.

But here’s the best part: David Witz actually wrote that when I played with the Dead Boys in Chicago, they were clicking their switchblades backstage and said about me, “Get that God Damn faggot out of here.” But guess what? Neither of those things happened. There were no switchblades and no one calling me a “God Damn faggot.” Keep in mind that this was well before the days of political correctness, so Witz could easily get away with saying such a thing back then which he couldn’t do as easily now.

I have to say that the David Witz piece was the most vicious story I’ve ever read about any artist, (pardon me for calling myself one, lol) with possibly the exception of a Lester Bangs review of David Bowie when he did his Young Americans album and tour in the mid 1970’s. In that article, Bangs repeatedly referred to David as Dave as a way of colloquiallizing his name to make Bowie look like some average regular Joe as opposed to the great artist he is. Bangs also described Bowie as being like Johnny Ray on Cocaine, singing about “1984.” (Johnny Ray was a 1950’s era torch singer who had a huge hit with the song Cry, and was known for actually crying during his performances.)

And, as it is with most people, they feel better after they’ve unloaded on you. When someone punches someone else, rarely does the person who unloaded the blow feel sad, guilty or fearful. They feel triumphant like a boxer who’s celebrating knocking someone else out as they got to release whatever their pent up issues are on a receiving target and “get away with it.” It goes without saying that David Witz and people like him feel no cognitive remorse for what they do, because through their attacks, they experience an energetic release and a false feeling of validation, superiority and dominance.

So as the story goes, Witz didn’t ruin my career as he intended to, I ended up getting an international record deal, am alive and well, still doing what I’ve been doing since I was 6 years old and only wish David Witz all the blessings of life, truly.

But I get it. I have always been willing to go way further out on a limb as an artist than most others on many levels, so I have learned to expect that kind of attack – forever disguised as legitimate, perceptive and non biased criticism. After all, no one wants to look like they’re the ones with an axe to grind when they’re attacking someone else as it takes away their credibility and believability. Therefore, they do their best to be perceived as rational and intelligent while engaging in personal attacks.

With Bruce Springsteen, his experience reinforces the old mainstay that you can’t have a discussion about religion or politics, as both topics are ripe with subjectivity, personal opinion, bias, prejudice and emotional volatility. Even though these people presumably paid a lot of money to see him perform, they were willing to openly diss him at his own concerts because he didn’t agree with George W. Bush and the Bush policies.

So we see that this can happen even to a legendary performer affectionately referred to as “The Boss”; someone who practically everyone would view as universally likeable. Since this was done by his own paying audience no doubt, one realizes that the attacks simply don’t stop at any level no matter who you are. But guess what, ultimately, they don’t matter at all. If you don’t have the strength to be your own person and artist, this is not the business for you. There’s no reason to be defensive – but rather, spiritually and emotionally nonattached, so that your eye is on the real prize which is to simply be you, celebrate your individuality and give whatever artistic contributions you can offer to the collective with joyous abandon.

© 2009 Jim Skafish

April 4th, 2009
Categories: Musings . Author: Skafish . Comments: 11 Comments