Back in my wayward youth, in another incarnation, I sang with a 'cow punk' band called Big Hair in the Bay Area alt music scene. We had a huge following and probably could have made something of it had we been able to get along behind the scenes. We were young. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. That is until I pen my memoirs, which will of course be mostly fictional.
This is a video clip from (gasp) 1985 of Big Hair playing at a San Jose institution called The Works Gallery. A lot of crazy stuff happened for me personally around this particular venue, so it's apt that this footage was shot there. I'm sporting a neon yellow hip length braided Heidi wig, a bright red pleather short motorcycle jacket and a pencil skirt. Back then most of my 'crafty' nature went into the kooky outfits I wore, which were intentionally unconventional even for punk standards. I've got a problem with following the rules. Quel suprise.
This video starts with the tail end of Caryl Miller's kick butt version of Nancy Sinatra's classic 60s hit "These Boots are Made for Walking". We did some really fun and unique covers and had a lot of great originals too. I'm singing a tune I penned called "12th Street Blues." I spent a number of years in a house at 345 12th Street in downtown San Jose, before it got a makeover courtesy of the Silicon Valley days. Back then it was a gritty, funky city with a serious multiple personality disorder and a fairly large punk scene. The thrift stores in that town were legendary, I can't believe some of the stuff I scored for pennies!
I wrote this song to intentionally sound like something you'd heard before and it has every country music cliche in the lyrics. I can't tell you how many people asked over the years if they could record this song. It's the kind of little ditty that gets stuck inside of your head. I apologize in advance if that happens to you!
(A huge 'THANK YOU!" to ERIC PREDOEHL for editing and posting this video. It was a labor of love indeed and I'm so happy someone had a record of Big Hair live. What a treat!)
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