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Artist:
X - Ray Spex
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Album:
Germ Free Adolescents
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Track:
The Day the World Turned Dayglo
Back in 1986 when I started 11th grade we we're introduced to a new student by the name of Bobby. Bobby was a punk rocker. He had the leather jacket, ripped jeans and spiked hair. In fact that's what he told everyone to call him "Spike". He also had an English accent. As time went on Spike eventually got his ass kicked by the jocks and the dirtbags on an almost daily basis, which made him one of us, whether we wanted him or not. As we all got to know Spike little things about him started to leak out, like how his real name wasn't Bobby but Peter and how he was actually 3 years older than us. This means he was actually my sisters age, but she was away at college and he was sitting behind me in English class. When I got to ask her if she remembered the guy she said she did but barely, She remembers all the girls thought he was hot because he sort of looked like Billy Idol and in fact "Billy" is what he was calling himself when she knew of him. And he didn't have an English accent. Seems like he got into a lot of trouble when he was known as Billy and somehow ran away to his aunt's house somewhere in England where he stayed for a few years but was never allowed into the school system. He eventually proved to be a real wanker in England as well and got sent back to his Mom in America. Embarrassed to find himself left-back he adopted the name Bobby when re-enrolling for classes then got pissed when people didn't call him Spike. Spike ended up getting left back again before eventually graduating in '89 at the age of 22. The really screwed up thing was when I was starting my sophmore year at Pratt I heard people talking about this English asshole who just came in as a freshman who looked like Billy Idol. His name was Peter but told everybody to call him "Slash". When we finally bumped into each other a few days later he pleaded with me not to let other people know that we knew each other. I obliged, whatever, no big deal to me. He eventually flunked out after 3 semesters and finally disappeared. Thats when I spilled the beans one night at a party and let everybody in on Peter's secret. He had duped everyone but at the same time no one seemed surprised.When I first met "Bobby/Spike" he wore a green army jacket with patches all over the back. One of them was "UK Subs" and another was "X-Ray Spex". Two bands I never heard of but two bands I immediately went out and bought. Thanks Peter/Billy/Bobby/Spike/Slash I'll always remember you.
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