"It was our whole slant on rock & roll"
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:Toadies [1:38]
From wiki on the cover art for Double Nickels on the Dime:
The album was named Double Nickels on the Dime as a reaction to the Sammy Hagar song "I Can't Drive 55," a protest against the federally-imposed speed limit of 55 miles per hour on all U.S. highways.[10] The Minutemen decided that driving fast "wasn't terribly defiant"; Watt later commented that "the big rebellion thing was writing your own fuckin' songs and trying to come up with your own story, your own picture, your own book, whatever. So he can't drive 55, because that was the national speed limit? Okay, we'll drive 55, but we'll make crazy music."[16]
The band illustrated the theme on the cover of Double Nickels on the Dime, which depicts Watt driving his Volkswagen Beetle at exactly 55 miles per hour ("double nickels" in trucker slang) on California's Interstate 10 (known as the "Dime").[16] Dirk Vandenberg, the band's "buddy/contributor," took photos from the backseat as Watt drove under the sign to San Pedro, the band's home town; it took three circuits of the highway and two days of photography before the Minutemen were happy with the cover.[17] Vandenberg later commented on the cover art: "There were three elements that Mike [Watt] wanted in the photo: a natural kind of glint in his eyes reflected in the rearview mirror, the speedometer pinned exactly at 55mph, and, of course, the San Pedro sign guiding us home". However, when the cover was presented to SST, "someone botched the cropping for the print and cut off the end of the word Pedro."[17]
From Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azerrad:
"You're such a wild guy [Hagar], you'll break the speed limit," Watt says, chortling. "How about your tunes, though, buddy? We were making fun of him. The title means fifty-five miles an hour on the button, like we were Johnny Conservative."
"No one knew what the fuck we were talking about," Watt continues. "We'd explain it to people and they'd say 'I don't get it, what's so funny about that?' And we couldn't tell them because it was our whole angle on rock & roll, our worldview on the music scene."
Comments (10)
Well, I don't know if it means i win the cookie, but I get the joke and the intent behind it is golden. I see similar things in all aspects of life. you know, that person who claims to be so hard core, so rebellious because they're wearing black and sporting a tatto or something. And yet they turn out to be just like every other "hard core" person out there, and they're not rebellious at all, just beholden to a slightly different set of rules and a desire to be so different, yet they don't know what that word truly means.
And then you have people like John Zorn who tend to look pretty normal (at least every pic I've seen of him) and he makes music that just turns normality and decency on its ear. In ways that hard-core knock offs couldn't even begin to understand.
Is that song where the band The Toadies got its name from, do you know?
Thanks - being a Firehose fan who is pretty poorly versed on his Mintuemen I appreciate this greatly - please feel welcome to post lots more...
i was struck by the topic as well when I was reading about this album.
I was also curious about your connection with the band The Toadies, and found this tidbit in an interview with Silent Uproar with Toadies singer/songwriter since I am in a slash & paste mood
SU: Where did the name the Toadies come from?
Todd: We had put the band together and there was a friend of ours who had a club called the Axis down in Fort Worth, and we gave him kinda crappy little jam box recording, and he was like, hey come down and play at my club next weekend. So we had to throw a name together and that's what came out...(laughs)...it was something that obviously wasn't too serious, kinda whimsical.
SU: There are some rumors about the name had something to do with a High School Mascot that was the Toads or something.
Todd: Yeah, that's a rumor going around here, and it is actually TCU...see I don't get this at all, TCU is down here in Dallas, actually its Forth Worth, and they have the horn frog. So I guess that's what they figure, and it works for them...(laughs)... I don't really see that, at all.
well, there goes that idea, then!
yea, but I was certainly following your train of thought on that, I thought I would just do a quick investigation.
thanks waydutch, fIREHOSE is on my list now. I just picked up a Minutemen LP and got jazzed about them, wanted to post something.
i had a Minutemen post in me lately that i couldn't seem to get started. anyhoos, i love this post, i appreciate learning about the above story, and i quite agree with the sentiment. it's like the people who are saying they are cool all the time are the least cool of all. i also think the rebel in us all remains but should grow up at some point into something more intelligent (i don't mean intellectual).
i think both poebegone and groon both got to the point of it pretty quickly. i feel that rebeling against the establishment just for the sake of doing it differently is not as brave and inspiring as it is sometimes sold as. instead, it can seem more pretentious and needy. the Minutemen's philsophy that you don't have to break the rules to be a rebel, and to be an inspiration to others.
Intelligent ≠ intellectual
...and on the subject of the Minutemen, I wish I could say that they are a band that I am very familar with and cooking up a post in their honor has been a long planned and merticulously crafted in a way that their clearly revered name surely warrants. but instead, I am a new recruit, having recently read about them in Our Band Could Be Your Life, their story was at the very least, compelling, and at best, inspiring. And I hadn't even heard a note of music. I just picked up The Politics of Time LP, which had some interesting side stories on it that are post-worthy as well. Sometime in the future then. Perhaps next week could be Minutemen Monday, whaddya say? Or on our own time.
Great answer to a question I only thought about! Love that story behind one of the great album covers.
mss - i had to smile at Minutemen Monday. not me but maybe something on Mike Watt in the near future. i worry any Minutemen or fIREHOSE post i make will be grossly lacking or inaccurate. this post just about covers them wonderfully for the month.
thanks everyone for the comments, it seems apparent that there are more Minutemen and fIREHOSE stories out there, hopefully they will make there way to the MOG in the interim.