Any punk rockers out there?

[DonMike]

I got a question. I've been listening to this song a lot lately. Jet Boy Jet Girl by The Dammed. It's a song about a high school boy who falls in love with another high school boy. My question is, were they known as a gay band or was this just a one-off song. I don't really know anything about them. It's a pretty damn good song.

[Lee]

They were probably emo boys rebelling against their upper-class parents

Regards,

Lee

[CorbinFisher_BD]

They were probably emo boys rebelling against their upper-class parents

Regards,

Lee

hehe I think The Damned has been around long before emo. They first came about in the 70s. They're actually a punk punk band! Helping start up the whole punk scene with the Sex Pistols and Clash. So they're not one of these newfangled emo bands.

But as far as whether any of em are gay or anything, I don't think so. I know a couple of the band members are married to one another.

[Reuben]

I always assumed it was just a shock-value thing, much like the Sex Pistols running around wearing Nazi regalia and acting like assholes -- rejection of and rebellion against the conventional values of the time.

As far as I know the Damned weren't known for being gay or particularly gay-affiliated, but Captain Sensible (the bass player) was notorious for performing in drag and being "outrageous" in general. As far as "Jet Boy Jet Girl" goes, it just so happens that it was originally recorded by Captain Sensible (go figure) with another band (I forget what they were called) during a period when the Damned had temporarily broken up.

[DonMike]

Ah, thanks BD and Reuben, that clears a lot up. I knew they were an old school punk band but I was shocked to hear the lyrics. Although punk used to be really into genderbending and doing what you wanted regardless of social norms. I think it's funny how it's so sedate now.

Of course, there have been other older songs that had lyrics outside of the mainstream. Remember Lola by the Kinks, about a guy who meets a girl at a bar and finds out she's really a man in drag, so he goes home with her anyway. And Walk On The Wild Side about male hustlers, drug dealers, drag queens and transexuals. Pretty strong stuff for mainstream America but it was a huge hit.