The politics of The Minutemen: “I live sweat but I dream light-years.”
This weekend my comrade jndevereux was telling me about the politics of The Minutemen, outlined in this great passage from Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981–1991.
The Minutemen felt their music was by, for, and about the working person. “The first thing is to give workers confidence,” Watt said. “That’s what we try to do with our songs. It’s not to show them ‘the way’ but to say, ‘Look at us, we’re working guys and we write songs and play in a band…’
The working-person idea ran deep. Between 1982 and 1984 [D.] Boon published a fanzine called the Prole, which lasted for six issues. Boon wrote politically oriented articles and cartoons; [Mike] Watt did record reviews. And on select nights, Boon booked local underground bands at San Pedro’s 300-capacity Star Theatre, renaming it the Union Theatre. Shows started early so working people could get home at a reasonable hour. ‘D. Boon believed that working men should have culture in their life—music and art—and not have it make you adopt a rock & roll lifestyle lie.”
Of course, later in the chapter, it’s pointed out that only one of the band’s members actually had a dad who belonged to a union. Mike Watt would say to Boon, “the average Joe doesn’t write songs” and demanded that Boon admit he was “special.” Boon said, “I was borne out of being average because of my rock band,” and Watt said, “No, because of these tunes.”
betzistar
