American Town

In the 80s in Waltham, I could count on two hands the number of kids who liked punk rock and hardcore music. Three of the kids were friends of mine and the other half dozen or so were older kids who worked at Waltham Hospital and hung out at Lena's Pizza.

They wore punk rock garb and one of them had orange hair. They seemed more into the Sex Pistols classic punk than the hardcore revolution that was emerging in Boston on the heels of 'This Is Boston Not LA'. This revolution did not extend to Waltham and my friends and I had to go into the city for the music we liked best to places like Newbury Comics and then sneak the forbidden fruit back into Waltham.

I would say 99% of the citizens who were into music listened to album rock or disco and both groups belittled me for listening to punk and hardcore. While I liked some metal and hard rock like Aerosmith and AC/DC at the time, I hated pop music, top 40, and disco. KISS 108 was popular with the jocks and student council types and I deplored that music most of all. To me, it had no soul and no balls; it was tepid, vapid, and just plain shitty. Just hearing it would zap my strength and dull my senses and force me to activate my music self-defenses.

One of my friends named Ted Cash who liked jazz and also some punk and hardcore once said at the lunch table that you are who you listen to and by that, he meant the music you listen to tells the world who you are. It was insightful for a 16-year old kid and I believe in that truism to today. Some people say you are who you surround yourself with and perhaps the surface you is but the inner person, I believe, is defined by who we listen to. Ted Cash was right.

Waltham was a beer drinking blue collar city during my youth. Even though the city had two exclusive colleges (Bentley and Brandeis), the locals like me were fiercely blue collar for the most part. A small group of people from Waltham identified with the richer cities that surrounded it, went to private schools, and did their best to appear to not be from Waltham. It was a city of proud locals who knew who they were and a small group of pretenders who wanted to be from Newton or Lexington. The Waltham rank and file sported Herman Survivor boots and the tough guys wore leather vests. At most Waltham High parties, you would see one Budweiser suitcase standing upright between every three or four guys with chicks sprinkled in here and there.

Even when the party was at a preppie's house with all their preppie friends, the blue collar rank and file would show up, unannounced and uninvited to each and every party. It was as if the kids had a party scanner and were able to zone in on where one might be and once located, crashed the party. My friends and I were a little bit of both groups; we were not on the invite list but then again we were not in leather vests and Hermans. We were on the periphery of both groups and as a result, blended in seamlessly or at least until the band started playing.

One of my best friends Mark Mangles played drums for a Waltham cover band called Tap Grandma. They played mostly metal and hard rock like Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Accept, Dokken, and Ozzy. The tough guys and burnouts loved them while the KISS 108 preppies were not really into music at all so they kept their distance. It was pretty cool how all these groups could coexist at these high school parties. They were quite fun events for all with very few fights and problems.

Tap Grandma featured Ted Cash on guitar and Ted liked The Freeze so the band learned my favorite Freeze song, American Town. While Dave Kerry sang all their rock songs, Ted took over for vocals for American Town and did a good job. My buddy Matt and I were hardcore fans and once we heard the bulldozer of guitar that opened the song, we rushed the band area and made a makeshift pit. Sometimes we slammed into each other or would move the pit onto the tiny stage and slam Mark on the drum kit. It was so silly but so fun.

Neither the album rock burnouts nor the KISS 108 preppies knew the song or understood why Matt and I were engaging in crowd rough housing. All I remember is how much fun it was when they played 'American Town' and how good the beers tasted after. A few people would ask us what the hell that was and we would just ignore them and then erase ourselves clean.

I was lucky to see The Freeze a few times in their heyday in the early 1980s and my favorite show was this one in which they opened for the Dead Kennedys in my hometown. I provide more details of this show and that golden time of our youth in the The TDK Tapes. Below are the lyrics of this classic punk rock number from Cape Cod's finest, The Freeze.

American Town
You can choose your way to stagnate
In your American town
If the Army doesn't get you
Be a factory clown
While the world goes around
Then try turning me up but I'm
Turning them down
The teachers in gold-rimmed glasses
Teach from the banker's gold-rimmed books
The women on the corner smile
So the cops can be crooks
They all fit just one description
'Cause they're cast from a singular mold
But I'm the one that's about to break it
That ain't no way to grow old
We're gonna go to the drive in
Get drunk and cause a scene
We're gonna bust some heads in
'Cause we're cooler if we're mean
Maybe drop some acid
What's the difference we're thirteen
But I'm headed for the border
And erasing myself clean