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sunvalleylaw
December 19th, 2006, 11:34 AM
Ok, this post is to discuss Dogtown and Z Boys, the really excellent sound-track, pre-punk leading up to punk rebel skater rock and roll music, and skating. Below is my crossover post from Tone's thread in Strats where we started discussing it because I commented on an '62 re-issue strat in pool bottom aqua, which started the discussion of pool-riding, which is what the Dogtown skaters are known for.


Tone had asked me if I was a skateboarder. MY QUOTE FROM OTHER POST: Ok, this is way off topic, I'll PM, or start a new Open Mic thread. But the short answer is yes, I read the Dogtown articles, built a board in woodshop out of oak (Logan Earth Ski rip-off), mounted some tracker mid-trucks and blue Kryptonics and side walk surfed all over the place. (still have that old board, put some new big blue Kryptos on it so I can ride it over to the P.O. Box and on errands around town. ) No empty pools in Tacoma so no vert riding, just "bert" turns on hills and cruising, jumping off curbs etc. Rolled my ankle trying to learn some roll ins to the local skate park a year or two ago. Not giving up yet, but that is a tale for another thread. Also, I owned an Alfa as Peralta is portrayed as owning in the fictional Dogtown movie!



EDIT: LMAOROF, you got me with that Avatar!! (Tone's avatar is now a Dogtown graphic) END QUOTE

Yeah Tone, I have ridden my old board, with the original wheels and trucks, ever since I built it in about 6th or 7th grade. Only to surf around, at University of Washington campus, parking garages, to and from law school classes, now on errands around town, or whenever. After watching the Dogtown documentary repeatedly, I bought a new board (a big lib tech), some independent trucks and some Spitfire big head softies to try to learn some vert (we have a couple really nice skateparks around here), and rolled my ankle right away. :p There are some oldies that do it at lunch or on Sunday ams, and as I have time, I try it a little. Less now that I got into guitar.

The dogtown articles were fascinating to me as a kid in Tacoma. The music Peralta, Alva, and etc. listened to, was not discussed in the articles so much, but back then, I was listening to Nugent, Zeppelin, Boston, VH, etc.

The really good Dogtown soundtrack (the one playing in the documentary, not the one sold in stores) is mostly music a little before that and is mostly less popular cuts (ie, Zeppelin, Achilles Last Revenge rather than Stairway to Heaven). It has Hendrix, Blue Oyster Cult, Devo, Iggy Pop, T.Rex, Black Sabbath, Floyd, Bowie, Buzzcocks, Nazareth, Foghat, Rise against the machine, a Neil Young track and a lot of others. I spent a bunch of time putting a full soundtrack together off of iTunes and buying CDs from Amazon. Anyone else really get into that movie and the music? Any other skaters out there, old school or otherwise?!

Tone2TheBone
December 19th, 2006, 12:05 PM
Anyone else? Shhyah! I wish I still had every issue of Skateboarder magazine I had!

I've seen Lords of Dogtown but I haven't seen the documentary. I'd love to. Man that was MY era...my scene. That was what I was into and that was when I started playing guitar during this time. Nugent was really big with the group of skaters I hung out with. I still have a Sims plank in the attic but no trucks or wheels. I completely wore out my Powell Peralta Beamer and my 2 Alva Boards....down to the glue. Wore out many Tracker and ACS trucks and Kryptonics wheels too. We were so resilient back then huh? I was lucky that we had 2 decent skateboard parks here in town and I used to go to visit relatives in Southern California all the time. I couldn't get air but I did manage some vertical 180s in the skatepark pools. I was even on the local TV once during a highlight of the grand opening of one of the parks here in town.

The Z Boys were my heros man. What an awesome sub-culture for kids during that time! I'll always remember.

I'd like to hear more about your skater music compilation and would even Pay Pal you for a copy of it!

sunvalleylaw
December 19th, 2006, 12:49 PM
Anyone else? Shhyah! I wish I still had every issue of Skateboarder magazine I had!


The Z Boys were my heros man. What an awesome sub-culture for kids during that time! I'll always remember.

I'd like to hear more about your skater music compilation and would even Pay Pal you for a copy of it!

Cool, do you still skate? Attached (for legal music discussion only) is a JPEG of my iTunes playlist for the Dogtown movies. It is a combination of the soundtracks of both the documentary and the fictional film, plus a couple added in because they seemed to fit somehow.

Tone2TheBone
December 19th, 2006, 01:16 PM
I still skate on occasion but not like I used to thats for sure. It's usually on flat concrete anymore although I'm no freestyle guy.

Thats a cool list there. I keep forgetting you're an attorney too. ;)

sunvalleylaw
December 19th, 2006, 01:24 PM
. . . Thats a cool list there. ;)


What I think was interesting about the music in the documentary is that it was all pre-punk. In the extras on the DVD (netflix it, you have to watch it), Peralta discusses the soundtrack, and also in the extras for Lords of Dogtown. In Lords, Peralta wanted to show Jay Adams's move into the brand new hard core skate punk music, so he used a little more of that sound. In the documentary, it featured rebel music before punk. (If I am making sense at all). In my own musical taste during that period, I moved from VH, Zep, Boston, Synyrd, Nugent and the like straight into 80s punk and new wave (Ramones, Clash, Elvis Costello, U2, Joe Jackson) once I reached college in Seattle. I was also listening to a bunch of jazz, mostly fusion oriented. I completely missed a lot of the music on this list when it was new. I listened to this list a lot in the last year or so.

Tone2TheBone
December 19th, 2006, 02:14 PM
Yeah it makes sense to me. A lot of the same things happened when I went to college also. Thats funny that you mention the shift in musical genres in regard to skating. When I was heavy into it it was all old school R 'n R (from '75 on for me). I stuck with the same groups of kids all through high school and we shunned any form of punk. I didn't get any dosage of it really until wayyy later and by then I wasn't skating much at all. But even in college I was still hardcore Zep and Rush. Do you happen to know whatever became of those guys? I know Stacy produces and directs. Tony, Jay, Bob and Shugo?

sunvalleylaw
December 19th, 2006, 02:31 PM
Yeah it makes sense to me. A lot of the same things happened when I went to college also. Thats funny that you mention the shift in musical genres in regard to skating. When I was heavy into it it was all old school R 'n R (from '75 on for me). I stuck with the same groups of kids all through high school and we shunned any form of punk. I didn't get any dosage of it really until wayyy later and by then I wasn't skating much at all. But even in college I was still hardcore Zep and Rush. Do you happen to know whatever became of those guys? I know Stacy produces and directs. Tony, Jay, Bob and Shugo?

According to the documentary and other internet stuff I read: Stacy is developing his producing career, and had another successful documentary, Riding Giants (about surfing), Tony still skates pools, and I think still has a skate products company, Jay did some time for something drug related and I think is now out, and in Hawaii, surfing. I think Bob and Shugo still surf, in CA and HI respectively. Might have that wrong. The documentary really goes into this stuff and since you almost lived it, you MUST immediately rent or buy the documentary and watch. The music in it alone is worth it. :DR