Hudley Flipside | Punk Rock Colleague • Historian • Archivist
My boys… Noise.. the Noise…
“We become more characteristic of who we are simply by lasting into later years; the older we become, the more our true natures emerge.”
~ James Hillman
I was filled with a huge amount of energy today. So, I decided to clean my office bookshelves. Ya know how things sometimes get put on the shelves. Precious items that get dirty and block the books. So today I put the precious items in a box and will put them away for a while. So, I can access my books more efficiently.
Oh, some are missing like the few I gave to a gal to look over before an interview. I never did the interview last year due to being sick. I was so sick after the California fires. I am going to have to ask for them back soon.
Then I saw one book American Hardcore a Tribal History by Steven Blush. Glory glory Feral House Press. Why I started my own publishing house.
I remember appearing on Stig Stench Radio with Steven Blush and Edward Colver. It was fun, though they did most of the talking and vented their frustrations. Ed described how his photographs had been used without proper attribution and then sold for profit. I told them that my own photo had also been improperly credited in Steven Blush’s book, American Hardcore: A Tribal History. As authors and publishers, we make mistakes and try to correct them—but that does not always happen these days.
That experience is why I started my own publishing house.
The Black Flag at The Church, Summer 1979 appears on page 49 of his book. I requested photo credit, noting that my name is listed as the photographer in the original Flipside Fanzine issue, which serves as the source material. They both brushed me off.
I took a lot of images in Flipside Fanzine. Al is a great punk photographer, but he did not take that one. It is included in our Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Anniversary Issue a full-page image; ya I get full credit for that one a direct copy of the original image from Flipside Fanzine.
For Keith Morris’s 70th birthday I sent him a copy of the image along with others I took of him. Sweet and rebellious memories of when punk rock was just punk rock. I remember the term Hardcore when it became known and was coined. I still hate the term.
I really brought the image to the next level when I was asked for some images for the film 20th Century Women. I could have given them a lot of my photos but instead just gave him this one. It is nicely framed in the film, and I get full credit in the ending credits to the sound of the Buzzcocks.
It was one of those moments while sitting with my two sons to see the film where I felt acknowledged for my dedication and love of punk rock. I thought to myself,
“I showed them.”
Furthermore, Blush and Edward Colver don’t even know about my endeavor for full credit, who knows, but Keith was aware of the image and got recognition with the original Black Flag.
The film’s creator grew up in the punk scene and gets both the issue and women’s perspectives. Well, done, Mike Mills!
Blush has not made the correction or apologized for using an image that was not sourced even after I told him. That is hurtful for me and anyone who was there and did the real documentation of a punk scene.
“Character is as unique as your fingerprint and as we age, it can often surface in interesting and unusual ways and at unexpected moments.”
~ James Hillman
