Gave Me A Black Eye, Tore Up My Levi
by Turtle Jones

Since we have been talking about cold weather lately, well I have been, we decided to write about something that kinda goes along with the cold weather theme.

Our favorite jackets!

I know, kinda boring. But, if you stick around and read about what people consider their favorite jacket, you will find that you can tell a lot about a person by what they wear. From flight jackets to Hello Kitty rain wear, there is something to be said about what someone wears. For cold weather or for style. For better or for worse. These are our top jackets from our past.

turtle is still cold.

My jackets have all been pretty simple and have always been kinda of predictable. Seems every few years or so I get rid of my favorite one in some grand gesture of uber coolness and then move on. My first cool jacket was of course, a black motorcycle jacket. Seems they handed these out when you started listening to punk rock. Not only did it have to be that ONE style, it also had to be covered in stickers and spikes. Before the age of Hot Topic, these were what the cool kids who were living on the edge wore. Mine was too small, beat up and beat down.leather154.jpg
Reeked like beer and was covered in blood. A common theme that still goes with my cool jackets today. I remember my dad hating it. He always told me these were the kind of jackets that the scumbags wore. After he finally realized I had one, he had to change his idea of what "scumbags" were. I think after that was "only scumbags had piercings" then it moved up to "scumbag tattoos." I guess it was cool what he did. I mean he changed his definition of scumbag every time I got some new work done on me. Looking back I feel kinda sorry for all the shit I put him through, but hey, it is only a jacket, right?

Or maybe it was like pot. A "gateway" jacket because after a few months of owning it, I bought a black Levi jacket and cut the sleeves off of it. Hooked a bottle opener on the pocket button and wore the leather and the Levi together.

Rock.

Rock on.

I ended up giving it away for some drugs one night. It was too small for me anyways and I figured I got the most out of it so I might as well pass it on. Plus I was out of drugs.

My second cool jacket was the Derby. The original Derby. Not those fake bullshit ones you can get at JC Penny's. These were the ones with the paisley interior. I know, that part was a little bit lame, but what can you do. They bottom line was they looked like flights, were warm as hell and basically held a lot of beer, which leathers didn't do. I didn't really care for the puffiness of them until I heard they were going out of business. An old San Francisco tradition was killed. I still have one, but it is fake, beige, silk screened and covered in blood. It is warm but still a little puffy. And it is beige.

Cool jackets are not beige.

By the time my original Derby was about dust, I was getting tired of all the dumb jackets that kept coming out. Nothing cool was grabbing me. So for a few years, I just wore sweatshirts. Something that I still do today. See that's the cool thing about Northern California. Sweatshirts are tres chic. They never went out of style, you can always get a few when you sleep over at someones house, and if you are cold, someone will buy you one cause they are so cheap. So these have all the things going for them. Except..I don't live over there anymore.

Don't get me wrong. The sweatshirts still will always be here, but they need something else. Something cool.TNTEXJM.gif

Before I start my next rant I just want to say Levi's pants are the devils work. They suck. Face it. Denim bites big donkey dick. EXCEPT for Levi jackets. They need to be the Truckers style jackets. The ones that look beat up and slick when you first get them. The trick about these jackets is to never wash them. Once you do, you lose all coolness of the jacket. And don't think people can't tell you washed it. If I walked to Michele's house without my blood and sweat covered jacket , she would know. And even if she didn't know. The Denim Gods would. They would put upon me a curse or something like that. Prolly would have to go through like puberty or something bad like that. Cause puberty wasn't fun. My second testicle just dropped a few weeks ago so I am in no rush for that waiting game to start again. After awhile you get tired of being called Scrolops the One Testicled Monster.

So no washing the Levi jacket.

Ever.

But since it is getting a little cold out here, I am thinking about a new jacket. A pea coat. I don't really know why, but all my friends are saying to get one of those. Of course, they don't live around here. I don't know. As of this writing, I am pricing them on Ebay. We will see. All I know is that if I get one, nobody better wash it and get the blood out.

And when I say "nobody", we all know who I am talking about. - T

Michele scores a goal. For Yes. Sheesh.

I'm not really a jacket type of person. I'm notorious for walking around in a New York winter with just a sweatshirt on. I hate the confining feeling of coats.

But I did have two jackets in my life that were worthy of wearing.

fragile3.jpgThe Levi Jacket.

Not just any Levi jacket, mind you. This jacket - worn circa 1978 - had a hand painted rendition of the cover to Yes's Fragile on the back.

Painting the back of your Levi with an album cover was all the rage in my school back then. There were tons of Grateful Dead jackets. Lots of Led Zeppelin, The Who and a few Kiss and Ramones. And tons of Pink Floyd. See, I really wanted Dark Side of the Moon on my jacket, but there were about five of those in my grade alone and I just didn't want to do that.

Some people painted their jackets themselves. They thought that just because they could sort of draw the Van Halen logo in the margin of their Social Studies notebook, that they could extend that "artistic" talent over to the back of a denim jacket.

9816961.jpgMe, I was smart. I hired Matt to paint my jacket. Matt was a freshman and a pretty damn good artist. And cute. Really cute. But my sister had a crush on him so I had to back off. Besides, I already tried my hand at dating a freshman and that didn't turn out so well.

Once Matt painted my jacket, he was suddenly the artist-in-residence for everyone who wanted to show off an album cover on their Levi. Suddenly no one wanted a self-painted jacket. Those DIY Judas Priest pieces looked lame by comparison. Soon everyone was offering Matt 20 bucks to paint some rock and roll on their denim. My awesome Fragile jacket started Matt on a high school career that kept him loaded with drug money until he graduated. See, I don't partake of trends, I make them.

The one other jacket worthy of remembering was my Starter Islander jacket. It was bulky and uncomfortable and kind of ugly, but showing my allegiance to the FOUR TIME STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS was worth the 70 bucks or so I spent on the thing.

It was stolen from me. At the Philly Spectrum. I just know some retarded Flyers fan took a piss on it or something after he stole it from me.

Which is why I hate the Philadelphia Fucking Flyers. And all of most of their fans. -M

So that is what we have. Those were the cool jackets that we have had over the years. I know most of them are probably on a wall in some Rock and Roll hall of fame or maybe at a local soup kitchen but for whatever reason, they were cool when we had them.

We miss our jackets.

What were your cool jackets?

Comments

Had a series of Levi Jackets.

For Christmas my Freshman year of college my folks bought me a leather bomber jacket. It's still around, my son in law has it.

Then there was my favorite. A navy blue baseball jacket with U.S. Blues embroidered on the back. Yes, that U.S. Blues. Uncle Steve's Blues Bar, North and Wells, Chicago Illinois. The one that started out as a speakeasy for the crew of the Blues Brothers and finally went legal in the early 80s. It's gone now. Steve's managing one of the better pizza joints in Lincoln Park and well, John's dead and Danny's got that whole "House of Blues" thing going. But in it's day, that bar was where I hung out with Robin Williams, Bruce Springsteen (played a mean game of pinball for a short fucker) and most of the original cast of SNL. I met Muddy Waters. Even back then, I ignored Mick Jagger because I didn't and never will forgive them for Some Girls. I didn't feel cool wearing that jacket, I felt like a rockstar. Sad I know, but for a drunk in his 20s, it was what I had.

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short guys always play better pinball, timmer.

It's cause they are lower to the ground

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I had "that" leather jacket for years. I got one when I was 16 and, heck, it's still in my closet. I stopped wearing it years ago, but it only got better looking as it got older.

I wear a brown leather bomber now because it's comfortable and warm.

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I have a cool winter jacket that was actually given to me by the company I used to work for. It is really nice with leather sleeves and collar except for one thing, it has the company logo stitched into it and I hated walking around with that damn logo on display. I liked the jacket but I could not stand being a billboard for the place I worked. They may pay my bills but when I walk out the door I don't want any attachment to them.

So my Wife, who rules, bought a patch of the New England Patriots logo and sewed it over the company logo. All fixed and it is now truly the greatest jacket ever.

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Favorite jacket was my boyfriends football jacket in highschool. It had his name on it and everything! It made me feel all girlfriendy when I wore it. It bugged the hell out of my parents too - they thought it was too personal for me to wear! Loved it. Gave it back to him when we broke up because HIS mom asked me to. She had paid for it!

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Sear's CPO jacket from the 60's and early 70's.

OK, I was a geek.

http://www.vintagetrends.com/search/itemdetails.asp?YZ=9A95A1A08C8792&RN=5&TR=53&SS=CPO+Jacket&

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the CPO jacket is cool

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I had an ike jacket that I loved. Cut pretty much like a leather jacket, but made of wool like a pea coat. Army surplus stuff. That coat ruled.

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i still have the leather i paid for with babysitting money back in '83. I painted the crap out of it and it still looks good. I have had a series of coats and jackets. On the coast i was always on the lookout for the perfect coat. Had to be light, yet warm. Had to have pockets, a hood, be waterproof. Most coats are missing at least one of those, usually two. So i had like 10 i chose from based on the weather for the day. I got rid of a lot of them when we moved over here to Klam. My current cold coat is not too heavy, has a hood, too many pockets, and a scorch mark on the back from standing too close to a bonfire on the beach when i was drunk. Its not my favorite, but it does the job. It isn't waterproof but then it hardly rains on this side of the state.

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Never really had a cool jacket, but I did have an awesome poncho years ago - woven Native American wool - used to go skiing in it with a sweater underneath. Best Levi jacket I ever had my hands on was one I gave my live-in, after I embroidered a 10"x8" coiled cobra on the back.

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