Wearing the right jeans at the right time have long been a crucial element to rock ‘n roll stardom. It may have been a passage from Clinton Heylin‘s excellent oral history of proto-punk, From the Velvets to the Voidoids, that’s stuck with me all these years, but I recall cracking up at a comment by David Thomas of Pere Ubu regarding his inability to ever fit into cool jeans, not to mention his parents’ complete lack of interest in keeping him dressed in the current Levi’s fashion trends. He was talking about the humorous teen angst behind “Final Solution” when he bemoanded an adolescence stuck wearing the “BoBo” brand Big Yank jeans. As we knew then, as we know now, some brands don’t cut it in rock ‘n roll.
To ease the development process for aspiring young rockers as well as to revisit and perhaps gain closure on some of our denim growing pains, I thought it might be helpful to conduct a frank, candid forum on The Dos and Don’ts of Rock Jeans.
Some of the things we uncover may be obvious, such as the fact that wearing Disco-era Jordache jeans with stitching on the back pockets is never rock ‘n roll. Yesterday’s fad may be today’s No-No. We may want to keep an eye on the long-term health and quality of jeans in rock ‘n roll, not just what was popular at one time. Whether the topics we uncover are painful or amusing, I am confident they will be educational and provide healing.
Some of the topics we examine may be timely and relevant, such as the appropriateness of a rocker Eric Clapton‘s age wearing jeans in his recent T-Mobile ad. All that I ask is that we hold nothing back when examining this important topic and our own experiences with jeans in rock. Thank you.
I was in college during the heyday of the bellbottom. I remember buying a pair of jeans in 75 or so that had a very exaggerated flare, thinking I would be cool. I wore them maybe once, and it became obvious that it wasn’t cool, though I’m not sure if that was because I couldn’t carry it off or because the style itself had become passe. We think of punk as killing off flares, but I think it happened sooner.
Jeans with holes in the knees pretty much rock all the time, and arguably for all age groups.
Thanks for kicking this off, BigSteve. I struggled mightily with issues surrounding rockin’ jeans. I’m a generation (or is it “half generation?) younger than you, but you’ve stirred memories of a really weird flares hybrid that my Mom bought me in 1975: flared, cuffed plaid seersucker-type material pants for some holiday dinner, maybe Easter. She bought a matching pair for my younger brother. It was the last time she ever got us to dress alike. Good God!
I was 12 years old, just coming into an awareness of the importance of rockin’ jeans. It only got worse. I attended a private school with mostly wealthier kids who had mostly cooler parents. The cool kids are totally past flares, as you noted. They’re wearing classic Levi’s that are broken in just so. Meanwhile, my Italian-American, newly swingin’ single Mom, who’s wearing go-go boots and mini-skirts in her free time doing the Hustle, is continuing to buy me flares – “fashionable” ones no less! I greatly appreciated my Mom’s penchant for dressing me in stylish stuff when it was 1969 and I was the only kid on my block in purple velvet bellbottoms, a black vest, and a lavender pouffy shirt, but the proto-Disco fasions of 1975 were not my bag! Of course I was doomed to be handed pairs of Disco jeans as I reached what should have been my prime rockin’ jeans years.
By junior year, when I can drive and actually go to stores on my own to buy clothes, I finally wrestle some control over my wardrobe, but even then I’m hampered by my muscular haunches. I could never fit into Levi’s jeans. I had to wear friggin’ Lee jeans, a brand with BoBo connotations, until the Gap came into existence. Even then, through the last 30 years or so, I still have to live with the shame of never having achieved Levi’s-level cool.
Man, that felt good to get off my chest. Now I can focus on my years attempting to make my jeans options in my adult life even halfway cool…
All I want is Levis slim fit (not skinny!). Is that too much to ask? Apparently so because for a while in the ’00s you couldn’t get them anywhere because of the hip-hop baggy jeans craze. Those were some grim times.
Those fake pre-distressed jeans with the “whiskers” around the fly are so not rock, though. Fake wear’n’tear is not authentic, man.
I don’t think there is an age limit on jeans, so long as they aren’t “mom jeans” or… is there such a thing as “dad jeans?” There must be.
Jeans in adult life is tricky. I wore 501’s through my 30s and into my 40s, but then one day I looked in the mirror and thought “uh oh!” I was going to embarrass myself if I kept that up. Fortunately the ‘relaxed fit’ style was available by then. I believe that’s basically what Clapton is wearing in the phone ad.
I did NOT go down the path to stretch jeans. Is there anything less rockin’ than those Levi’s with a skosh more comfort?
I wasn’t even ALLOWED to wear jeans to school until 8th grade and the only brand I wore then, as now, is Levis.
Confession: I just ordered through the Information Superhighway a pair of skinny jeans (yes, Levis) which cdm doesn’t seem to like. I’m going for the Steve Van Zandt look of thin legs and chubby top. Should work, right?
I will not, however, move to the bandana on head. I still have most of my hair!
Oh man, stretch jeans are totally non-rockin’. I wish I’d remembered them for the current poll.
Excellent SVZ Look you refer to, Sonny! I’m having difficulty ceasing my laughter.
Sonny,
I’m not judging you for your skinny jeans. I just wanted to be clear that I’m looking for jeans that I believe to be fairly timeless as opposed to current or fashionable (which made it all the more frustrating when I couldn’t find them for a few years).
A cautionary note: I might start judging you if you complete the SVZ look by adding the little demi-vest though.
As a product of Catholic grade school and high school, I couldn’t wear jeans until college.
I must mention that last year I discovered that black jeans are out of style and hard to buy in retail stores.
As an old punk, black jeans are required. I don’t care if they are out of style. I ended up ordering some online. Gotta keep appearances up…
You’ve got to rock jeans that work for your body type. While relaxed fit jeans are technically very unrock (unless you’re Jack Johnson or Donald Fagen), if they work for your body type, that’s what’s important. Clapton would’ve looked douchier had he been wearing Levi’s 511’s in that ad. I reckon the reason so many rockers of advanced age (Bruce and Joe Perry, to name a couple) look good in tight jeans is that they get them custom made. Physically, about the only positive tribute I’ve been blessed with is my mother’s skeletal physique. So I’ve been a Levi’s 517 size 34 since the mid ’90s. I’ll take it!
Geez, I thought that black jeans were just coming back into style. Who can keep up?
Mod, another least rockin’ type would have been acid washed jeans. What was that all about?
Ah yes, acid-washed jeans… I get them confused with stonewashed. Do we know for sure if there’s a difference?
mrclean, I too just noticed that black jeans are getting hard to find. I’ve also been wanting to replace my black jean jacket for a few years, to maintain my White New York ’80s Rapper Look, complete with my addidas Superstars, but no dice. I was in New York recently and finally saw a black jean jacket, but it was too small.
pberkery, thanks for shining some acceptance on my relaxed fit jeans. That means a lot.
Yes, I see now that in the poll you really meant acid washed. Stone-washed is just that moderate breaking in process that saves you from the weird cardboard phase all jeans wearers used to be subject to. Acid washed was that process that gave the material a shimmery effect caused by the contrast between very white threads and very dark ones. It is one of life’s mysteries.
Speaking of breaking in rough new jeans, remember the concept of wearing them when they’re wet still so they dry and shrink to your body shape? There’s that great scene in Quadrophenia where Jimmy’s dad sees him rocking out to the Who on Tops of the Pops, and he says “Do they wear the wet jeans too?”
Here you go boys, black jeans for everyone:
http://us.levi.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3699573&cp=3146842.3146844.3692028
Great movie scene centering around rock jeans, BigSteve – perhaps the only one of cinema’s kind?
Following are some rock jeans issues in the modern age I’d like your thoughts on:
Jeans with a rolled up cuff, like actors playing ’50s tough guys in movies do: Do or Don’t? (Personally, I’d be happy to see this Look die.)
Jeans with hippie patches: Do or Don’t? (I hope this makes a comeback in my jeans-wearing days. I had a couple of hippie patches on my jeans when I was a little kid. I thought they were boss!)
Jeans other than blue or black on a white man post-1969: Do or Don’t? (Another hippie Look I would welcome back, but the few times I tried on green or maroon Gap jeans in the ’80s it seemed all wrong!)
Flares: Do or Don’t? (I’d consider wearing them again.)
Floods: Do or Don’t? (I still say the floods The Undertones wear on their first album cover shot is one of rock’s great unclaimed fashion ideas.)
Big Yanks? I used to feel sorry for kids who had to wear Big Yanks to school.
Wranglers? Not cool in our crowd.
Sears Plain Pockets? Please . . .
Calivn Klein? Not the 80s versions — very uncool, but some CKs look better these days.
Embroidery? Yes — cool, if your mom does it — not you. I had some great stuff on my Levis — U.S. Flag, Liberty Bell, Peace symbol.
Blue or Black? Blue, but black is OK. Some men’s magazine (Esquire) are militant about blue only.
Best Jeans Guys: Bruce, John Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, Ramones
Not So Good Jeans Guy: Connor Oberst has been tucking his jeans into his boots/shoes lately. He did it when he opened for Wilco this summer. Not a good look.
Flares? I had them, but I was glad they went out of style — I don’t even like boot cut. But that’s just me.
Biggest Jeans Pet Peeve right now — jeans that have that have that fake ground in dirt look. I am sorry, but I just think that is stupid. My brother, who seemed (and seems) to have real dirty jeans all the time, once asked me how I kept my jeans so blue. I wash mine — a lot.
funoka: brilliant stuff! Thanks for pointing out the SERIOUSLY UNCOOL jeans tucked into boots Look. Hell, why doesn’t Oberst wear high-waisted, pleated jeans while he’s at it! Also, an awesome mature (I assume) person’s view of the faux-grimey jeans. A related modern trend I can’t stand, as a result of the carryover from hip-hop’s Generation XL, is Extra-Long jeans. I used to take a 34 length. Now a 34 means I’ve got 5 inches of jeans dragging under my heels. I need to shop for a 30 or even 28 length, making me feel like my torso is more than twice as long as my legs.
Mr. M. thanx. I bought a big pair of North Face jeans that had that XL look. They sucked. Not rockin’ at all. I hope the Goodwill found a good home for them. I like Conor, but a guy from Omaha should know better.
May I present to you – Randy Normal Jeans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QiO6gZFIDw
Wasn’t it the photo inside the gatefold cover of After the Goldrush that shows Neil Young with the ultimate hippy-patched jeans? The photo that launched a thousand patches?
And let’s not forget the Merseybeat group The Swinging Blue Jeans of Hippy Hippy Shake fame.
I know what picture you’re talking about, BigSteve.
mrclean, that video was highly disturbing. Thanks!
Here is another link worth checking out:
LBJ Orders Some New Haggar Pants
http://www.whitehousetapes.net/clips/1964_0809_lbj_haggar/
Folks, I got one word for you: Toughskins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ci2ev8FZY
Songs about blue jeans – good or bad idea?
GREAT question, cher. The first song that comes to mind for me is that Neil Diamond song, “Forever in Blue Jeans” or “Rebel in Blue Jeans” or whatever the hell he’s saying. Unless there’s evidence to the contrary, I’d say blue jeans do NOT make for good rock song content.
Maybe songs about blue jeans don’t work, but Jean Genie and Bell Bottom Blues might indicate that they work as a title concept.
Here’s what’s not rockin’. I always see this in an airport. Businessman in his late 40s, perfectly groomed, ear permanently stuck to his blackberry. He’s too cool to wear a suit, but he is wearing a sportcoat or blazer of some sort, and a light-colored shirt with an open collar. His jeans are perfectly faded and tailored with a slight flare so that they touch the top of his tassel loafers just so and break ever so slightly in front, producing a barely perceptible indentation in the soft crease just above ankle-height. This guy is the anti-matter to everything rockin’, though he probably listens to rock when he drives his Lexus SUV to the golf course.
BigSteve, the question is: What does he listen to in his Lexus SUV? Can we devise a corpus of Golf Rock? Starting with, perhaps, Huey Lewis and the News and Hootie & the Blowfish? Buffett?
I am still a fan of low rise boot cut (that’s kinda 60’s looking) and I know that the kids today are all about skinny jeans..but I’m 39 (no kid) and already too skinny for my 6’4″ frame. I need some balance.(and groovyness I guess)
Levi’s are the right move 99% of the time. They hold up, never look stupid or pretentous and I could ride a horse in them if I needed to.
Ok, now I need to talk about guitars or something….
Did you guys notice that the sidebar advertisement thing on the side of the screen now has jeans instead of cds?