Introducing two punk films.

■ Introducing two punk films.

Here are two punk music films I watched during the COVID pandemic.

First is “AMERICAN UTOPIA,” a collaborative effort between David Byrne and Spike Lee.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

The Broadway production is 107 minutes long with 21 songs.

Most of that time I spent crying.

Am I a rare case because the live show I saw 40 years ago is ingrained in my mind and body?

Not at all. Young people who see it for the first time will be shaken it by it.

It was the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hB7Wl4BNSk

The stage and costumes are stripped of all decoration to create a thrilling, interesting, and dynamic space with primitive expression of the body, instruments, performance, and dance.

Political messages of diversity and inclusion are present throughout.

The production shows that music still carries such profound possibilities.

Even then, David Byrne is already 70 years old. Ugh.

I was right to see the play in a small and loud theater called “Demachi-za” in Kyoto.

Though, this is not something to be seen while sitting down silently with a mask on your face. It was something meant for the audience to participate in.

I can’t wait to get back to that sense of unity. 

Next time, I’ll watch it on the super big screen, shouting with everyone else!

Here’s the next film.

“THE PUBLIC iMAGE IS ROTTEN.”

A documentary by Public Image Ltd. and John Lydon. 

I dropped the needle on their first album, PUBLIC IMAGE. The first song, “theme,” with Wobble’s heavy bass and Walker’s drumming, was immediately followed by Levin’s guitar, a shock I will never forget. 

The evolution from Sex Pistols to PiL was tremendously unbelievable. I have decided to make punk my life’s path.

Though, this movie shows that punk isn’t just about the crazy madness of young people, but something much more profound as a musician and a person.

There are images of when PiL visited Japan in 1983.

Kyoto was very close to the movie theater where I saw their performance.

After the performance, I was having a drink with Bo Gambos and others not far from the theater when John Lydon came over and gave me a piggyback ride! It was a great time.

The year after, I became a bureaucrat, and the year after, I went to see PiL in Tokyo.

I went with Yasuhiko Taniwaki, who was my classmate at the time.

In suits and ties, we were getting wild at Shibuya Public Hall.

We were probably the two most conspicuous people in the area. 

When I’m in “university president” mode, I wear PiL and Sex Pistols badges instead of my family crest. I still haven’t been found out. 

David Byrne and John Lydon.

They were British men who were active in New York and London at the same time.

For me, they are the two great heroes of punk.

It is no coincidence that I met them twice in Kyoto—as a teenager, they gave me inspiration in deciding what I wanted to do with my life, and now, in my sixties.

My punk path still has a long way to go.