Fuck, I don't know what to think about this one. I ran into an action figure of the Circle Jerks' "skank kid" mascot. They've got a lot of mileage out of that guy. The way they've used the drawing for marketing over the last [gulp!] forty years can seem like it grows against the grain of punk rock, particularly when you consider the era of DIY punk it was created in.
The "skank kid" was drawn by Shawn Kerri, someone I was friends with back in the day. Apparently, after having done the artwork, the Circle Jerks' agent claimed it was property of the band and threatened to sue her. She got sick of the back and forth so she just signed the rights over to Keith Morris, the Cirle Jerks' singer. That was way back at the dawn of the eighties and although it's been used many times since then, this is the first time I can think of that the character itself, sans Circle Jerks product, was the merchandise. Besides it seeming like an un-punk thing to do (in my book it does cross the line), it kinda goes with Morris's pattern of milking his involvement in the L.A. punks scene for everything he can. There might be a good reason for him to be in every L.A. punk documentary that's ever been made, but that doesn't mean I don't fast forward when he comes on the screen.
I may be being overly harsh, but here's another thing. Shawn Kerri at some point in the past few decades had an accident. She fell down some stairs and hit her head, suffering short term memory loss. There were rumors (and still are) that she died. The last update I've heard was in 2004. She was still alive then with some cognitive difficulties, as described by Carl Schneider who tracked her down while making a documentary about Marc Rude. If Morris still owns the rights to this "skank kid" and is the one who licensed it, and if Shawn Kerri is still with us, maybe he can kick some of the profits her way. It'd be cool if he did.
For all of you who skipped the paragraphs above, can't say I blame you. Here's the cover the Circle Jerks did of Garland Jeffrey's "Wild In the Streets". Yes, it was a cover.
Circle Jerks - Wild in the Streets mp3 at Tumblr
Garland Jeffreys - Wild In the Streets (streaming) at YouTube
3 comments:
That's a shame about how the Circle Jerks treated Shawn Kerri. She also drew the iconic "Germs Return" flyer. I guess a lot of things were done on a handshake back then, but it sounds like she was bullied.
Yeah, she was also a cartoonist for CARtoons,. Here's a couple sites with decent profiles:
http://rockindownthehighway.blogspot.com/2007/10/rockin-homage-to-shawn-kerri-automotive.html
https://harshforms.com/shawn-kerri-hardcore-punk-early-1980s-los-angeles/
Shawn is alive. She crashed her bike into a parked car and struck her head. She is in a home. Her memory is not too good. The Circle Jerks and Keith owe her.
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