I was writing about it the other day, everywhere I go I see the Black Flag logo, on t-shirts, parodied to death, resurrected and reprinted on everything, everyone recognizes these four black bars – even my 17 year-old students, but I am not exactly sure if they know about Black Flag’s music. The logo designed by Raymond Pettibon in the late 70shas never been that popular and has become a symbol of ‘unrest, chaos and rebellion’, although Pettibon should sue all these bad and ridicuous parodies, even the logo for this sportswear store called Undefeated is an obvious rip off! I just hope he gets some credit.
MOCAtv with author/filmmakers Bryan Ray Turcotte (Kill Your Idols) and Bo Bushnell (the Western Empire) have produced a documentary about the famous logo, the first film in a series called ‘The Art of Punk’, that you can watch below it in its entirety.
In the short movie, Raymond Pettibon – he was the one who named his brother Greg Ginn’s band, Black Flag by the same occasion – Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Henry Rollins (and his Black Flag tattoo), Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea (on his toilet seat!) discuss the meaning and power of the iconic four black bars.
Pettibon, who ‘designed this motherfucking thing’, was always a member of the band according to Morris, as he was creating the graphics, flyers and not afraid to do some provocative artwork for Black Flag such as Charles Manson as Jesus Christ nailed to a cross,… so dangerous, heavy, scary. ‘It is the sickness of California’ declares Chuck Dukowski, ‘it’s not the sickness of New York,… it’s a cultural force!’ The logo means as much as the music, and it is in fact the number 1 tattoo in the world!
Two other films will follow in June, one about The Dead Kennedys on June 18th and a third one about British anarchists Crass on June 25th.