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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Buttons
I may have written on this topic back in the early days of my blog. Still it's likely not many people were reading it then and I remember virtually nothing of what I put into that post. So it must be time to approach this topic again. If you were real into metal back between say 1984 and 1990 then there was half a chance that you may have bought some of those little round metal band buttons to stick on your denim jacket. They used to sell them at record stores (some still do) and I even bought some at gas stations and Ames (kind of like a K -mart). Normally they were just a dollar back in the day so that was a small commitment to make. I personally owned quite a few at one time. In recent years I even went back and bought some here and there on eBay when I could get them cheap. I actually have a shoebox full of them and a separate small box filled with just Roth-era Van Halen buttons. Obviously Van Halen are the band that I have the most buttons of. After that I would say that Twisted Sister, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest are other bands that I have quite a few buttons of. Will I ever put these buttons to good use? Not unless you count laying them out and gazing at them from time to time as a good use. Still I like them and will one day pass them on to my kids. Or I may just be buried in a denim jacket and have all of these buttons on it. I know, that's a fairly grim picture except of course for the part about the cool buttons. That being said I still have a denim jacket that I wear from time to time and yes, it does have a few metal band buttons on it.
Yeah I used to have a metal jacket in that era too. I never had the button things though as they were hard to come by in my country. I found a little Indian shop though at that stage that had a lot of metal badges though. I had a large back badge sewn on of Megadeth's 'Peace Sells...' and on the side arms I had Helloween's Dr. Stein and on the other Iron Maiden' Number of the Beast. Boy that sure brings back memories. I don't know what happened to that jacket though.
ReplyDeleteI had a few buttons, too, but I put them on a bandana that I had hanging from my rearview mirror.
ReplyDeleteMy 3 favorites: one that said Van-effin'-Halen (edit not included), Rock-n-Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, and White Dopes on Punk.
Sad thing is I don't know where they are. Probably buried deep within the closets or attic of my parents house. Hope I at least find the VH one.
Wow...this sure takes me back...I had a leather jacked I always wore, with just a couple of buttons, VH with DAVE of course, a Led Zep button and a Randy Rhoads button...I remember being in a convenience store and this lady behind the counter thought the Randy button was my girlfriend...when I explained that it was a guy, she probably thought I was gay or something...this was in south Georgia in the mid-80s and I had long hair and earrings...I used to catch that a lot..it was always like that scene out of Easyrider when I would walk into some place...
ReplyDeleteI still have all my buttons in a box along with all my concert stubs from back in the day....
thanks for the memories
I still see kids wearing some buttons, not too many but I do see them around from time to time. I see a lot of Punk kids wearing them now and days, not so much the metal kids.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing. I have a handful of button still...a David Lee Roth, KISS, and four square button each one was a face from the Shout at the Devil album cover.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who was an OZZY/Randy Rhoads fanatic. He must have had easily 50 buttons on his jacket. He looked like a military General..of metal!
Great topic! Brings back a lot of memories!
andre- My friend Ray had a Peace sells back patch on his jacket. I had Anthrax's Spreading the disease on mine. I still have that patch.
ReplyDeleteOn my watch-I lost a few buttons that I wish I still had. I have a huge Van Halen button with a group shot from around the time of 1984. This button is like six inches wide. It's the only button I have that size.
Robert-That's a good story.
Jeff-I see kids wearing them from time to time. My local indie record store still sells buttons. They have ones of current bands and they older bands as well.
Rockdog-I remember wearing buttons all over my jacket back in the day, but I would get mad when i discovered that one had fallen off.
Never had buttons, I was more of a patch man.
ReplyDeleteYou're so cute.
ReplyDeleteWho didn't have those button back in the day? I bought mine at Spencer's gifts.
You could actually have them mounted in a shadowbox and then you would be able to display them. That could be cool.
My sisters jacket was covered in them. I never had any buttons. YOu would have probably liked my sister Mark. She was really into metal during the 80's and early 90's.
ReplyDeleteOMG...too funny! I had a jeans jacket that was covered with them. I don't even know what happened to it.
ReplyDeleteWhy not glue them all to a cheap guitar? *grin*
ReplyDeleteT-bone-Buttons for the front, patches for the sleeves and back.
ReplyDeleteNonny-I had some stuck on my stereo speakers as well.
Captain Corky-I don't know if I remember too many girls with denim jackets with metal buttons when I was in high school. It was mainly a guy thing I thought.
hardrock hideout-I have been able to get replacements for most of the ones I lost. However that was like five or six years ago that I got a lot off eBay. You don't seem to be able to find them as cheaply nowadays.
susan-Ugh, then you can't get them off.
If I were buried in that jacket I have images of going to the gates of heaven and someone asking me if that's a Twisted Sister pin on my uniform.
here in England we seem to be having a retro rock craze, my daughter has Kiss and AC/DC button badges along side her Greenday and Franz Ferdinand, I offered my old Motorhead and Iron Maiden badges to her but she is not interested.....kids!
ReplyDeleteI had kind of a girly denim jacket (slightly puffy at the shoulders) that had buttons all over it. Mostly Duran Duran, but I threw in a few Van Halens and Billy Idols for good measure.
ReplyDeleteI collected buttons and pins back in the day, still do from time to time. My favorite buttons were the guitar shaped pins, those were a bit more than a dollar. I still wear a couple from time to time.
ReplyDelete