The T-Shirts Of My Life

Don't tell me that love hurts
I read the book, I saw the movie
Got the T-shirt
"T Shirt" by J. Imray (recorded by The Crickets)

Me in a Monkees T-shirt, my wife Brenda in normal adult clothes

I've known my pal Beth since high school. Many years ago, she said that I'm the first guy in a T-shirt when the calendar turns to early spring, and the last one still in a T-shirt when winter approaches. That's still true. A T-shirt with a jacket over it is still a T-shirt.

I don't wear plain Ts, of course; I favor some kind of design, usually a graphic from pop culture, whether it's a rock group or a comic book character, whatever. I remember wearing a Batman T-shirt when I was six (circa the 1966 Batman TV series). I have no other recollection of what T-shirts (if any) I wore as a kid. (Though I should at least mention my Baron Daemon sweatshirt, proudly emblazoned with the black-and-white image of Syracuse's favorite TV vampire, and stating, I'm a real cool ghoul.)



Even into high school, I don't really remember what T-shirts I may have owned. The only one that specifically comes to mind is the Budweiser shirt I had when I was 15. I didn't drink Budweiswer then, and I don't drink it now, though the reason why has evolved; in 1975, I didn't drink Budweiser because I didn't drink beer, whereas nowadays I don't drink Budweiser because I don't regard it as a real beer. Gimme a Belgian, man.

Really, college was when I started getting more into identity-proclaiming T-shirts. I'm sure I wore a bunch of 'em freshman year, 1977-78, though I only remember my dorm T-shirt, my free local disco Club 2 On 2 T-shirt (which was definitely not identity-proclaiming, but it was free), and a White Rock T I won from Utica's WOUR-FM. The White Rock shirt--which was connected to a ski movie scored by Rick Wakeman from Yes, not some stupid neo-Nazi thing--caused friction with my girlfriend's roommate Rosanne; Ro also had a White Rock T-shirt, but hers went missing, and it was an uncommon enough item that I can't blame her for being suspicious when she saw me wearing mine (especially given, as she put it, that I was hanging around her room so much). 

As college progressed, I started to get a few Ts more specifically reflective of my pop tastes. Christopher Reeve as Superman. KISS. The Sex Pistols. The Ramones. I recall a visit to a Syracuse University shop called Tops To Please, which at the time had an amazing selection of rock, punk, and new wave shirts, including a shirt emblazoned with the logo of my local heroes The Flashcubes. Alas, I was but a poor college student, and my budget didn't allow me to purchase anything there. I never even got a Flashcubes T-shirt, at least not at the time. After the 'Cubes broke up, and their T-shirts were no longer available, I went to a custom shirt place in Brockport, armed with a plain black T and my official membership button from when I joined The Flashcubes International Fan Club. I went to the shop's counter, and told the clerk, "Make this shirt look like this button." Yes, I'm guilty of commissioning the world's first bootleg Flashcubes T-shirt. When the group reunited decades later and offered new shirts for sale, I made sure to buy one in penance for past sins.



For my 21st birthday in 1981, my girlfriend bought me a Monkees T-shirt. I loved that thing, and I wore it whenever I could. I wore it to a club show by a great British Invasion-influenced group called The Insiders. As the show went on, one of The Insiders told the crowd, "I hear there's a guy here tonight in a Monkees T-shirt. Well, this is the song he came to hear," and The Insiders played "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone." I think they did "Last Train To Clarksville," too.  Hey, hey...!

I remember once staring at a Yardbirds T-shirt for sale at Record Theatre in Rochester, wanting it, but reluctantly moving on because the store didn't have one in my size. But the '80s opened the floodgates for my fresh sea of Ts. Johnny Thunders! More Ramones! Batman! Um...Madonna. It was free. And, if memory serves, Ms. Ciccone wasn't wearing a shirt herself in the image on the front, her strategically-placed arm securing the modicum of modesty necessary for one to wear the T-shirt in polite company.

'80s, '90s, and into the 21st century. I had souvenir Ts from visits to Key West, Yosemite, Peel Pub in Montreal, and Malaga, several shirts depicting images of Batman and/or The Joker, shirts dressed with logos or likenesses of The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Wonders (from That Thing You Do!), The Cavern Club, Gerber Music, The Beatles, Lannie Flowers, The Catholic Girls, Coca-Cola, Harry Potter, Syracuse University basketball, Spider-Man...! Some I outgrew, some I replaced. I still wear 'em, from early, early spring to late, late fall.




My favorite T-shirt? The Kinks. People notice it pretty much every time I wear it, and I wear it often. Am I a dedicated follower of fashion? No, plainly not. I read the book, I saw the movie. Now just lemme have my T-shirts.

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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

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