128. John Doe

To many, John Doe and his L.A. band X represented music and fans that were scary and unknowable. To others, punk was poetry set to a visceral sound that connected way beyond words. Before we talk to one of the most influential poets of the punk movement, we offer some context from Kierkegaard: “What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music. And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon….the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.” To blissful, add electrifying, defining, and the inspiration for a generation of kids, bands, artists, punks and future poets, all bound and determined to do things their own way.