Interview with Ellen Bottas, June 3, 2010

Interview Summary

Ellen Bottas talks about how the punk scene began to emerge in America around 1978, especially in California. She talks about punk as a rejection of mainstream culture. Bottas talks about what the punk scene was like in Lexington, Kentucky in 1979. She talks about some of the people involved in the scene and their attitudes at the time. She talks about the cultural transition from the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s to the punk scene of the late seventies. She talks about some of the bands she was in at the time, including The Ex-Chinese and Idiot Savant (IS), and talks about winning a battle of the bands to open for Loverboy. Bottas talks about some of the unusual influences on punk musicians in the mid-to-late 1980s, including the drug LSD, musicians like Neil Diamond, and honky-tonk music. She talks about how the punk scene was changed by these influences. Bottas talks about whether she felt like the punk scene was a community. She says that it felt like protection from the mainstream culture. Bottas talks about how her time in the punk scene in the 1970s and 1980s influenced her life, despite living a fairly mainstream life now.

Interview Keyword

Counterculture Mainstream culture The Chinese (Musical group) The Ex-Chinese (Musical group) Idiot Savant (Musical group) Musical influences Underground scene

Interview LC Subject

Punk rock music. Punk rock music--Philosophy and aesthetics. Punk rock musicians. Punk culture. Bands (Music) Musical groups. Lexington (Ky.)

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.