Greg Graffin of the band Bad Religion. Photo - Wikipedia
By
TheSequitur.com Managing Editor Oct. 17, 2006
MAITLAND, Fla. -- The expression of free speech manifests itself in many ways - sometimes through civil privilege like in politics and placards, other times it is expressed indirectly through the musical and visual arts. While both avenues provide equal influence, music has always proven to be a veritable vessel for one’s personal perspective.
One voice from the punk rock mob has reverberated throughout counter-culture and into the mainstream. Formally known as Dr. Gregory Walter Graffin, he is better known as Greg Graffin, the intellectual vocalist of the band Bad Religion and co-founder of the accomplished Epitaph Records music label. As if that were not enough, he also found the time to complete a PhD in evolutionary paleontology at Cornell, after studying for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UCLA.
The influence that Greg has had on the youth of America and Europe over the last couple for decades can be affirmed by the success of mainstream artists such as Green Day and the Offspring, as well as well as the overall acceptance of his own band, Bad Religion. A pillar of the pantheon of punk, and widely regarded as the tugboat that nudged the underground 80’s punk scene into the pop-culture explosion of the 90’s, Graffin and comrade Brett Gurewitz are credited with facilitating the Grunge era as well influencing a generation of conscientious voters.
Without regard to the moral values hailed at the time by figures like Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center, he and Gurewitz drew their own political lines by addressing the issues that they saw pertinent. The duo persevered at a time when conservatism was in vogue and their message was viewed as radical. The underground community held fast to the buoyant concepts, and in due time, their relevance became overtly evident.
A devout atheist, many of Greg’s lyrics are devoted to ideas that embody atheism and agnosticism. Comprehensively, both Brett and Greg have devoted their influential efforts against organized religion, and effectively the so-called establishment. Though these ideals currently are not widely accepted, one cannot ignore when the writing on the wall is that of an intelligent individual.
Dr. Graffin delivers his message in an accessible and credible style, concisely and with concrete convictions. While one may perceive his ideals as uber-liberal, the corpus of Dr. Graffin’s work will reflect his equal criticism for each presidential administration since 1980: Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr., similar shards of scrutiny were showered all across the political spectrum from the outspoken lyricist.
If you browse through the Bad Religion discography, and also of the entire catalogue of Epitaph Records, you will find that the writing on the wall was scrawled much earlier than many of us thought. While no one was looking, someone was looking out for the rest of us. Someone who knows what he’s talking about. You don’t have to like Bad Religion, but you have got to love your freedom of speech. [Wikipedia, NYRock, Answers.com, Epitaph Records, CelebAtheists.com]
Fire in a Theater compiles the most important and most interesting world news on free speech, open government, Big Brother, media rights and other topics First Amendment freaks care about.
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