Wednesday is “X Day” in Los Angeles after the City Council made the declaration in honor of the legendary punk band, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
X got its start in L.A. in the late 1970s and found success in the ’80s with records that included “Los Angeles,” “Wild Gift” and “Under the Big Black Sun.” According to Rolling Stone magazine, “X emerged from the L.A. punk scene as the most critically lauded American band of the early ’80s.”
In celebration of the band’s 40th anniversary, the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A. will debut X: 40 Years of Punk in Los Angeles on Friday, and the exhibit will run through spring 2018.
“On behalf of the band we are humbled and honored that you would notice us. We are all dreamers in this band. We just dreamed something up and it became real, and that’s something that can happen in Los Angeles and the West,” band member John Doe said to the council. “You can just introduce yourself as John Doe and after a while someone goes, `Oh, there’s John Doe.”‘
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson said the band’s song “Los Angeles” was one of the greatest ones about the city along with Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” Ice Cube’s “Today Was a Good Day,” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.”
The song helped “make Los Angeles the creative capital of the world that it is. You can come here, put your stake in the ground, express yourself and not only be accepted here but the world over,” Harris-Dawson said
–City News Service