Long live Mike Burkett.
3/11/09
When I was a teenager
My hero was Fat Mike
The singer of NOFX
I had all their CD’s
Even the old stuff
And I still know all the words
To their 18 minute song ‘The Decline’
As Mitch Clem pointed out
Their only album that doesn’t have
At least one terrible song
‘The Longest Line’
Was the second sing I ever learned on guitar
Fat Mike had a record label
‘Fat Wreck Chords’
That signed half of all
My favourite bands
And all the CD’s
Were $10 bucks
Instead of $30 for everything else
I had their poster on my wall
And used to quote the onstage banter
Of their live album
With my punk rock mates
They covered the song ‘Vincent’
The first song to ever make me cry
They lost something of their magic
As they grew into middle age
But their stuff still moves me to this day
I still think about Fat Mike
—
In high school everyone knew me as the kid in the NOFX shirt and I still listen to them after all these years and follow them on the web as they age disgracefully.
Fat Mike’s record label combined with Epitaph records helped define the punk genre through the 90s,00s and to this day and the 90’s punk wave helped define who I am as a human being.
Long live Mike Burkett.