Bill Bartell was a multifaceted individual who traversed the punk rock scene, law enforcement, rodeo riding, and country | dG1fdFZPdDA5WFIxSk0
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00:00My friend Bill Bartell, he has a record label called Gassetanka Records and he was in White
00:12Flag and he's friends with Red Cross. He's a very nice guy. He has a mustache. And all
00:18these kids running around shouting no values, anarchy. They don't know what anarchy is all
00:21about. If there was anarchy in this society, punks would be the first people to go. Take
00:24my word for it. He was part of that original LA punk rock scene. What about the name?
00:29White Flag. What about it? White Flag, first off, it's a takeoff of the band Black Flag.
00:35Their logo is the sideways bars. Already I'm laughing, you know, before I even hear them.
00:39I asked Henry if they were a real band. He goes, I'm not sure, but we're playing with
00:44them in three weeks. It's not usually like this. It's usually worse. It's going to be
00:49terrible all night. This guy is different from everybody else. He's an anomaly. He's
00:54a freak. He's fascinating. That's why we're talking about like, you know, punk rock
00:58Zellig. But, you know, he was kind of an everyman. He was definitely everywhere. And
01:01he knew everybody. But I didn't know much about him.
01:04He's a mystery. We used to think that he was CIA. He's CIA is impossible.
01:11Because he'd say so many outrageous things. And then some of them would turn out to be
01:15true.
01:15That's so amazing.
01:17I never knew where the bullshit ended and the truth began with Bill.
01:21They're telling me Bill the cop. I'm like, yeah, I don't believe you, but maybe I do.
01:25But he certainly knew how to walk the walk and talk the talk of being a cop. It's sort
01:30of like a gay porn film version of a cop.
01:33Are you a police officer? And he's like, no, no, maybe I am.
01:37He had these different lives. He's a cop and a punk.
01:40I remember sitting there watching these cops hassling all these people, having them against
01:44the wall and Bill's hanging out with the cops.
01:46The cop I know, he's crazy. I can't believe you people gave him a gun.
01:51Altered serial number. Violation of 537E of the PM code.
01:55And then soon after, he becomes a rodeo rider.
01:58Riding a bull. Bill Bartell riding a bull.
02:00Is he riding bulls? I don't know. It's possible.
02:03All of a sudden he started wearing cowboy pants.
02:05Cowboy hats and the mustache got bigger.
02:07Then I heard he was riding bulls.
02:09Well, why shouldn't he be famous in a country band?
02:12Is that the real Bill? Is that the guy that I always missed out on?
02:17There's nobody like him. He's a tour de force.
02:20He brought a lot of music to a lot of people.
02:23And he was able to hear something and see something that not everybody could see.
02:28He changes musical history from the background and nobody even realizes that it's happening.
02:34Bill Bartell, you think you don't know him, but in fact, some bit of pop culture that you
02:42know about or love, you owe directly to him. It's because of him.
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