Photo Courtesty of the Smithsonian (leather jacket); Chris Osgood (suicide commandos)
Suicide Commandos, in the ’70s.
For Chris Osgood (far right), a moto-inspired leather jacket was his uniform while touring with his band, Suicide Commandos, in the ’70s.
Punk rock’s origin stories typically focus on New York City and London, so how did a jacket from Minneapolis, worn by Suicide Commandos guitarist Chris Osgood, catch the eye of John Troutman, the Smithsonian’s curator of American music?
“One element that we liked so much about the story of the Commandos is that it speaks to some of the earliest stirrings of the punk movement in the interior of the country,” says Troutman, who believes that the genre may have been more transformative in local scenes and communities than in the larger metropoles.
Initially, Osgood offered some old guitars from the trio’s touring days, but the discussion turned to stage gear after Troutman spotted Osgood’s black Perfecto-style jacket—a gift purchased by his parents in 1977 from Berman Buckskin (which became Wilsons Leather in the ’80s).
“The donning of the jackets signals shared values and spirit within a nationwide network of local music scenes, traversed by bands and scenesters alike,” says Troutman.
Now part of the National Museum of American History collection, the lived-in jacket was Osgood’s constant companion on Commando tours. He even sported it while performing at legendary Twin Cities venues (like Jay’s Longhorn Bar—AKA “The Longhorn”) during the band’s heyday.
“That jacket was my exoskeleton for some of the most fun and meaningful chapters of my life,” says Osgood.
