Song:I Love Livin' In The City
Album:The Record
Like many 70s punk bands, Fear was more notorious than popular. They were a big part of establishing the Los Angeles punk scene and notorious for a 1981 appearance on Saturday Night Live. The leader of Fear was Lee Ving (born Lee James Capallero April 10, 1950 in Philadelphia). He started out playing blues in local clubs and then he moved to Los Angeles in 1975. He formed Fear with bassist Derf Scratch (Fred Milner) in 1977. Though they weren't original members, guitarist Philo Cramer and drummer Spit Stix (Tim Leitch) were members for Fear's run from 1978-82. I Love Livin' In The City was Fear's first single in 1977. It's probably their best known song. Director Penelope Spheeris was looking for bands to appear in her documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization. She met Ving and he agreed to appear in the film. They performed a very profane (NSFW) version of I Love Livin' In The City in the film. At the time Spheeris was married to Slash Records president Bob Biggs. He signed Fear to a record deal and The Record was released in 1982. The film got them a lot of attention including from John Belushi. At first he wanted them to appear in his film Neighbors but the film producers nixed that. So instead he got them to appear on a 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live. Their appearance on the show was notorious because of thousands of dollars of damage to the studio caused by slamdancers including Belushi. Ving inflated the amount of damage because he thought the notoriety would help the band. It didn't. Fear continued though obviously they were always going to be a cult band. The record is available on CD. Fear continues to play occasional shows and Ving has had a decent acting career on the side. Here's Fear performing I Love Livin' In The City in the 1981 film The Decline Of Western Civilization.
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