The Ghillie Shirt

[pbutts]

Context, and authenticity. Lets remove the Scottish element and substitute say, a tie dyed shirt. On the back of a frat boy at a party, paired with a fake wig, its costume, on the back of a person who has been "On the Bus" with jam bands their whole life, its a piece of, well, cultural dress......


But these gillie shirts have no actual basis in Scottish culture, they are, pardon my pun, cut from the whole cloth of costume.

This is is actually a really good analogy. When I’m not piping, my other musical obsession is the Grateful Dead (and yes, I’ve worn a kilt to Dead related shows). Before the late 1970s, there was very little tie dye on tour with the Dead. The tie dyed tour shirt was very much a creation of the mid-80s revival that took place after the Dead finally had a number one hit and a video on MTV.

it doesn’t take long for cultural revisionism to take hold.....