Greg Sage (born October 21, 1951) is an American songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist, regarded as an important influence on many punk rock and post-punk artists. Sage is best known as the principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist of the influential Portland, Oregon-based band Wipers.
Early life
Sage was born in Portland, Oregon, on October 21, 1951. His involvement with music began with cutting records at home as an adolescent, due to his father being involved in the broadcast industry. Sage’s first instrument was bass guitar, because of the low tones that made larger grooves in the vinyl records due to slower modulations. Basses were harder to find and much more expensive when Sage was in grade school, so he used guitar instead.
Sage has been involved in music professionally since the age of 17, when he worked on a full-length album by the professional wrestler Beauregarde (Beauregard, 1971; re-released 2004). After several years of playing and recording guitar, Sage founded Wipers in Portland in 1977.
In 1979, Sage established his own record label, Trap, and asked several Portland punk bands to record singles. Some of those early bands were The Stiphnoyds, The Neo Boys and Sado Nation. Sage later re-released some of the material on a compilation record entitled The History Of Portland Punk.
Solo career
Since the demise of Wipers, Sage has also recorded several albums as a solo musician and operates his own label, Zeno Records, based in Phoenix, Arizona, where he currently resides. He usually plays on a 1969 left-handed Gibson SG with P-90 pickups and a Bigsby tremolo.
Discography
Solo albums
- Straight Ahead (1985)
- Sacrifice (For Love) (1991)
With Wipers
- Is This Real? (1980)
- Youth of America (1981)
- Over the Edge (1983)
- Land of the Lost (1986)
- Follow Blind (1987)
- The Circle (1988)
- Silver Sail (1993)
- The Herd (1996)
- Power in One (1999)
External links
- The Wipers official homepage
- Greg Sage at TapeOp.com
- Wayback Machine – Greg says he was 17 when he met Beauregarde in 1969.