Has anybody ever heard this record before? Will anybody take my recommendation to listen to this immediately, seriously? I'm probably talking into a void here, but for those fortunate few who want to listen, here we go: Before the Beastie Boys, Spinal Tap, and The Darkness there was The Dictators. I realize that judging from my picks so far, you all probably think that I'm fifty years old. Nope, I'm still but a sprout, relatively speaking. I just have this kind of haphazard way of finding obscure stuff in record stores.
"Go Girl Crazy" was released in 1975 abouts and was the Dictators first LP. They were part of the original CBGB's scene. While they are true punks in behavior and heart, they took a more stoopid "RAWK" approach to their music. The best part of this album is how funny the whole thing is. How can you take yourself too seriously as a band when your leader goes by the rasslin' moniker of "Handsome Dick Manitoba"? The opener is a little ditty about fame, called "The Next Big Thing", but it's also their wake up call to the state of the pop music world. A fun song and it has some great dumb guitar riffs: easy to learn too, kiddies. The next tune is a royally obnoxious cover of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe." It works my funny bone pretty good. These next two tunes are great. "Back to Africa" and "Master Race Rock" are entirely politically incorrect, but it's all farcical. Master Race Rock has a killer chorus to sing along to. I wish I could be playing it here for you now.
My favorites of this album are these two: "Teengenerate" and "Two Tub Man". Teengenerate has this line that just cracks me up, "Who's that boy with the sandwich in his hand?" I don't know why I find it funny, I just do. Two Tub Man is good for cranking loud. Its contents deal with the larger-than-life persona that is Manitoba. Several peiced together lines say it all, "I can go anywhere. People look and people stare.... (it's feeding time).... Do what ever I want to do...who I want to screw I'll screw!" The remaining stand out track in my opinion is "Cars and Girls", a kind of silly Beach Boys send off, but also a lament of the 70's gas crisis. The best parts of this record are of the man himself, Handsome Dick Manitoba. He has these little intro bits that are pretty hilarious where he does his pro-rasslin' shtick. Buy, beg, borrow, or steal this album. Unless you are a complete wet rag, you will not regret it. Don't take my word for it because, as the man himself exclaimed, "They're all going under the thunder of Manitobaaaaa."
Play it loudest!
5 comments:
I love this record. Its funny as hell, but the music is amazing.
Prospect, you get the honor of being the person to break this blog's cherry. I totally agree with you. My problem is that I decided to go vinyl on this one, which is fine at home, but I need to crank it in my ride. I must get this one on CD now and maybe get their next couple of releases. I hear that "Blood Brothers" is a great one of theirs too. I don't know if there is any truth to this, but I heard that one of the members of The Dictators was also in the original lineup of Twisted Sister.
People, I can't cover all that is punk, because I also have other tastes. For most of your punk needs see Prospect's blog. I've got a link here on this sight that you can access his blog from.
Oh yes! The Dictators are the toughest, roughest, loudest coolest band from New York City. They took music back to basics, back to the land of junk culture. I think they came out right before the the Ramones? Thanks for the blast from the past! And yet another great post!
Thanks, Dabugg. It's good to see that there are others in this world who know about this group. I promise that I'll also have another post coming for Tales of an Irresponsible Time Traveler. I had to work out some technical aspects of the way that I felt that saga should go.
I'll seek out this record
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