WayBack Wednesday - The Dictators
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Artist:
The 1975 debut album from "The Tators" holds a spot in Rock n' Roll history.
The Dictators were 'Politically Incorrect' long before the phrase was uttered; songs like "Go Back To Africa"
and "Master Race Rock"
mocked 70's conventional serious rock with so much gusto, it's hard to believe that so few got the joke.
Somehow, despite being once written up as Epic records' worst selling lp ever, it has managed to stay in print. That's amazing, considering that "The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!" falls stylistically somewhere between Blue Oyster Cult and The Ramones. (By the way, The Ramones were still one year away from releasing their classic debut, compare The Dictator's "California Sun"
to The Ramones' on "Leave Home" for an influence check.)
From Wiki:
The Dictators are an American punk rock band formed in New York City in 1973. Critic John Dougan said that they were "one of the finest and most influential proto-punk bands to walk the earth." The Dictators are represented in the "Punk Wing" of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio. Steven Van Zandt called them "The connective tissue between the eras of The MC5, Stooges, NY Dolls, and the punk explosion of the mid to late 1970's"
Teengenerate
"Yeah, the Dictators. The band that embodied all the elements of junk culture (when it wasn't cool) and threw it right back in the public's and the perplexed critics' faces. A band that helped put a bit of the fun back in rock 'n' roll when it was becoming way too serious, obviously ahead of its time and, while influential on many underground bands (as well as better-known acts), never really getting the credit they deserved. Well, fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."-- Suburban Voice Fanzine #26
Weekend
"The Dictators, a New York institution since 1974, were -- and are -- one of these bands that got screwed by poor timing. Making the scene when the New York Dolls were crapping out as trash-rock saviors and being just a little too instrumentally savvy to completely fit in with the CBGB punks that they are always lumped in with, the 'Tators weren't `too much too soon' or even too little too late. They were outcasts in a scene of outcasts..." -- RollingStone.com
(I Live for) Cars and Girls (for Beach Boy fans ;-)
Locating MOG account...
Comments (10)
We actually got the joke and we still get it now, although via blogs and texts. Seems like they meant well but i'm not sure about the Rollingstone.com quote. Either way, real glad you posted this and i'll steer some of them to read it.
Too much for Dr. Demento or Weird Al Yankovic?
nah, those guys were/are about comedy
these guys were social commentary with a tongue in cheek flair
Oooga Chucka!
The Sound seems a bit too clean fro punk. Which sorta reveals the parody. Fun. Master Race has that Hungry Freaks Daddy in-your-face thing down pat. But skatalogical. They really rock out.
Hooray for political incorrectness. Music (blues, punk, reggae, etc.) was doing all these unpleasant things before the particular kind of unpleasant was made marketable and prefab cool via popular media. I remember in my early twenties that, when a punk rock record did not make me cringe or turn away or got disgusted a few times, I got disappointed and thought it couldn't possibly be punk.
how very true - it had to be "out there" to deserve the moniker.
good point!
Iggy Pop said in a recent interview that he and the band identified a long list of things the music must NOT be. Nice things, as I recall. But offiensive was not on the list. "It had to get up and walk around...."
....these guys crack me up! And yes, a rougher around the edge Weird Al came to mind.
The Ramones were perhaps influenced by the Dictators some!
though I think Weird Al's only intent was/is to be humorous, whereas these guys were mocking the norms of the day in a humorous fashion.
That is a big part of why the norm's of today have a chip on their shoulders. :-)
good point!