THE DEAD BOYS

The Dead Boys were only the band the Sex Pistols could have been. Now to be fair, the Sex Pistols probably were more influential, innovative and important and Never Mind the Bollocks... probably is better than either Dead Boys' album but I vastly prefer the Dead Boys and isn't that what really counts? Whilst you think that over, I shall point out that, although the Dead Boys were probably the New York punk band closest to the Sex Pistols model they were not just mere rip-offs and, in all likelihood, probably formed and developed at around the same time; and certainly not much later. Although they only produced two albums I seriously think combining the highlights of the two would produce perhaps the greatest punk album ever. Of course that would be cheating, so I can only curse their artistic irresponsibility in putting too much filler on both albums. Certainly, though, their overall recorded output is up there with any punk band. I also find their cartoon nihilism and over-the-top punk posturing far wittier and more intelligent (in a dumb way) than their British contemporaries. Of course the twist was that the Dead Boys were not some nice middle-class lads playing the post-modern card but actually lived the life their lyrics portrayed. I guess it is the fact that they did not take themselves seriously, even though they could be entirely entitled to, that makes Stiv Bators a far less irritating character than Johnny Rotten.

To be honest, it is difficult to put my finger on why exactly I so prefer New York punks like the Dead Boys to their essentially similar British peers but, presuming that I'm not completely irrational, there must be some reason. Certainly the twin guitar assault of Cheetah Chrome and Jimmy Zero (probably not their real names) is as impressive as any rock'n'roll band's frontal assault. By and large I'm not concerned about whether people could play their instruments but there is no doubting the Dead Boys, along with all the good New York punk bands, were extremely proficient (after all, some of their former band-mates went on to form the ultra-arty Pere Ubu). Stiv Bators is also a great frontman, although a little too vulgar for my tastes (does he always have to do that pose with his pubic hair?), and his vocals are a perfect combination of bark and snarl - like Iggy Pop but unique enough to avoid descending into tribute territory. He also possessed a sharp sense of humour that prevents his ridiculous misogyny from being taken too seriously (whether or not it should be is a different matter). Like I said, although it sounds like he is playing some ludicrous "evil punk" role there is always just enough of a hint that he might not be to leave it ambiguous. Sadly Stiv was run over by a bus in Paris in the early nineties - one of the more unusual rock star deaths. Despite all these words of praise the Dead Boys are actually one of the more forgotten bands of the era. Obviously they still have some fans (Guns n'Roses most notably) but nothing like what they deserve (their albums tend to drift out of print). Indeed, I'm here to right the wrongs of the world. You want the best ever American punk band (excluding the Ramones, Heartbreakers and probably some others)? Then, what you need sir, is the Dead Boys.

So, as I was saying, the first half of this album is the best punk music ever laid down on a side of vinyl. We all know the greatest ever punk album is LAMF by Johnny Thunders and his loveable Heartbreakers but even the first half of that gets burned off by the unrelenting brilliance of the first six songs or so on this album. Unfortunately the filler on here is as shocking as the killer is awesome so the overall quality is simply not good enough to warrant absolute classic status. As I've already said, if they delayed recording this album for a year, so they could include the highlights of their second album, they would have been responsible for probably the greatest ever punk album. Sadly, of course, they didn't. The fact that the brutal "What Love Is" (surprisingly not a cover of Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is") and the hilarious (as long as you're not listening with your girlfriend) "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth" are not highlights of the first half just shows the quality of the other four tracks. Ne'er is there a greater statement of intent than album opener "Sonic Reducer" for which Stiv's snarl brilliantly overemphasises the comic lyrics, which memorably begin: "I don't need anyone, don't need no mom and dad, don't need no pretty face, don't need no human race". Unsurprisingly the song was regarded as their signature tune but, even so and despite its brilliance, it isn't their best. Such an accolade might fall upon the following "All This and More" which features one of the best sloppy chord sequences I've ever heard. Along with "Caught With the Meat in Your Mouth" it certainly shows up their debt to the Rolling Stones. The lyrics are, of course, ridiculously misogynist but it is never clear exactly how far Bators is playing on his punk persona. Or, indeed, how much of this persona is made up for the benefit of the listener. In any case, the song sounds brilliantly debauched, as if the band were so wasted they were struggling to keep it together. Much as it wavers the threatened collapse never arrives and, indeed, the driving chorus is strangely affirming. And if that is not the best song, how about "Not Anymore"? I guess it represents the ballad on the album with it being played at a slow pace with threatening but sombre guitar picking and Stiv dwelling on his alienated lyrics a little more than usual. Although it is one of the more theatrical numbers it is actually the least over-the-top and certainly marks a change of atmosphere before what actually is the best song on the album - "Ain't Nothin' to Do". The initial thundering guitars serve as the perfect introduction before the song takes off as a high-paced rocker with Stiv spitting out lines about teenage dissatisfaction and the general boredom of being stuck in a small town. It is little exaggeration to call it one of my all-time favourite punk songs as the rock'n'roll rush of it is absolutely exhilarating - definitely a classic of the genre. Luckily we even get to hear it twice on the same album as, in the worst excuse for filler I've ever seen, this album ends with a "medley" of "Not Anymore" and "Ain't Nothin' to Do". I could possibly understand such an inclusion if the songs were recorded live (the wry cover "Hey Little Girl" was recorded live at the CBGB's) and thus sounded substantially different from the studio versions but that certainly isn't the case here. The two songs are even next to each other on the first side so there is absolutely nothing new to be gained. Furthermore, although not unexpectedly, despite mostly sounding exactly the same neither version is as good as the individual efforts. Scant though it would have been I still think a 30 minute 10 song album would have been preferable. Of course that is made worse by the fact that three songs ("I Need Lunch", "High Tension Wire" and, particularly, "Down in Flames") are nothing special themselves. Certainly it is a bitter disappointment that, after such a superlative first half, this album should peter out into not much in particular, bar a sad waste of time. I know punks traditionally aren't supposed to care about anything but would a little more time spent on writing some better songs have killed them? And even if it did it would still have been a more dignified death than Stiv's eventual fate.

From: Edwin D. Oslan

I like reading other's opinions about music I love but what about the freakin Dictators???? Plus, I believe the corny medley at the end of Young Loud and Snotty was added as a bonus track on the 1992 sire reissue and not on the original, which was a 10 song 30 minute album. Love the dead boys and by the looks of your site, you've read Please Kill Me or were you there when it was taking place?

[Yeah, I've read Please Kill Me. OK book, great bands - JF]

Produced by ex-Cream producer Felix Pappalardi the Dead Boys' second and final studio album is often too swiftly disregarded in favour of its more popular predecessor. This album is perhaps something of a rerun in terms of image and attitude, and therefore I can see why the debut is preferable in that respect, but the songwriting is definitely more mature second time around and, most importantly, there is far less filler on here. "Calling On You" and "Dead and Alive" I could take or leave and the two semi-joke covers of "Big City" and the Stones' "Tell Me" are nothing exciting (although I do think the latter exceeds the original) but even those four are a clear cut above the filler on Young Loud and Snotty. On the other hand, the four classics on the debut are matched in fame only by Peter Laughner's "Ain't it Fun" but there still remains tracks on here that I could listen to every day for the rest of my life and not get sick of. Furthermore, despite the general critical grumbles, I actually think Pappalardi's production is superior to the debut and, indeed, this is one of the best produced punk albums I've heard; certainly superior to Phil Spector's job on the Ramones' End of the Century. Every instrument is clear but still distorted and dirty and, although the album does have a sheen to it, it is not at all detrimental and gives the album a unified roar. It does sound like his production on Cream's albums but it is to his credit that his style can still sound impressive with a garage-schooled punk band. The stylistic range on this album is also slightly more diverse than on the debut. "Ain't it Fun" is not a million miles away from the dynamics of "Not Anymore" but the theatrical "Son of Sam", complete with gun-shot and scream sound-effects, sounds more like something Alice Cooper would do than the Dead Boys and there is a contrast between the poppy numbers like "3rd Generation Nation" and "I Won't Look Back" and the aggressive roar of "Flame Thrower Love". Indeed the latter number, despite not registering on the classic punk radar, is one of the best songs the Boys ever did and certainly one of my favourite punk songs. Pappalardi's production aids the guttural roar of the guitars and Stiv's bark is only matched by the brilliance of his nihilistic lyrics - "I don't care about living and I don't care if I die" is my favourite lyrical couplet ever. Another personal favourite of mine is the witty "(I Don't Wanna Be No) Catholic Boy". In fact it even sounds like a post-modern joke of a punk song, thanks to the lyrics and ironic delivery of Bators, but that only makes it even more enjoyable and further proof that it was the willingness of the Dead Boys to not take punk too seriously that makes them so endearing. Well, maybe "endearing" is the wrong word - try "cool" instead. In fact it is unsurprising so many songs on here should be personal favourites as this album as a whole has been played constantly by my good self for well over a year. If I was to draw up a Top Ten favourites list (as distinct from a Best Of list) this album would certainly be on it. Even though Young Loud and Snotty had a peerless first half, the initial side on here is almost as good. In fact, it is ultimately more consistent as every track up to "Son of Sam" I've included as a best track. Opener "3rd Generation Nation" shows the Dead Boys had definitely matured into their sound and the following "I Won't Look Back" is a pop-punk classic, even if Stiv's vocals are hardly bland Blink 182 fodder. By far and away the most famous track on the album, and thanks largely to Guns n'Roses' popularity, is the closing "Ain't it Fun". The guitar interplay between the picked chords and roving lead shows all too clearly that the Dead Boys were proficient musicians and Stiv certainly feels the lyrics - about the costs of being a punk rocker ("ain't it fun when you know that you're gonna die young" being particularly appropriate for original author Laughner). In any case, it is a fitting last word from the Dead Boys (particularly given their previous blase attitude towards life) and is an absolutely fantastic song. Unfortunately this album suffers from much the same faults as the first, only to a lesser extent, and you simply cannot have a 30 minute album with filler on if you want it to achieve classic status. I'm sure it ain't keeping the remaining Dead Boys awake at night, though, and it certainly does not prevent me from cherishing this album as a milestone in rock'n'roll.

As with most bands that are not very popular either during their time or now there aren't many live albums available for the Dead Boys and I imagine quality is something of a sticking-point. Liver than You'll Ever Be documents an eighties reunion concert and All This and More is a double CD compilation but, for the moment, I have to make do with this album, re-released in 1993 on Bomp!. The story behind this album is a rather interesting one which I'll do my best to summarise as crudely and inaccurately as possible. After releasing We Have Come For Your Children and unaware that they were to become, twenty-five years later, one of Jack Feeny's favourite bands the Dead Boys decided to split up. Unfortunately for them the record company demanded they release a live album to satisfy contractual obligations and therefore one last gig was played at the CBGB's in March 1979. However, in true punk style, Stiv sang the entire set deliberately off-mike so the eventual tapes were unusable. However, a new record label managed to spruce up the recordings sufficiently to get an entire concert of music and persuaded Stiv to re-record his vocals in a studio. However, they still needed some patented Stiv banter so he brought in some wasted punk groupies to form the "audience" for the re-recording. Therefore, what we have here is perhaps the world's only acknowledged fake live album. A pertinent question for you to raise at this juncture is "how does it sound?". Well, it actually doesn't sound overdubbed and the sound quality itself is certainly passable if not the world's cleanest, crispest live recording (which would hardly be the case anyway). Of course it is hard to shake off the knowledge that it isn't live-as-it-happens so the enjoyment is a little bit tempered. Secondly, the handful of groupies don't really make much of a noise in between songs (other than a piercing scream at the beginning) but Stiv still manages to steal the show with some witty, in a knowing sense, banter. At one point he tells them "you're all on the guest-list" and over the introduction to the set closer, "Sonic Reducer", he cries out "I need the money!" as a droll admission of the circumstances. In fairness, even his banter that doesn't relate to his overdubbing is pretty amusing. He does Johnny Rotten's "rrrrrrrright" over the intro of "I Won't Look Back", introduces "Sonic Reducer" as "a song we just wrote about a week ago" and refers to the Jagger/Richards composition "Tell Me" as being written by "Russell from the Sick Fucks". The set itself contains most of the hits from both albums ("Flame Thrower Love" is the only disappointing exclusion) and they are all performed competently, without particularly exceeding the originals. Given live performances are usually most interesting due to their on-the-spot impact it is unsurprising that nothing here really blows me away. The album begins with an unreleased track, "Detention Home", which I presume uses original vocals as it isn't part of Stiv's studio track and, either way, is a pretty good song. "Caught with the Meat in Your Mouth" is pretty spritely and the WHCFYC numbers "Catholic Boy" and "Ain't it Fun" remain perfectly enjoyable. "Sonic Reducer" also works well as a set-closer. Bomp!'s reissue includes five songs from a "Dead Boys" last-ever reunion concert (just Stiv and Cheetah) in 1987, which, according to the sleeve-notes, was just a scam by Stiv to get a free plane ticket back to the States from London. Anyway, although the material isn't overdubbed, there is little to justify its inclusion (although the Stones' covers "Route 66" and "It's All Over Now" are OK) and the extended banter gets very boring very quickly. Indeed, it is lucky it is only bonus material (and therefore not counted) as the extra half hour would definitely knock the grade down a mark. As it is, I'm willing to stretch to 7* for the original concert as the fraudulent nature of it does not completely mar decent live renditions. Still, it would be nice to know that there is a really good live Dead Boys album out there somewhere.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk