It's hard to believe that we're raising a generation, a teenage wasteland generation who have little or no knowledge of the Dictators, one of the monster bands of all time, the band that should've been the next big thing when they staked their claim for rock 'n' roll stardom in the mid-'70s. Long before the Beastie Boys, there were the Dictators posin' at the White Castle on the innersleeve of their debut album. Long before all the Hulkamaniacs came out of the woodwork, the Dictators extolled the virtues of that king of sports, pro wrestling, and in their ranks was a man of the squared circle, wrestling legend Handsome Dick Manitoba, the "handsomest man in rock 'n' roll" and the originator of the rock & wrestling connection--sorta puts tripe like "Piledriver" to shame.
The Dictators came off as a heavy metal joke band, a bunch of punks before there was punk rock (as labeled by the media). Critics had no idea what to make of such seeminly bizarre humor delivered with all the musical subtlety of a bodyslam. They were ahead of their time. If the Dics' first LP had come out in '78 instead of '75, it probably would've gotten a lot more acclaim and the band just might have been a step closer to the superstardom that eluded them. Maybe ...
It all started in NYC in 1973. Bassist/vocalist Adny (Andy) Shernoff, rock critic and editor of the fanzine "Teenage Wasteland Gazette," founded the band, which included guitarists Ross the Boss and Top Ten (Scott Kempner) and drummer Stu-Boy King. Handsome Dick entered the picture as well, becoming the group's road manager when no one could figure out any formal job for him to tackle. But, according to Adny, "he seemed destined for greater things, even then." The Handsome One wasn't exactly a success as a road manager, breaking amps and one night driving their truck right into the club where they were opening. A despondent Dick got drunk and surprised everyone by taking the stage to belt out "Wild Thing" and a star was born--the Dictators' Secret Weapon had arrived.
Somehow, the band got signed to Epic and their first album is their masterpiece--"The Dictators Go Girl Crazy," with (not-yet fulltime frontman) Handsome Dick's imposing figure smiling at you from the cover and a carload of hard rocking teenage anthems and goofy cover versions contained inside, making for one of the greatest longplayers ever unleashed on the consuming public. No wonder those rock critics didn't know what to make of Dick and Andy croonin' "I Got You Babe" or the penultimate cry that they were the "members of the master race" ("Master Race Rock"). And it takes a genius to come up with a couplet like "I knocked 'em dead in Dallas, and I didn't pay my dues/Yeah, I knocked 'em dead in Dallas. They didn't know we were Jews." Who could forget Dick's spiel of bravado that preceeds "Two Tub Man" or the odes to living for the "Weekend" and "Cars and Girls." Rock 'n' roll the way it was meant to be--loud, obnoxious and, most importantly, FUN. A slap in the face to the pretensions of the '70s and a timeless classic that sounds even better as the years pass. The toughest Dics' album to find and the most essential.
The band hit some rough times after their auspicious but virtually ignored debut. Epic dropped the band, personnel shuffles led to a six-man lineup for the second album, with King replaced by Ritchie Teeter, Shernoff shifted to keyboards and newcomer Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (later in Twisted Sister) brought in on bass. Their second LP, "Manifest Destiny," released in 1977 on Asylum, suffered from some unevenness, going for more of a mainstream pop/hard rock sound, although there are some certifiable 'Tators classics--"Young, Fast & Scientific," a blistering cover of "Search & Destroy" and the incredible, high-powered rave-up of "Science Gone Too Far." Shernoff, always an underrated songwriter, still showed a knack for clever, off the wall lyrics, and there was more vulnerability shown inside the cheeky framework on the poppier tunes. A good album, but definitely paling next to "Go Girl Crazy," except for the last half of side 2 ("Science," "Young, Fast," "S & D").
The band rebounded with "Bloodbrothers," which ended up as their last studio album. Mendoza was gone and Shernoff back on bass and the album favored a leaner, meaner, stripped-down sound, forging an alliance between straight-on aggro and a strong pop hookiness as the band was still trying for that ever-elusive mass appeal. The steaming "Faster and Louder" leads it off with a blast, "The Minnesota Strip" struts and swaggers and "Baby Let's Twist" and "Stay With Me" are catchy as all hell. By 1978, when the LP was released, the punk boom was in full swing, generating a whole slew of new bands going back to the basics, but while the legacy, of course, perpetuates in the underground and the Dictators have since garnered some acclaim for being among the first to challenge the established musical order, the band and their contemporaries/disciples never caught on on a large scale to displace the Bee Gees and Framptons of the day, although who's to say that would've been the best thing, anyway.
Soon dropped by Asylum and in a state of disarray, the Dictators split up shortly thereafter, although reunions still happen every now and then. A live cassette of an '81 reunion concert was released on ROIR, called "Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take a Joke," and it's a high-spirited greatest hits collection, complete with boisterous stage banter by Manitoba. Since the band's split, the members have gone off in quite diverse directions. Kempner fronts the rockabilly Del Lords and Ross the Boss plays for true metal masters Manowar. Manitoba hit some hard times, with drug problems, but has cleaned himself up, is in peak shape and back with Shernoff in Wild Kingdom, along with ex-Shrapnel guitarist Daniel Rey, and they throw in some Dictators chestnuts along with their own, stinging speed-metal driven onslaught, still striving, maybe not to be the next big thing, but to at least kick it out hard and fast.
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. To quote a review from a long time ago, "When you come right down to it, the Dictators ARE superheroes." Amen!
DISCOGRAPHY
The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! (Epic, 1975)
Manifest Destiny (Asylum, 1977)
Bloodbrothers (Asylum, 1978)
Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take a Joke (ROIR, cassette, 1981)
The LP's are all out of print. "Go Girl Crazy" is the toughest to find, although "Manifest Destiny" and "Bloodbrothers" still pop up in used bins, from time to time. The ROIR cassette is still available ...
SOURCES
*Electra/Asylum press kit
*"The New Trouser Press Record Guide" by Ira A. Robbins, Scribners, 1985