Dead Boys - Young, Loud And Snotty

Fellow Cleveland types Pere Ubu may have won the artistic kudos for their adventurous, surprising work, but if the goal was just to rock and rock again, then Dead Boys had them totally trumped. Growing up in the Cleveland area, in Catholic schools, Dead Boys were typical punks, rebellious, disgruntled, and looking for a fight. As both title phrase and capsule description, Young, Loud & Snotty accurately defines the predominating aesthetic so well that one could just leave it at that, but there's a lot more going on here than on the face of it.

Originally named "Frankenstein", the Dead Boys were kicked out of their home town venue after playing and at the bequest of Joey Ramone, moved to New York City to join in a "scene" which they knew very little about. 1977 was the ultimate year for punk rock. Before the leather jacket, spiky haired uniforms, before "New Wave" became a recognized genre of music. 1977 was also the greatest year for any punk on the scene... And, sadly enough, many excellent records by great bands got lost or unrecognised in the greater scheme of things.
Needless to say, Dead Boys fitted right in with the rest of the bands that played at C.B.G.B.'s or Max's Kansas City. Fed up with the wimpy crap that was popular rock at that time, they, with the Ramones and many other bands, got up on stage with a mission to piss off and annoy. Eventually, they got the recognition they so deserved and thusly, this album was born. With perhaps surprisingly great production from demi-famous '70s rocket Genya Ravan, the five-some found something sonically smack in-between the US garage/punk heritage of the past and the more modern thrashings from overseas.

Stiv Bators sneers, gobs, gasps and whines with the best of them, but he knows his rock history, as do his band mates. Cheeta Chromee (Lead guitar), Jimmy Zero (Rhythm guitar), Jeff Magnum (Bass), and Johnny Blitz (Drums) are all excellent rock n' roll musicians, Stiv Bators is the star of the show. Mixing Iggy Pop type whoops with his own unique style, Stiv was probably one of the greatest live performers in the history of the genre. In fact, Iggy himself said that Stiv was the second best vocalist, next to Jim Morrison.
Stone cold rock classic "Sonic Reducer" starts things off (amusingly) with all sorts of phased drums and other fripperies that later generations wouldn't consider punk at all. That said, it's still blunt, brilliantly sung by Stiv and kicks out the jams with messy energy. Other all-time greats include the perfect bored-and-needing-kicks anthem "Ain't Nothin' to Do" and the thoroughly wrong "Caught With the Meat In Your Mouth." There's even a rock oldie -- a cover of "Hey Little Girl" live onstage at spiritual home CBGB's. And why not? With great punk rock and great rock, Young, Loud and Snotty perfectly describes the sound and essence of this record.

Younger, Louder & Snottier

The Dead Boys' debut album, Young, Loud & Snotty, stands as a superb document of the original late-'70s punk rock movement, full of nihilism and rage and just plain bad taste. These are the original rough mixes done by lead singer and punk rock poster boy Stiv Bators, guitarist Cheetah Chrome and engineer Bob Clearmountain before Genya Ravan was brought in to clean things up. What emerges from these alternate mixes is something akin to history reversing itself and the "Bowie mix" of Raw Power coming out 20 years later. There are plenty of useless overdubs that would later get scrapped for the released version, but the largely effect-less guitars are full of sheet metal, as opposed to metal, tonality. Everything on here sounds crispier, more wired, and so treble-accented that it ends up embellishing the offensiveness of the material itself, full of punk energy and electric scrabble for the chemically enhanced set. Even the tunes that were originally slagged by punk critics as sounding "too metal" emerge here sonically sounding more like Stooges outtakes, especially "Caught With the Meat In Your Mouth." Given the meagre recorded output of the band, this will easily find a place in the collections of the band's old fans.

We Have Come For Your Children

Coming off one of punk rock's early classic albums, 1977's raw and rough Young Loud & Snotty, you'd think the Dead Boys would have followed the same winning formula on their sophomore release. But as We Have Come for Your Children proves, the album didn't come close to matching the fury of their debut. The reasons for this fumble can be attributed to a few things, but chiefly, it was a poor producer choice (ex-Mountain bassist Felix Pappalardi, who really had no business producing a punk band, and obviously wanted to tame the group). That said, Children isn't a complete atrocity, however; much of the material is strong, and it would have benefited greatly from a grittier production (there was talk of having ex-Stooges guitarist James Williamson produce the album at the time, which would have probably improved the end result). Still, this is the Dead Boys album that contains one of their greatest all-time tracks, "Ain't It Fun," a "live fast, die young" tale that is quite eerie coming from now-deceased singer Stiv Bators (and was later covered by Guns N' Roses). Elsewhere, you can't help but wonder how much better such promising tracks as "(I Don't Wanna Be No) Catholic Boy" and "Flame Thrower Love" would have turned out in the hands of another producer. Since the Dead Boys' discography is short, fans should definitely try to hunt down a copy of We Have Come for Your Children; just don't expect the same knockout punch that Young Loud & Snotty generates.