Back in the mid-seventies bands like Television, The Ramones, Blondie et al were making their name in New York’s CBGBs – a little dive in the Bowery that became the most famous punk venue and the home of the radicals on the East Coast. Those who were REALLY in the know also talked about The Dictators in the same hushed tones and their performances in clubs like Popeyes Spinach Factory, Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs were the holy grail for punk cognoscenti. So why the hell don’t they feature in all those ‘best band of all time’ charts? Why aren’t they spoken of in the same hushed terms as Patti Smith or the Voidoids? A combination of bad timing, bad choices and plain bad luck – just about anything except bad music!
‘Manifest Destiny’ was their second album and it shows all the things that they were great at: ‘Exposed’ has a big, blasting guitar riff with Dick Manitoba’s vocals and Ross ‘The Boss’ searing lead lines, ‘Heartache’ has fist pumping breaks that just scream out for air guitar/air drumming/air vocals and ‘Sleeping With The TV On’ has the most radio-friendly jangly guitar and heartfelt vocals you could wish for. ‘Disease’ is immense – a harrowing tale of a sailor who has contracted some vile STD pleading for treatment; imagine Alice Cooper crossed with The Clash and you might get close to the theme and sound. Adny Shernoff wrote all the songs and he had a wonderful touch for imagery and pop lyrics as well as a touch for musical theatrics that only Jim Steinman could top. The last three numbers on the album, ‘Science Gone Too Far’, ‘Young, Fast, Scientific’ & a live cover of the Stooges ‘Search & Destroy’ recorded at CBGBs, touched on the bands punk sensibilities and left the listener in no doubt that they could blast it out with aplomb too. The production is by Blue Oyster Cult’s team of Murray Krugman & Sandy Pearlman and the sound shares some similarities with BOC but Shernoff had a better feel for a pop melody and theme than BOC.
‘Bloodbrothers’ was the bands third album and they had stripped the band down and the sound along with it. ‘Faster and Louder’ has a Ramones punch to it, ‘Baby, Lets Twist’ has a brattish and punky sound but somehow there are echoes of a surf band in there as well. ‘The Minnesota Strip’ has a raunchy and ripped sound led by Ross The Boss guitar. The album had less expanse to the sound and more dynamism and they seemed to have developed a really aggressive sound that was only there in parts on the previous album. Production again was by Krugman & Pearlman but the album feels as though the band had more of a hand in the production and in the final sound.
Ultimately, the biggest problem with The Dictators was one of bad timing. ‘Manifest Destiny’ was too good for the people who wanted punk and too punk for the rock-heads but if they had released it five years later it would probably have been huge. ‘Bloodbrothers’ was the album that the world wanted in ’77 but they were a touch too late and The Ramones and Voidoids had grabbed that ground while a million bands had taken on the Power-pop mantle.
These two albums are great New York rock, no matter when they were made and on that basis they hit the mark in 2011. All hail The Dictators!
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