Dickies: Stukas Over Disneyland
1983
PVC Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: 1. Rosemary 2. She's a Hunchback 3. Out of Sight, Out of Mind 4. Communication Breakdown 5. Pretty Please Me 6. Wagon Train 7. If Stuart Could Talk 8. Stukas Over Disneyland
Happy Friday, kids! Is it just me or are there not enough Fridays in a week? I think there should be at least three or four...Here, let's make August Official Friday Month...
So, let's all agree to use this calendar...So don't forget to turn off your alarm clocks and buy some extra beers this month...And don't forget to visit the Friday Night Record Party Brand Blog almost everyday cos it's always Friday here! Anyway...Let's make with the Dickies...
There was a four year break between "Dawn of the Dickies" and "Stukas Over Disneyland," which is understandable...The band actually started recording the album in 1980, but halfway through the recording Chuck Wagon committed suicide, which halted proceedings, as you'd imagine...The band eventually resumed the sessions and the album was finally released in 1983...Despite the terrible circumstances, this is my personal favorite Dickies album...
Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if this is considered an EP or an LP...There's only 8 songs and the whole thing barely clocks in at 20 minutes, but I think its brevity is a virtue...There's not a single weak track here...The album kicks off with "Rosemary," which is a perfect slice of power-pop with gleaming chrome harmonies and precision hooks...They've perfected their AM-radio punk to such an extent that when I first heard it I figured it was one of their covers, since it hits every mark so flawlessly...I can't stress what a perfectly executed pop-song this is...Same goes for "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" that has a chorus so poppy it almost makes me woozy...
I also love "Wagon Train," which never comes right out and says it, but has to be a tribute to Chuck Wagon...A pop-punk/Country& Western hybrid that manages to be melancholy and fun:
"Wagon train what's my name,
Can you guess my crime?
Wagon train ease the pain,
And leave the world behind...
A brave new world for all those boys and girls,
A universe for us to roam.
They cast us out and left us with no doubt,
They're never gonna bring us home..."
There are a few cover songs too...A boppy, harmonized run through Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" and a cover of the Quick's "Pretty Please Me," which was a song I first encountered on the Redd Kross album "Show World" album back in the 90's...What a freakin' amazing song BTW...The Quick were essentially just a local Los Angeles band that quietly wrote one of the greatest power-pop anthems of all time and this style blends seamlessly with the rest of the album...Most of the band's covers songs up to this point had an air of winking absurdity, but not this time...They give it a very straight-faced, reverential reading...
The record goes out on a high with the final two tracks: The awesome "If Stewart Could Talk" which has a melody that seems to foretell 90's pop-punk...For the longest time I was under the impression this song was about a puppet, but on closer inspection, it turned out I had it wrong...Check out Stewart's mid-song monologue:
"Yes my name is Stuart and I assure you i can speak,
and lately i find myself astounded
at the sort of company you keep...
Something further i must mention,
of this fact i cannot understand
is your insatiable attention at annoying me with your hand...
And in closing may I offer this point must be succinct,
my purpose is for procreation
and not facilitating in your sin..."
Stewart is clearly a penis! With a British accent! But wait! I was watching videos of some of the band's live shows and look at this!!!
It turns out Stewart is both a penis and a puppet...Listening back to it, I don't know where I got the idea it was about a puppet...Who knows...
The album closes with the title track, which imagines a Nazi invasion of Dineyland set to 50's doo-wop...It's surprising how effortless this all is...This album doesn't seem to get the love that the first two do, but I have to disagree...I hear a band at the top of their game delivering an airtight hits-filled set...I'd even go so far as recommending this to someone looking to get into the Dickies..
There was a later reissue that re-sequences the track lising and inserts three bonus tracks dead-center in the middle of the record...I haven't heard the album, but I know the extra tracks and I can't see how they wouldn't screw up the flow of the album...So I'd stick to the original 8-song version, or pick up the reissue and just re-sequence it back into the proper running order yourself...
Here's "Rosemary" by the Dickies...Enjoy...
The Dickies: Great Dictations (The Definitive Dickies Collection)
1989
A&M Records
Format I Own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: 1. Hideous 2. You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla) 3. Give It Back 4. Paranoid 5.
I'm OK, You're OK 6. Got It At The Shore 7. Sounds Of Silence 8.Banana Splits 9. Rondo (The Midget's Revenge) 10. Nights In White Satin 11. (I'm Stuck In A Pagoda) With Tritia Toyota 12. Manny, Moe & Jack 13. Fan Mail 14. Attack Of The Mole Men 15. Gigantor 16. Eve Of Destruction
I think I got one more in me...Let's give "Great Dictations" a spin...
God, what a drab, ugly cover...Luckily the back of the booklet has an alternate cover you can use...
Ahhh, much better...This is a great little compilation...It cover their A&M Records era, which covered...what...a year? But what a year!! Two albums and a smattering of EP's and singles...Due to the short time frame this covers, a large chunk of "Incredible Shrinking Dickies" and "Dawn of the Dickies" are represented, but the real reason to pick this up is all the rare single and EP tracks that didn't appear on the full-lengths...
From the "Paranoid" single, we have the kitschy pep-talk "I'm OK, You're OK," that features some groovy electric piano...Boy, this makes me miss Chuck Wagon...
We also have their pop-punk spin on the Holiday standard "Silent Night" that makes me want to get hammered on eggnog and pogo around the Christmas Tree...If you're anything like me and have a hard time stomaching the usual holiday fare, this is a life-saver...The B-Side is even better...It's a cover of the classic Simon & Garfunkel weeper, "Sounds of Silence"...It starts out exactly like the original, with that delicate acoustic opening, but suddenly with a few spiraling stabs of an electric piano, the band steps on the gas...On first listen it might seem irreverent, but you start to notice that the band takes the fighting spirit that meekly peaked its head here and there in the original and brings it to the forefront...The results are so excitingly grand that I honestly think they end up improving the song...The band has done many covers, but I'd put this one in the top five, easily...
Oh yea, I almost bought this EP a few months back but I skipped over it for something else...That beautiful white vinyl was very hard to pass up, but ultimately I already owned all the tracks on it...But if I run across it again, I'll probably pull the trigger on it...The main draw here is "Hideous," which didn't make it on the debut...It's a straight-up Ramones style steamroller-punk...Not my favorite, since the hooks are a bit basic, but a good track nonetheless...
This compilation also includes their cover of the Banana Splits theme which thrills me to no end! I love the Banana Splits...Especially that weird, furry elephant thing with raw hamburger in his eyes...
Their version is the best! No wonder this became one of their most popular songs...Leonard's counter melody in the chorus "Tra-La-La's" is a thing of wonder...The B-Side, "I Got it at the Store" is alright too..Pretty standard early Dickies...
To finish things off, we have the band's cover of the "Gigantor" theme song...I have a soft spot for the Gigantor theme...I remember being a teenager and watching re-runs of the show on the Sci-Fi channel during the summers...A longtime favorite of mine, and they do the song justice...It's a pretty faithful cover...It just rocks a bit more...
Y'know, this would also make a fine introduction for newcomers...If you pick up this and "Stukas Over Disneyland" and play them back to back you just might be convinced that for a brief period of time, the Dickies were one of the best punk bands in the world...Or at least the most fun...I can't think of a better night of listening...
Here's "Sounds of Silence" by the Dickies...Have a good Friday Night everyone!...
No comments:
Post a Comment