The Dictators: Live-New York, New York

The Dictators: Live-New York, New York

1998

ROIR Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1.  Next Big Thing  2. Science Gone Too Far  3. Weekend  4. Rock And Roll Made A Man Out Of Me  5. Two-Tub Man  6. Moon Upstairs  7. Loyola  8. What Goes On  9. New York New York  10. Search And Destroy  11. Borneo Jimmy  12. Minnesota Strip  13. Master Race Rock  14.
Baby Let's Twist  15. Faster And Louder




"New York, New York" is just a reissue of the 1981 live cassette "Fuck 'em if They Can't Take a Joke"...

I looked for this album for years...I first heard the song "Loyola" via a cover version that appeared on the Parasites "Compost" album...

And oh my God, did I fall in love with that song...It was just the most glorious power-pop track I'd ever heard! Since this particular Parasites album was mostly covers I looked at the credits to find out who wrote it and to my surprise the answer was the Dictators? At this point, I was only familiar with some of the "Go Girl Crazy!" tracks and I couldn't comprehend how those sarcastic brutes in the Dictators could have penned such a shimmering, beautiful masterpiece...But as I explored the Dictators' discography I discovered the song didn't appear on any of their studio albums...It originated from some live tape called "New York, New York"...Eventually I tracked down a CD copy at the local Zia records last year (after looking for a copy for...Oh, a decade)...

(Note: The Dictators did eventually release a studio version of "Loyola" as a B-Side to the 1996 single  "I Am Right"...

I believe this is probably the version the Parasites had in mind when they covered it...They seem to have taken the arrangement from this take and just kinda sped it up for their cover...Here, you can compare...

 

"Loyola" gets especially stuck in my head these days since I live by a street named Loyola, and everytime I ride past it I'm compelled to sing, "Loyolaaa...Loyolaaaa..." Oh, I believe the Dictators' 1996 recording of "Loyola" appears on 2008's "Everyday is Saturday" demos/outtakes CD...I haven't purchased a copy yet, so I can't 100% confirm the veracity of this, but I'll let you know as soon as I get a copy)

Now as for the "New York, New York" live album? This is really where we separate the men from the boys, Dictator-wise...The recording quality is a little rough and muffled since it was just a two-track recording and not yer standard airbrushed major label "live" recording...This shit is for real...And it's loads of fun. Probably one of the most fun live albums I own...It's simply the Dictators in a New York club, ripping through their hits, new tracks that never appeared on other albums and a bunch of great cover songs by Velvet Underground, the Stooges and Mott the Hoople...And Handsome Dick is a hoot onstage, as you probably could have pieced together from their studio albums which routinely featured the Handsome One's various wrestling-style taunts and monologue... 

 Even the liner notes are entertaining...Richard Meltzer writes a nice tribute to the band, pointing out they were the first band who were punk all the time (prior "proto-punk" grandfathers had some percentage of something else in their sound) and finally presenting this, their "reunion" show...The next set of notes finds Adny/Andy Shernoff refuting Richard Meltzer's claim this was a reunion and that the Dictators were above such lame moves and had never broken up, further bolstering Richard's band-as-wrestler analogy by it' sheer "Let me tell ya something..." tone...God Bless the Dictators...

Should you get this if you already own "Fuck 'em"? Yea, the bonus tracks include three of the band's best songs, and are clearer, better recordings than the original "Fuck 'em..." line-up...Plus it's not on cassette, so...

Alright, talk is cheap, let's listen to some Dictators...Here's "What Goes On" as covered by the Dictators (note, this is the only song from this album I could find on youtube, or else I would have posted one of their originals...Still, it's  a pretty decent take on the song)...Enjoy,,,,