Iron curtain call
>> Primaeval punks the Dictators keep a stranglehold on history

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The rock ’n’ roll history books have never been kind to New York City’s the Dictators. By the time of the whole CBGB’s scene in ’77, the Dictators had already been swept under the beer-soaked, cigarette-burned carpet so that the Ramones and Richard Hell could take the torch. You can slap me with a spoon and call me a revisionist, but the Dictators had a huge role in starting that whole nutty punk thing.
They released what was arguably the first record from the punk scene, Go Girl Crazy, in 1975, and were the sole reason behind John Holmstrom and Legs McNeil starting the legendary Punk magazine. So why is it that whenever there is a punk retrospective centering in on the CBGBs scene, we are still assaulted with a picture of David Byrne in a big suit? Maybe spending most of their time wreaking havoc at house parties up in their native stomping grounds the Bronx, or maybe choosing to hang out at White Castles over Max’s Kansas City or CBGB’s, had something to do with it.

“A lot of people don’t consider us punk rock,” says singer Handsome Dick Manitoba. “Whenever we hear about New York punk rock, we hear about the Ramones, Television, Richard Hell, the Talking Heads—but never the Dictators. No matter what you think of us or how punk rock or not punk rock we were, we were very much in that scene, influential to that scene and there before, during and after that scene. To not acknowledge that is to not be historically accurate. We were beefy, sports-fan, stickball-playing guys from the Bronx, and that image just wasn’t embraced by a lot of the media, so they had to call the Talking Heads punk. The Talking Heads are a crap band and to call them punk is stupid—that music was just lame, tepid, art-rock fucking crap. What the hell does that singer guy have to do with rock ’n’ roll?”

Score one for the Clipper

The Dictators may have played three chord rock with roots in surf beats and doo wop, but instead of the punk-rock subscription to the blank generation, they embraced American junk culture, dumbed it down, gave it a chuckle and put a new twist on the tried-and-true obsession with cars and girls. This same arrested development is still served up in heaping abundance on their new album D.F.F.D.—one listen to the lyrics of “Pussy and Money” or “Channel Surfing” will confirm that. But this time around, the band seems to be infused with new blood, delivering a sleeker, meaner sound that goes right for the jugular instead of just aiming for the funny bone.

“We are much better now. When you’re 19 or 20 years old, there’s no substitute for being a band on the road. Everywhere I went, it was all about what drugs I could get and how much new pussy could I get. I’m older now, I have more responsibilities and I have been clean and sober for 18 years. Now I spend my time getting in shape to put on a great show. We are not an oldies act. We can’t think like, ‘Yeah, we created this punk thing and now we are going to ride it.’ We play for an hour and a half and our show is better than it’s ever been, because we work really hard, are better musicians and are more focused then we have ever been.”

In fact, they’re playing to a new generation of fans that has never set foot in CBGB’s, let alone rubbed shoulders with Lou Reed at Max’s. “I get 20-year-old guys coming up to me all the time, saying they read about us and wanted to check us out, and I have to put on a great show for them, no argument. Joe DiMaggio once said that it is hard to be perfect every night, but you have to give 100 per cent every time you step on the field. There is some kid out in the stands who has never seen Joe DiMaggio play and he’s coming because he heard about him. To me, Joe DiMaggio is like godhead. But on a punk-rock level, if some kid comes to our show and I am funny, exciting and entertaining, and the kid leaves, saying, ‘That was fucking great,’ then I have done my job.”

Rest assured, Handsome Dick Manitoba can rock like the dickens and is still the loudmouth kid from the Bronx he has always been, but I think the main question on everybody’s mind is, after all this time, does the prefix on his name still apply? “Oh yeah, I think I’m getting better looking with age.” Humble Dick Manitoba? Nah, didn’t think so. :

With the Exploders at Petit Campus on Wednesday, May 29, 9pm, $13