Going 'Girl Crazy' with The Dictators

Ross The Boss looks back on landmark punk LP
By Peter Lindblad

The Dictators - The Dictators
Go Girl Crazy

If ever an album was deserving of a midlife crisis, it's The Dictators' Go Girl Crazy! Having just turned 40 this year, it ought to be living the high life, and against all odds, it is.

Rather than racing around in expensive muscle cars, sporting a bad comb over and sidling up to trashy, tattooed strippers, telling them dirty, tasteless jokes over 25-cent tappers in vain attempts to wear down their resistance, Go Girl Crazy! – the Rodney Dangerfield of proto-punk records – is finally getting some respect.

"When it came out, people were laughing at us," said Ross The Boss, a founding member of punk trailblazers The Dictators and guitarist of a band that showed everyone from The Ramones to the Beastie Boys how its done. "People were mocking us, laughing at us. 'Ooo hoo, look at that guy with the wrestling outfit on the front cover and the back. What’s going on with this?' You’re talking about cars, girls, surfing and beer and American culture, and we thought, 'Ohhh, yeah!' But it seems as if 40 years later, Uncut magazine votes it No. 1 greatest American punk rock record of all-time. Uncut magazine … yeah. Uncut magazine … greatest American punk rock record of all-time."

Misunderstood almost from birth, The Dictators' seminal debut LP, released in March 1975, had its own special neanderthal, politically incorrect charm that, over time, has ... well, it's grown on us. It was after simple pleasures, and it was a stone gas, honey – just loud, obnoxious rock 'n' roll laced with grabby hooks, irresistible melodies and sun-kissed harmonies, such as those found in "Weekend," "Teengenerate" and "(I Live For) Cars and Girls," and a penchant for goofy humor. Take for example "Back to Africa" and "Master Race Rock," a precursor to Black Flag's "TV Party." Did I mention the political incorrectness?

Primitive, naive and just out for a good time, this was savage, street-wise garage rock played with surprising skill and a wild, brash attitude. It had an appreciation for bad TV, political incorrectness, indiscriminate sex and youthful hijinks and, according to "Two Tub Man," it had "Jackie Onassis in my pants." Oh, and it hated hippies.

"It was amazing. It was our first time, my first time, in the studio.We had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but we had the songs," said Ross The Boss, who later resurfaced with traditional metal heroes Manowar. "We knew what we wanted, and we recorded that record and it’s hanging in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. The first thing you see is [Handsome Dick] Manitoba (The Dictators' indomitable front man) stuff, and the band has never been bigger, never been bigger – working harder than ever."

Soon, Go Girl Crazy! will get what it so rightly deserves, that is a proper reissue from CBS Sony. However, on Black Friday, Sony Legacy will release an appetizer of sorts, a 10-inch EP of five songs from Go Girl Crazy! that's entitled the Next Big Thing EP. A special 40th anniversary reissue of the original album is due to follow. Ross The Boss is enthused.

"Andrew W.K. has remixed three tracks. And he asked us to do it," said Ross The Boss. "We dug up the fucking two-track, excuse me. He remixed three songs … amazing remixes. I never thought I’d hear them remixed, and they are reissuing a double CD with alternate takes, odds and sods, that stuff that they found. And now it’s coming out again 40 years later. So now I’ve lived and the tables have turned. So this is going to be a great fall."

The two releases are separate, as the 40th anniversary CD reissue of Go Girl Crazy! will include the full album, plus alternate takes and different mixes.

As for Ross The Boss, he's got more than a few more irons in the fire. His melodic power metal band Death Dealer just released its sophomore album, Hallowed Ground. And there's new Dictators' material on the way.

"So this is going to be a great fall. [Along with] the new Death Dealer, also we’ve written our first new single, The Dictators, without Andy, with the new lineup," said Ross The Boss. "So we’re moving into new territory. And everything is hitting on all cylinders my friend."  

There's no rest for the wicked, or Ross The Boss. And his work ethic is stronger than ever.

"I’m honored, I am honored, but at the same time, I wake up and I work my ass off every single day," said Ross The Boss. "I don’t take a day off. So we work on it all the time. And I would say maybe pass that bit of info on to other musicians. Instead of sitting there on their couches every day, waiting and waiting for their break, you can’t wait for it. It’s not coming. You have to go out and get it."

Just like The Dictators did all those years ago.

The Raskins: Brothers in arms (Part 1)

New York City retro-rock siblings do it their way
By Peter Lindblad

The Raskins - The Raskins 2014

When the major labels started sniffing around New York City retro rock ‘n’ roll animals The Raskins, they said, “Thanks, but no thanks. We’re good.”

At one time, long ago, they would have jumped at their offers, but like another Big Apple icon, the Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra, twins Logan and Roger are set on doing things their way, and it’s gotten them pretty far. So, they turned them away.

“It’s funny, when my brother and I kind of finished all our videos, we finished doing the web site, we finished recording the record, everything was done, our fan base was growing leaps and bounds – all of a sudden, we started getting all these record deals,” Logan related. “I was in my attorney’s office, and he goes, ‘You know, you’ve got six major labels wanting to sign you guys right now – six!’ He put four contracts right in front of me, dropped them on the deck. He goes, ‘There you go. Four major labels want to sign you guys. What do you guys want to do?’”

Taken aback by all the sudden record label attention they were getting, The Raskins’ heads were swimming, and they needed some objective advice.

“And I said, ‘Well, if I’d have been younger, I’d have been freaking out,’” said Logan. “And I said, ‘As my attorney, what do you advise us to do?’ And he said, ‘Well, as your attorney, I advise you to do it all yourselves. You don’t need them. You don’t need those labels for anything. Why would you want to give away everything you’ve done and give away all that control, give all that power, everything you guys have worked for? You guys have done it all on your own to this point.’ He goes, ‘You’ve got it.’ He goes, ‘You have it all. Don’t give it away.’”

An honest-to-goodness DIY success story – of which there are precious few these days – The Raskins have been surrounded by music their whole lives. Their father, Tommy, was a Broadway singer who appeared in such shows as “West Side Story, “ “Oklahoma” and “South Pacific,” among others, and their mother, Judith, known in the entertainment community as Judith Lee, was a jazz singer of some renown.

Successful forays into the world of making music for TV and film helped The Raskins make a name for themselves, but in recent years, they've felt a tug to break out of that box and perform for the masses their own uniquely New York-style rock 'n' roll, an exciting, punched-up blend of singer-songwriter pop, the gritty, sleazy proto-punk of the New York Dolls and The Stooges and sophisticated classic rock clothed in tight black jeans, black leather and spiked hair and brimming with attitude.

Cover for The Raskins'
single "We Had It All"

Their self-titled debut album dropped in May, which includes the red-hot single "We Had It All," while the duo was on tour supporting ex-Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver front man Scott Weiland. Soon, they will embark on another jaunt with modern-rock heavyweights Saving Abel, and the day before this interview, they got even bigger news. We'll let Logan talk about it in Part 1 of our Q&A with these rising stars. 

How did you get on the Scott Weiland tour?

Logan Raskin: Well, you know, we have an album coming out May 13. So our management and our label over Sony/Red obviously they’re looking to get us on to the biggest tours possible that are going out this summer, and the Scott Weiland tour was one of the opportunities that came across their desk for us, and of course, they had asked my brother and I how we would feel about going out with Scott Weiland, and you know, Scott Weiland is a big influence on my brother and I. Our musical styles, I feel, are very similar, so for me it was a no-brainer. I said, “Absolutely. Let’s get out there with Scott. I think it would be a really good pairing.”

So they called Scott’s camp, and they told Scott about the band, and Scott, it was really his decision. So they’re management said, well, we’ll talk to Scott about it and it’s really up to him. So, yeah, Scott checked out our music and our videos online, and he really dug what we were doing and said, “Yeah, let’s get these guys out on the road with us.” So the first show we did last night. We’re doing an 11- to 12-show run with Scott, and then when we get back, we’ll go back to Hollywood for about 10 days and then we’ll go back out again and we have about 20-plus shows booked with Saving Abel. So, we’ll go out with Saving Abel and do all that, and actually, we just found out it looks like we might be doing some of the Motley Crue-Alice Cooper shows. So believe it or not, you’re the first person I’m telling that to. So we actually got offered 27 dates with them. I don’t know exactly … the label and our management right now are working on all the details and the scheduling of it all, because I mean, obviously, that’s the biggest tour of the year. And we already have contracts signed with the Saving Abel tour, so we have to work out all the logistics with that. Obviously, I’m like, “Let’s make it work (laughs).” So, let’s see: Madison Square Garden is on there, Hollywood Bowl is on there … I’m like, “Are you guys kidding me? Of course, let’s go. Let’s make it happen.” (See The Raskins' video for "We Had It All" below)

So it’s overwhelming, things are really taking off for the Raskins, and you know, we’re just trying to take it day by day. It’s a whirlwind, but my brother and I are just taking it day by day. We’re taking it in stride. The band is kicking ass and playing amazing. The show last night with Scott went great. Really, our focus right now is the Scott Weiland tour. We really want to try and make this a successful tour, and last night, the first night was great. A lot of kids bought our CDs, and we signed a ton of posters and stuff. I mean, the response was pretty much overwhelming. So I’m really excited about things to come and moving long with the Scott Weiland tour now.

Wow. That’s pretty amazing news.
LR: Yeah, you didn’t expect me to say all that, right?

No, that’s kind of mind-blowing.

LR: Yeah, let me tell you something. It’s like every day things change with us, and different opportunities come up. Our single right now is being played on 150 radio stations across the country, our single “We had it All,” and our album [wasn't] even out yet. So it’s like the single is starting to do really well. The video is blowing up online. We’ve got almost two million views online with YouTube, so the response has been really, really great. The anticipation of the album coming out [was] really high, so we’re excited about that; it just seems like everything is coming together at the right time. We’re firing on all cylinders right now. We just want to keep this train on the tracks and keep things moving forward for us.

I have to tell you after listening to the songs on the electronic press kit, this is the kind of music I miss.

LR: Cool, man. It’s cool to hear you say that, and you know what? Me, too (laughs). You know what’s funny, for the last several years, my brother and I were writing a lot of music for TV and film. And we got heavily into that for a while, and we were known as The Raskins. We were writing a lot of stuff for different film projects, and we were getting an overwhelming amount of e-mails from fans – pretty much not just in the U.S., but all over the world – that were seeing these movies or seeing these TV shows that we did the music for, and they were always asking, “Where can we get your guys’ music? When can we see you live?” So it was just a matter of time before my brother and I were like, “Look, I think it’s time. The writing is on the wall. I think it’s time we just put the band together and start playing out at The Raskins.”

So we decided to do that a couple of years ago, and then last year or about a year a half ago, we started recording the music for this album that’s coming out and we took our time writing it, and we just wanted to put together a solid group of songs that really represented my brother and myself, our writing styles and our influences.

Being from New York City, we really wanted to incorporate that rock ‘n’ roll style that my brother and I grew up with, but also incorporate the different style of our writing ability. Because, look, some of our biggest influences were The Stooges or the New York Dolls or the Ramones, but it was also acts such as Simon & Garfunkel and Steely Dan – those acts out of New York City. We kind of grew up with those influences and it really influenced our writing style, and we wanted to put together a record that encapsulated those styles. And I think we accomplished that with this record.

The lead single, “We Had It All,” dropped on Feb. 18 and I was going to ask about what kind of feedback you’re getting, but it seems like it’s been pretty good. What inspired that song?

LR: And it’s funny, Peter, because I was nervous about it because when you’re writing music for somebody, basically they’re telling you what they want. So it’s an easy process for me, because I kind of try to detach myself from the music because I’m basically just giving the client what it is that they want. And a lot of times, we’ll finish a composition for a client, and I’ll say, “Well, I know how I would have written that,” but they’re very specific about how they want things, and we try to just give them that when we’re writing for these different music supervisors for these movies and things like that, and we just read the client. But with the record and writing for us, we really took our time and wanted to really come forward with our influences and our styles we grew up with , and really try to capture that on this record.

I really love the songs “On the Radio” and “We Had it All.” Can you talk about what inspired those songs?

LR: Absolutely. Well, first of all, “On the Radio,” it’s pretty much exactly that. Every musician growing up, I don’t care if you’re young or old, the first thing you dream about as a musician is hearing your music on the radio. It’s the first thing. For my brother and I, the first time we ever heard our music on the radio that was a big moment for us. And I assume it would be a big moment for any musician coming up. So for us, I remember exactly where we were, the moment it happened, the first time I heard our song coming across the airwaves on the radio. It was a big memorable moment and one for me I’ll never forget. And I felt it was an important thing to write about, because that was an important moment in our music career. That’s exactly what that song is about, “On the Radio,” and it means a lot to us. It was important in our music career, and I wanted to write a song about that. And then the single, “We Had it All,” which by the way, it was difficult to figure out what was going to be the initial single for this record. (See the video for "On the Radio" below)

I was going to ask about that.

LR: Yeah, I mean, I’m so attached to all these songs. But this particular song ... I’ll explain what it’s about, and you’ll see why we decided to use it as a single. I mean, the song was basically written about how the music industry is today. My brother and I, being from New York City, spending our whole lives growing up and doing music in New York, and our parents being in the music industry, we were doing our thing musically and we were struggling, just kind of pushing along, playing all the clubs in New York, and trying our hand at being musicians. But my brother and I had gotten some opportunities to go out to Los Angeles to work with a couple of pretty big producers out there, and I thought it was a good opportunity maybe to go out to L.A. and try to expand on our career, and try to push our career forward, and as we were doing that, it was an interesting time in the music industry.

I mean the music industry was really changing, so like the way the online market is now, you don’t even see record stores anymore. I grew up with vinyl. I still have my vinyl collection. I remember going to the record stores and paging through my favorite vinyls and buying vinyl, and you can’t even go to a record store and buy a CD anymore. It’s all digital downloads now. Getting back to my point, from when we kind of got out to L.A. and we were working with those producers and stuff like that, my brother and I kind of realized that we never really had to leave New York, or we never really had to change what it was that we were doing to be successful. We had everything we needed to be successful, and I never really realized that until we made that trip out to Los Angeles. I mean, we packed our car, drove out, packed up everything we had and just drove out to Los Angeles, started working out there, trying to play the clubs out there, working the system and doing recording, working with the producers out there, but I realized the way the music industry is right now, if you have the knowledge and the wherewithal, you can do it all on your own. You don’t need anybody. If you’re not lazy, you can do it all on your own. The way the Internet is now, you can work your online market, the way Twitter is, the way Facebook is, you can get your music up online. You can build your fan base online. And that’s exactly what we started to do.

And I realized how to make all that work for us, and we also learned how to record our own music, to do it in our own home. We built a recording studio. We have a recording studio in our home in Los Angeles, and I have one in my home in New York, but when I learned how to do that, the way recording music has changed, they’re not using the big recording studios. A lot of those big recording studios are going out of business now. You can record killer quality tracks in the privacy of your own home. Everything’s digital now. So, basically, the song is “We Had It All.” I never had to leave. We never had to leave New York. We had it all. We had everything we needed to become successful. And I realized that. My brother and I had all the music. We had the knowledge and the wherewithal on how to record the music. We knew exactly how to market and promote our music online, sell our music online, and that’s exactly what we did. And that’s exactly how we built our fans. We built up our fan base online, we recorded all the videos ourselves and released them to YouTube and pushed and worked our fan base there, and that’s exactly what the song is about. It’s called “We Had it All.”

We always had it all. I never realized that. I was always talking to my friends and saying, “I wish we could do this. I wish we could do that. I wish I could work with this person. I wish I could work with that person.” And I try to tell it to a lot of younger kids coming up: “You’re not lazy. The way the music industry is set up now, you can do it all yourself.” You know, my dream growing up was to get signed by a major label. Now, it’s the worst thing, the worst thing. The only deals that these major labels are giving out now are 360 deals. They believe that with the digital market now, the online market, the only way these major labels can make any money is to take a percentage of everything you own, everything.

So my brother, Roger and myself and my older brother, Micah Raskin – who’s our business manager, and he lives in New York, owns a computer software company in New Jersey and he’s great with business, great with business, and he handles all our business and is our business manager – and the three of us put together our own record label. And we called the label MIRAL, which stands for Micah “Mi,” and I “Roger,” and “Logan” – MIRAL records. So we signed ourselves to our own record label, and then once we did that, Michael said, “Okay guys, we have everything we need. Everything is done. The only thing we need is distribution.” I said, “Micah, there’s only one place to go.” He said, “Where’s that?” I said, “Sony Red. Go to Sony.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll go.”

Called him up, set up a meeting, just my brother went down with the attorney, they signed us in 20 minutes. It took 20 minutes, that’s it and it was done. Now I have my own label that I’m signed to, three brothers own it all outright. I have total control over my musical career, creatively … everything. And I have distribution through Sony. It’s been amazing, amazing. And let me tell you it was hard work, but this is what I try to tell people, and I try to tell these young kids out there, I’m like, “You can do all this. You can do all this on your own.” And that’s what we’ve done, and it’s a great feeling, a great feeling. I go to sleep at night with a big smile on my face, just having the ability to play music every day and do it full-time is a major accomplishment for my brother and I.

It’s a major accomplishment, and we’re the kind of guys … I don’t need to make millions of dollars, I don’t need to make a lot of money, because I’m a music lover. And the reason why we got involved in music was to just play music. We loved it. And just the fact that we have the opportunity to do that now, to travel all around the country and travel all around the world, playing music and giving out our message to all the kids out there, it’s crazy. So I’m living the dream, man. And I think this is just the beginning, but I’m having the time of my life with it.

This is the kind of album – guitar-driven, melodic, with lots of hooks – that would appeal to a wide range of people, and music is so fragmented these days. Can an album like this break down some of those walls?

LR: I mean, look, I totally agree with you, but what was happening … like I would just take maybe five years ago. That’s before you really saw the radical changes in the music industry with the online market, the record labels really would get confused with a lot of these bands. And they had the mentality like, look, we need to know exactly what bin we’re putting this music in. Are you guys rock? Are you guys rap? Are you guys pop? Are you guys heavy metal? Are you guys country? And that’s how they would define it. So a lot of these bands would go along with that protocol, and they’d only put out rock or they’d only put out heavy metal, or only put out punk, and they were some great bands, but they would only be known and categorized as just that, but my brother and I, being in the situation that we’re in, I don’t have to answer to anybody. I can sign my own people.

I can put out all the music I want in the style that I want, and it’s very important for my brother and I to let our fan base and to let the public see our musical influences – the styles we grew up with, and the kind of music that we love. It’s not just aggressive rock. It’s also really good pop songs, and most of the music that I write is off of an acoustic guitar. So a lot of those Simon & Garfunkel or Steely Dan or Richie Havens influences come out in our writing styles. And we really want to try to have those hooky chords, those pop chords and there’s a lot of harmonies going on, whether it be in an aggressive rock song or whether it be in a slow ballad. It’s important to us. So I don’t really care. I wanted to make sure that Roger and I were happy with our finished product and happy with the music that we’re putting out there. That’s the most important thing.

We write for ourselves. And I know the beauty of the position we’re in is that I don’t have to answer to a president of an Atlantic or an Interscope or an Island, or whomever, and that’s all good, but I can put out the kind of music that I want and it took me to this point in my musical career to get it to this point and learn. Believe me, we went through the trials and tribulations of all of it, but now we’re at this point where we were able to take our time writing the record, and we had an amazing time doing it.

We recorded 50 songs … 50 songs! It took us almost a year and a half. I wasn’t under pressure. I wasn’t under a time restraint. We just had a great time recording music, and when we felt like it was done, it was done. We had 12 songs that we felt good about, that had a good flow and that really represented us and put it on the record and that’s what we wanted to represent us. That’s what we wanted to put out into the universe. So I hope that maybe it catches on, and I do think it will catch on, because the music industry is changing so radically and I think that these kids are going to be doing more and more on their own, and I think the music is going to change with that. There’s a lot of talent out there. There really is, and the way the industry is now, it’s freaking beautiful. It’s amazing. I love it. I love it. It’s giving the power back to the artist. And that’s the way it should be. That’s the way it should be. I think the music that the world is going to see now, it’s going to blow people’s minds. It’s going to blow people’s minds. So that’s what I would like to do. I can’t wait to get on to our second record.

Our management and Sony and everybody and Sony Red, it’s like you guys for the next year and a half we just want you to tour the shit out of this album. And I’m like, “Well, that’s cool. I love touring, too.” But creatively, I’m like, “Aaaahhhh …” I can’t wait to do this next record. There are so many songs I want to get out there. So, it’s exciting. It’s exciting, and I think it’s going to catch on, I really do. And I hope that we can influence a lot of these younger artists out there to follow what we’re doing. I think that it’ll be good for the public to hear, to change it up and hear that quality of music coming from these new artists, these up-and-coming artists.

Marky Ramone remembers Dust

Early U.S. proto-metal masters reissue their two cult classic LPs

By Peter Lindblad

Dust - Dust & Hard Attack 2013

Dust knew they were on to something. Their record label and management, though, were clueless as to how to market it. And that, more than anything, kept Dust off the music industry radar and ultimately led to their untimely demise.

Three high school friends from Brooklyn, Richie Wise, Kenny Aaronson and Marc Bell – with production and songwriting assistance from Kenny Kerner – formed Dust  in the late ‘60s. As young as they were, they had a strong sense of who they were. They played heavy metal, though nobody was really calling it that back then. It was blustery hard rock that was steeped in the blues, with occasional forays into European progressive-rock and folk, and songs like “Stone Woman” and the heavy, mind-melting psychedelic excursion “From a Dry Camel” were as innovative as anything coming out of the U.K. And they knew hardly anybody else in America was doing anything like it.

Signed to New York City’s Kama Sutra/Buddha label in 1970, Dust recorded two albums – the self-titled Dust in ’71 and Hard Attack in ’72 – and toured with some of the ‘70s biggest hard-rock acts, including Alice Cooper. And then, realizing that perhaps they weren’t being properly handled and that they were destined for obscurity if they stayed together, they split up. Everyone went their separate ways and went on to bigger and better things.

Wise and Kerner served as producers for the first two KISS albums and Aaronson played bass for such rock ‘n’ roll heavyweights as Joan Jett, Bob Dylan and Sammy Hagar – this after playing with Stories on their No. 1 hit “Brother Louie,” a cover of the Hot Chocolate song. And then there’s the story of Marc Bell, known better as Marky Ramone.

As Dust was in its death throes, Bell started hanging out at Max’s Kansas City, where he met the transvestite punk force of nature Wayne County. Joining forces, they created Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys, but after a year and a half of gigging around New York City and not getting anywhere, they called it a day. Bell then made the acquaintance of one Richard Hell, who, along with guitarist Robert Quine and Ivan Julian, put together Richard Hell & the Voidoids. With Bell’s work on drums, the Voidoids recorded one of the finest punk records in history, 1977’s Blank Generation on Sire Records, and they later toured with The Clash.

But it was with The Ramones that Bell, rechristened Marky Ramone, made a name for himself. He was onboard for The Ramones’ Road to Ruin album, which featured the classic “I Wanna Be Sedated.” In all, he spent 15 years with The Ramones, surviving the Phil Spector sessions for End of the Century and appearing in the Roger Corman cult classic film “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.”

On the occasion of Sony/Legacy’s reissue of Dust and Hard Attack on one CD, or the vinyl version released exclusively for Record Store Day on April 20, it’s Dust that’s on Marky’s mind. In this interview, Marky Ramone talks about his days with Dust, the reissues and how he broke into punk. Technical problems sabotaged our conversation somewhat, but most of it was preserved. So, here’s Marky.

Why put this reissue out now?

Marky Ramone: Well, we were able to. The contract was finally up with the other record company that really didn’t do it justice. So, Sony/Legacy, we remastered it, packaged it in numbered vinyl, collectible vinyl, and the packaging is unbelievable, and when you hear the remastering, it sounds twice as big as the original recording. So we were very happy to put it out again to show the public what we were doing 40 years ago in America, which was heavy metal, ‘cause at the time there was hardly any metal in America in 1970. It was all coming from England. And also in America, there weren’t that many producers who knew how to produce this genre of music. So, now it has a second chance.

So you view Dust as being pioneers in American heavy metal?

MR: Well, one of the few, yes. Black Sabbath in England solidified it there, and then when we started in ’70, we got our record deal in ’70 and recorded the album and it came out in ’71. So we were kind of ahead of the game in America, along with a few other handful of bands. There weren’t that many, and the term “heavy metal” wasn’t even a phrase yet.

Listening to these albums now, and like you said, with the remastering it sounds bigger, but going back to them now, what are your impressions? The songs are really well-written.

MR: Well, we were highly skilled, honed, musicians for our age. And we really took our music seriously at our age. I had to worry about getting a diploma on the wall for high school for the parents. It was either that or you’re not going to play, so I kept my grades up in summer school and night school, and eventually got my diploma from Erasmus High School in Brooklyn. And I was able to continue playing. The parents were happy with my grades, and that’s how everything came about. We were free and happy to get out of there and play.

You touched on this already, but you were 16 or 17 years old when you played with Dust, and you were all just teenagers. Did you all go to the same high school and is that how you came together?

MR: Um, Erasmus High School on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, and we all hung out in the same places in Brooklyn. And mainly, we didn’t go to school. We’d just go to my house and rehearse in the basement and throw ideas around. And that’s how me, Kenny and Richie did it. So those two albums are the result.

Did you keep in touch with those guys after Dust ended?

MR: Not at all. We all went in separate directions, and in late ’72, Richie and Kenny Kerner ended up producing the first two KISS albums. Kenny Aaronson played on “Brother Louie” from Stories, which was No. 1 for two weeks that year. And I ended up working with Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones producer on an album. So the legacy of the group is pretty interesting. And the rest is history.

In the years between the formation of Dust and that first album, what was the music scene like in New York City and what was Dust doing differently from the rest of the pack?

MR: Well, at the time, when Dust was together, radio was starting to play soft rock. I think it was called “folk rock,” which is fine. It was easy listening. And I think at the end of the ‘60s, a lot of the music was becoming tamer. People were getting older … you know, the Woodstock era and all that stuff. So, you had soft rock, but we didn’t like soft rock. We liked heavy, loud rock. So that’s why we did form Dust, for that reason. But things that were happening in Brooklyn and New York … basically you had the older bands still playing that were around in the mid ‘60s and the late ‘60s. And then a whole new thing started, which was glam rock, in New York City, with the advent of the New York Dolls and Wayne County and, obviously, bands like KISS and stuff like that. But we didn’t want to be part of any scene. We wanted to travel the world. We were way ahead of these people musician-wise, or technically. So that’s what was happening at the time, and everything is relative to time. And then the punk scene started a few years later after the glam scene started and that’s when I started hanging out at CBGBs.

It seems like there’s a European or almost a progressive sound to the band, but it’s still really bluesy hard rock. Where did that combination of sounds come from? Were those your influences at the time?

MR: Oh, okay. Well, we really loved Jimi Hendrix, we loved Cream, we liked The Who, the Stones, The Beatles … we liked a lot of the blues players, and then with Dust, that’s what you have. You have an omelet and it’s called Dust, and we just stirred up the pot, the eggs, and the next thing you know our influences came through and the only thing we put on top of it was the icing on the cake.

What do you remember about signing with Kamu Sutra? Did you know much about the label beforehand?

MR: Well … yeah I did. When I knew about the bands that they were signing up to the label … [The Lemon Pipers’] “Green Tambourine” … what’s the other one? “Yummy, yummy, yummy/I’ve got love in my tummy.” It was a bubblegum-rock record company. They had other great bands. They had the Lovin’ Spoonful. So at the time that’s what they were pushing, because that’s what was making them money. Did they have the experience to handle Dust? I don’t think so. I think our manager was a little inexperienced at the time with this genre of music, and I think that if we had waited it out for a third album on a different label, something like this label here, who knew how to handle bands like that, maybe the third album would have pushed us over the top.

Compared to other studio sessions you would later have, how did the writing and recording process of that first album go?

MR: Well, we had never entered a studio before in our lives. We had no experience producing. We knew our songs very well. We were very well rehearsed. So basically, those songs are two or three takes. I used the in-house drum set, because I couldn’t afford a drum set at the time. Here we are just piecing things together that I got used or … whatever. And then we went for it. We had an engineer that was very skilled and suggested some things, and of course, we listened. And that’s how the first album came about.

How long did it take to make it?

MR: About three weeks … yeah, about three weeks.

How much money did you have to make it?

MR: Oh, well, the advances were pretty good back then. They were, and things weren’t as expensive as they are now, with hourly or weekly rates. So our advances were good. We were able to buy all-new equipment, PA, amps, drum set … the whole thing. But again, there weren’t that many producers in America that knew how to produce this kind of music. We were still in a quagmire about which way to go – to get an English producer that might’ve produced an English heavy metal band, to wait and go with another record label that was bigger and have them suggest somebody. But we didn’t do that. We just decided to go our own way, we parted as friends and that was it.

Who produced that first record, or was it yourselves?

MR: No, it was us.

That’s what I thought. I just wanted to make sure. What were your expectations for that first album? Did you feel it had commercial potential?

MR: Well, in the metal genre, yes. It wasn’t marketed that well, and it wasn’t the answer to their prayers for them, because they had other musical genres that they could immediately make money off of. Everything has a budget, so we were kind of pushed, but not really. We were pushed better than some bands, but not as well as others.

How did you come to be signed by Kama Sutra, since they weren’t into that type of music?

MR: Neil Bogart bought up all these labels, and he was interested. And we gave him the demo, he liked it and he signed us to Kama Sutra. We were close to getting signed to Atlantic, through a guy named Adrian Barber, but that didn’t happen. So we decided we’d better do something here, and we decided to go with Kama Sutra.

What was happening within the band during the time between the making of the first record and the follow-up, Hard Attack? Was there a lot of touring?

MR: A lot of rehearsing. We toured with Alice Cooper, Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, John Mayall … we played a lot of those … there were a lot of good night clubs, but we realized also that what we were playing was a different genre, so there weren’t that many bands around like us at the time. So when we did tour, we had to be placed with bands who did our kind of music. So that’s where the inexperience of the manager came in. So, like I said, if we had a better manager and a better label, I think that would have all gotten us further.

Was the music well-received by the crowds you did play for?

MR: Oh yeah. Yeah, I can’t say enough about that. We were so thrilled at how they received us.

I read where your best memories of Dust had to do with the band’s tour with Alice Cooper. What was the high point of that tour?

MR: Well, the fact that the people gave us two encores, and then came initiation. I go to my hotel room … I mean, this is stuff that teenagers do I guess, but we were teenagers. Somebody took a dump in one of my drawers in the hotel room. And I knew something smelled pretty strange. I opened it up and there it was, and I never knew who did it, but I look back at it now, and I thought it was pretty funny. Would I do it? No, I wouldn’t do it, but somebody did do it, and whoever it is, I wish I could find them.

So you never found out who did it?

MR: No, I didn’t. Maybe these reissues will make that person come forward (laughs).

As far as playing shows, was there a particular one that was the high point of that tour?

MR: Cobo Hall. I mean that place was packed. And also St. Louis, in particular, really took a liking to Dust. And I think that if we continued to play to the Midwest, and we’d spread out to the East and West, but again, we just stopped that quick.

It wasn’t that long between the two records, but was there a difference between the recording of the second one, as opposed to the first?

MR: We were more experienced. We bought our new equipment with our big advance … but that’s just my opinion. A lot of fans of mine who come up to me with the older Dust, and the second one was a little more technical. 

Why did the band eventually break up?

MR: Because we realized at this point that the sales from the second album were only a little better than the first …

What was your favorite song from each album?

MR: Yeah, I do. From the first album, titled just Dust, it’s “From a Dry Camel.” It’s nine minutes long … and then “Pull Away,” I love the way the drums came through in that song, and the chord changes were really nice. It’s a metal love song.

When did it hit you that Dust was becoming a cult favorite?

MR: When kids would come up to me when I was on tour with The Ramones. Even now … even now they’ll come up to me with the Dust album, and then I sign them – not Marky Ramone, but Marc Bell. That’s who I was known as with Dust, before I became a Ramone, and it was amazing that these kids had these albums and they’d kept them immaculate. So that’s when I knew the band had something, some longevity.

While Dust was in the process of ending, you starting hanging out at Max’s Kansas City. What attracted you to that environment?

MR: Well, after I did the album with Andrew Loog Oldham, because I do live in New York, it was the place to go if you’d like to go and meet other musicians.

What do you recall about meeting Wayne County for the first time?

MR: Oh, he was great. He came up to me and asked me if I would come down to hear his band play, and I did. I liked it, because I always admired the fact that he was ahead of his time, and he was a great entertainer. And, you know, I could go on and on and on about that, but that’ll be in my book. He had a great Southern drawl, which really … and that’s how it started and I stayed with Wayne for about a year and a half, and they’d play at Max’s. And then Tommy didn’t want to play in The Ramones anymore, after three and a half years, and they asked me to join the group and the first song we did was “I Wanna Be Sedated.”

It was, huh?

MR: Yeah.

The idea of joining Richard Hell and the Voidoids … what made the idea band so appealing [he played on the band’s first album, Blank Generation]?

MR: Well, Richard was aligned with Television, and then he formed The Heartbreakers with one of the New York Dolls. And then there was a little competition there, and he left to form his own group. It was a good combination of people. Bob Quine was an exceptional and unique guitar player. Richard, I think, was from Mississippi or Missouri … one of those states. And he added a different flavor to the group, and he was a great writer. And we had Ivan [Julian] and myself, so it was an unusual combination, which really reflected on that Blank Generation album, and that’s why it was rated as one of the best punk albums of all time.

How did the conversation go when Dee Dee asked you to join The Ramones? And what was it about them that made you want to be a part of it?

MR: It was at the bar at CBGBs, and I knew him before I joined The Ramones. And he said Tommy was leaving the band and would I like to join, and I said, “Of course.” Richard didn’t want to tour anymore. And it started there; I had to audition, but I knew I had it. I did “Rockaway Beach,” “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” and “I Don’t Care,” and I went back to the bar and that was it.

What was different about being in The Ramones as to Dust?

MR: Well, being in The Ramones was 4/4/2, 2/4 time. Dust was a lot more sophisticated musically. I was really able to let loose a lot with the drum fills, and the accents, and the time changes. The Ramones was just basically straight-ahead 4/4, so that was the difference.

What do you think kids today experiencing Dust for the first time will think of these recordings?

MR: Oh, they’re going to love it. I’ll tell you if they don’t like it, I don’t know what they’ll like. I mean, when I heard it back, I couldn’t believe it. I was amazed at how big it sounds. 

CD Review: Dust – Hard Attack/Dust

CD Review: Dust – Hard Attack/Dust

Kama Sutra/Legacy

All Access Review: A-

The cult following that’s grown up around Dust is about to get bigger. That’s because Sony Legacy has seen fit to reissue the proto-metal legends’ only two albums, 1971’s Dust and 1972’s Hard Attack, two highly influential documents of heavy blues-driven rock that had been out of print for eons. Time and neglect haven’t eroded their extraordinary power one bit.

Dust was, quite possibly, a bit too hasty in calling it quits so soon after the release of Hard Attack, but they all moved on in impressive fashion, hardly taking a moment to reflect on their brief existence. They were only teenagers when they formed, but the precocious threesome of Richie Wise, Marc Bell and Kenny Aaronson – plus Kenny Kerner, who helped out with production and songwriting – had a loud, fully-realized sonic vision in mind for Dust, but it wasn’t getting them anywhere. So, they parted, and Dust was history. Wise, the band’s guitarist, singer and main songwriter, went on to produce the first two KISS records with Kerner, his partner. 

Aaronson did session work for Dust’s label, Kama Sutra, and toured with just about everybody who was anybody in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, including Bob Dylan, Edgar Winter, Billy Idol and Billy Squier, to name but a few. He also played with both the New York band Stories, who struck gold with the chart-topping single “Brother Louie,” and the short-lived super group HSAS, which stood for Hagar, Schon, Aaronson and Schrieve. And as for Bell, the drummer, he joined The Ramones in 1978. You might know him better as Marky Ramone.

Had the world known what they'd accomplish post-Dust, perhaps those records released in the dark ages of American heavy metal wouldn’t have fallen on deaf ears. And maybe, just maybe, Dust would have lived a little longer, changing the course of rock history forever. Alas, it was not to be, and with serious concerns about their management, their label and their future, Dust called it a day and everybody scattered to the four winds. And Dust and Hard Attack, they just sat on a shelf gathering … well, dust.

Remastered for maximum impact, the sound of these lost treasures – both the product of good, solid songwriting – has been cleaned spotless and is fuller and richer than the original recordings. Hard Attack, in particular, comes on like a hurricane, with the untamed energy of “Ivory” – a rolling tank of an instrumental – and “All in All” whipping around as violently and furiously as any of the wild storms brewed up by The Who or Cream. Heavy weather is experienced on “Learning to Die” and “Full Away/So Many Times,” as well, with Aaronson’s muscular bass and Bell’s galloping drums racing with the wind. And the Sabbath-like “Suicide” swings a big hammer, one that could drive spikes through railroad ties.

Variety spices up Hard Attack, however, as the exquisitely arranged ballad “Thusly Spoken” – blanketed in gorgeous strings and twinkling piano – might be the most sophisticated pop music Burt Bacharach never wrote. Golden flecks of bent steel pedal sparkle in the quiet acoustic country rumination “I Been Thinkin’” and its kissing cousin “How Many Horses,” giving Hard Attack some tasty twang.   

Dust is the black sheep of the family, as “Love Me Hard,” “Chasin’ Ladies” and “Stone Woman” – all cut up by gliding, shooting stars of slide guitar – ramble on like Zeppelin in their prime. Nothing on either album, though, compares to the heavy, 9:53 psychedelic trip “From a Dry Camel” on Dust, a blustery, hallucinogenic dreamscape of alien shapes and a searing, extended guitar solo that goes deep into the recesses of the brain.

Handling dynamic shifts in tempo and mood with deft chops and synchronized charges into the breach, as a band, Dust was bold, adventurous and exceedingly confident of their abilities. Few would appreciate their talents when they were around. That’s what often happens with artists who are ahead of their time. But, eventually, the world catches up, and with this reissue, augmented by a fantastic selection of vintage memorabilia and photos, along with concise, but revealing, liner notes comprised of passionate remembrances by band members, it seems the time is right to reassess the impact Dust had on heavy metal. Get to your independent record store early on April 20 for a lush Record Store Day exclusive vinyl version of this archival treasure.

 –   Peter Lindblad

Marky Ramone remembers Dust ... and tries to solve a mystery

Sony/Legacy reissues proto-metal band’s two cult albums

By Peter Lindblad

Dust - Dust/Hard Attack 2013

The trail has gone cold ... ice cold. Any evidence of the crime is, in all likelihood, gone forever, and yet Marc Bell, aka Marky Ramone, is still determined to catch the culprit and find justice.

For context, when the incident happened, Bell was a founding member of Dust in the late ’60s and ’70s, a band that simply could not catch a break in its all-too-brief existence.

Management was at a loss as to how to market the pioneering proto-metal outfit and few, if any, American producers had any idea how to get the most out of them in the studio. Meanwhile, their record label, Kama Sutra, was focusing its energies on promoting its more commercial folk-rock acts, like the Lovin’ Spoonful.

All of these things, according to Ramone, combined to doom Dust. One thing that did go right for them was a tour with Alice Cooper as the supporting act, although he’d like to get to the bottom of something that happened to him while on the road with the shock-rock sensations.

On the one hand, there was “the fact that people were giving us two encores,” says Ramone, something opening acts don’t usually receive.

“And then came initiation,” says Ramone, setting the scene. “I go to my hotel room … I mean, this is stuff that teenagers do I guess, but we were teenagers I suppose. Somebody took a dump in one of my drawers in the hotel room. And I knew something smelled pretty strange. I opened it up and there it was, and I never knew who did it, but I look back at it now, and I thought it was pretty funny. Would I do it? No, I wouldn’t do it, but somebody did do it, and whoever it is, I wish I could find them.”

It’s a mystery that probably will never be solved. And though Ramone may never ferret out the offending party, there is renewed interest in Dust, now that their only two albums, the self-titled debut from 1971 and their 1972 sophomore LP, Hard Attack, are being reissued – with a fantastic remastering job – by Sony Legacy on April 16. A Record Store Day vinyl version is being released on April 20.

“Maybe these reissues will make that person come forward (laughs),” jokes Ramone.

Prized by collectors for years, Dust’s records were the stuff of legend, their gale-force blues-based hard-rock sound tempered by touches of folk and progressive-rock in a formula that Led Zeppelin was perfecting overseas. Although they disbanded not long after the release of Hard Attack, the members of Dust would go on to bigger and better things.

Bell hooked on with a various U.S. punk rock icons, including Wayne County and Richard Hell & the Voidoids and, of course, The Ramones, the band he joined in 1978. Kenny Aaronson was Dust’s bassist, and he would later play with the likes of Joan Jett, Bob Dylan, Foghat, Brian Setzer and a host of other rock luminaries. As for Richie Wise, the band’s guitarist and main songwriter, he and Kenny Kerner – who wrote lyrics for Dust and helped out with songwriting and production duties – ended up producing the first two KISS records.

Ramone thinks that it is high time these two long-out-of-print Dust records see the light of day again.

Explaining why the reissues are coming out now, he said, in a rather matter-of-fact manner, that “the contract was finally up with the other record company that really didn’t do [Dust] justice. So, Sony/Legacy … we remastered it, packaged it in numbered vinyl, collectible vinyl, and the packaging is unbelievable. And when you hear the remastering, it sounds twice as big as the original recording. So we were very happy to put it out again to show the public what we were doing 40 years ago in America, which was heavy metal, ‘cause at the time there was hardly any metal in America in 1970. It was all coming from England. And also in America, there weren’t that many producers who knew how to produce this genre of music. So, now it has a second chance.”

After all this time, Ramone still sees the influential Dust, cult favorites for years, as trailblazers in the metal genre.

“Well, one of the few, yes,” says Ramone. “Black Sabbath in England solidified it there, and then when we started in ’70, we got our record deal in ’70 and recorded the album and it came out in ’71. So we were kind of ahead of the game in America, along with a few other bands. There weren’t that many, and the term ‘heavy metal’ wasn’t even a phrase yet.”

As for the Cooper tour, Ramone thinks of it as the highlight of Dust’s short life. Another one was playing Cobo Hall, the site of many great concerts by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and, of course, KISS. “I mean that place was packed,” says Ramone. “And also St. Louis … they really took a liking to Dust. And I think that if we continued to play to the Midwest, and we’d spread out to the East and West … but again, we just stopped that quick.”

We’ll have more of our interview with Marky Ramone and his memories of Dust in future posts, so keep watching this space for that. In the meantime, visit http://www.legacyrecordings.com for more information.

  

Punk rock memorabilia starts a riot

Genre is one of the hottest in the field of rock 'n' roll collecting

By Peter Lindblad

Titled "Punk Girl CBGB's 1977," this Ebet Roberts
signed and dated archival pigment evokes
memories of the New York City punk scene. 

Punk rock’s time has come – at least with regard to music memorabilia. One of the hottest genres in collecting, records, photos, clothing, fanzines, fliers, pins and other ephemera from punk’s halcyon days are highly sought after by collectors.

In demand now more than ever, the rarest and most obscure punk memorabilia can fetch big prices. But, what’s out there? What’s the history of this outsider music and what bands dragged punk out of the gutter and made it a worldwide phenomenon? In this blog, we’ll take an in-depth look at the rise of punk and what collectors can expect to find when entering this particular world of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia.

Overview

Rock ‘n’ roll had lost its way. At least that’s how the punks felt in the mid-1970s.

Reacting to the glitzy excess of mainstream arena-rock acts and the perceived pretentiousness of progressive-rock, there was an underground movement taking shape in the U.S., England and Australia that sought to make rock ‘n’ roll dangerous again, like it was in the ‘50s. The music was fast and furious, influenced by the bruising, riotous proto-punk of bands like The Stooges, The New York Dolls and the MC5, as well as the gritty, raw power of ‘60s garage bands.

Nowadays, the remnants of that revolutionary period in music history are highly sought after by collectors looking for the rarest and most interesting pieces of memorabilia that somehow survived the mayhem.

From the archives of the photographer
Godlis comes this vintage print titled
"CBGB's Bathroom 1976." 

Pinpointing exactly where or when punk started is a matter of intense debate. Some have said the U.K. punks were influenced by what was happening in New York City, where a grimy little club called CBGB’s played host to Television’s avant-garde guitar orchestrations, the Talking Heads’ arty funk, the Ramones’ supercharged blasts of fast, infectious pop-punk and Patti Smith spitting out evocative, highly literate street poetry against a back-to-basics backdrop of tense three-chord rock.

Overseas in England, a perfect storm of DIY, anti-conformist fashion, economic hardship, political and social anger and musical anarchy was coalescing around a snotty band of young men known as The Sex Pistols, who were managed by the master of the shocking publicity stunts, Malcolm McLaren. Seeing their sound and fury live was a life-changing experience for another one of Britain’s punk icons, Joe Strummer, who would go on to form The Clash with his future songwriting partner Mick Jones of the band the London SS. While the notorious Sex Pistols practically set the world on fire with their confrontational, and sometimes bloody, gigs and a debut album in Never Mind the Bollocks that blazed with white-hot intensity, it was The Clash who endured longer.

Imploding from within, as bassist Sid Vicious departed and then succumbed to a drug overdose after being implicated in the murder of his girlfriend, the Sex Pistols ground to a halt on a tour of America, while The Clash carried on, expanding the strict boundaries of punk to include elements of reggae, early hip-hop, and rockabilly, among other musical styles. They made classic albums like London Calling and their U.S. commercial breakthrough Combat Rock, before tensions between Strummer and Jones came to a head and Jones was fired. U.K. punk certainly didn’t die with the Sex Pistols or The Clash, as the U.K. produced a slew of exciting acts like The Buzzcocks, The Slits, The Adverts, Stiff Little Fingers, Chelsea, The Damned, Magazine, The Raincoats, Sham 69, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and other rabble-rousers. Post-punk outfits such as Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure and more would add more gloomy atmospherics to the punk lexicon, and new wave acts added synthesizers to the mix for a more stylish sound.

This photo of former Black Flag
front man Henry Rollins was
taken at Toronto Edgefest II.

In the U.S., scenes were popping up in different cities all over the country. Los Angeles had the stridently political, uncompromising Dead Kennedys and X, a band that married outlaw country and punk in their own sort of musical shotgun wedding. Bands like The Germs and The Weirdos continued the L.A. tradition of wild and wooly punk rock, and gradually, the scene became more violent as punk morphed into hardcore and bands like Black Flag challenged their audiences with their fists as well as their guitars. The same thing happened in New York City, as punk’s originators fell by the wayside, and bands like Blondie were scooped up by major record labels and became part of the mainstream, with the advent of punk’s cousin, New Wave, sanding off some of punk’s rough edges to make a sound more palatable for the masses. Cleveland’s Pere Ubu established itself as one of the more innovative bands the genre has ever seen, and it was where The Dead Boys got their start, before migrating to New York City. Then, there was the Washington D.C. area, which had the Dischord house [actually in Arlington, Va.], the label formed by Fugazi and Minor Threat leader Ian MacKaye.

Other countries had their own burgeoning punk scenes, including Australia, where The Saints and Radio Birdman offered an edgy alternative to AC/DC. Canada had the politically charged D.O.A., led by Joey “Shithead” Keithley, and The Diodes. And there were plenty of other nations that had less-publicized punk scenes sprout up. Over the years, punk has assimilated itself into popular culture, with bands like Green Day, Rancid and the Offspring selling scads of records in the 1990s and the 2000s, leading purists to accuse them of selling out. Seattle’s grunge scene also had its day in the sun, with Nirvana, Soundgarden and others slowing punk’s full-steam-ahead aesthetic and making it heavier.

At its core, however, punk was always about thumbing its nose at the establishment and trying to do its own thing without corporate help of any kind. It flourished because of the passion, determination and intellect of writers and entrepreneurs who established their own magazines and independent record labels. As the title of a great documentary film on the life of Joe Strummer makes perfectly clear, the future of punk is unwritten. However, music like this always seems to find a way to survive.

Punk Memorabilia Collecting Overview

Here’s the thing about punk: It was never meant to last. It was all about burning as hot as possible for however long it was meant to exist, and when there was nothing left but embers … well, that’s life.

So, much of what punk produced – from clothing to gig flyers, promotional posters and cheaply produced 45s – was either destroyed along the way or greatly damaged, oftentimes intentionally by those owned the stuff.

Perhaps, that’s why the market for punk memorabilia has grown increasingly hotter in recent years – as proof of punk’s fairly recent growth as in the collectibles area, the venerable auction firm Christie’s held a punk/rock sale in late 2008 that generated $747,300 in earnings. Collectors have always chased mint-condition rarities, which, in turn, come with relatively hefty price tags. Not everything, however, is hard on the pocketbook. There are plenty of bargains out there for collectors who don’t want to blow the rent money on hard-to-find t-shirts or obscure 7” singles.

Buttons and badges are popular items, and even those of acts such as The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, and newer acts like Screeching Weasel come at reasonable prices – even if they’re in collections of individual bands. You might expect to pay between $10 and $20 for some. The money shelled out for gig flyers and promotional posters is also not completely outrageous. Though many didn’t make it through the madness, others did despite being so disposable. Early posters from the New York scene can go for $100 to $200, while flyers can range from $10 to $60 or more.

An exceptionally rare X-Ray Specs' promotional
album from 1978 that boasts 16 demo,
rehearsal and live songs.

Records are an interesting area. Some of the artifacts from the U.K. have actually been devalued by their appearances on CD collections and compilations. Still, there are a few that can go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Being poor, punk bands and indie labels didn’t have the money to press more than 500 or 1,000 records at a time. With such limited runs, there simply aren’t many of these records around.

Other items of note include photos from the early days, magazines and fanzines, and perhaps the most expensive items of all, pieces of clothing. With its safety pins and Mohawk haircuts, punk was as much a fashion movement as it was a musical one, and the provocative designs worn by icons such as Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and Joe Strummer, among others, are prized by collectors. Authenticated signatures of artists and band members will increase the value of pieces. As with everything, however, condition is critically important to the value of any piece.

Here’s a closer look at punk items that have collectors salivating:

Clothing

An authentic "DESTROY" shirt from
Boy London, made famous by Johnny Rotten. 

430 King’s Road in the Chelsea district of London is one of the most famous addresses in punk. It’s where Malcolm McLaren opened the notorious store SEX, which sold bondage equipment, fetish gear and t-shirts that shocked the sensibilities of conservative Londoners with Nazi imagery and gay cowboys, among other things.

In 1975, McLaren took on the task of managing the Sex Pistols, and a year later, the shop was renamed as Seditionaries. From the beginning, when McLaren took over the 430 King’s Road storefront, he sold t-shirts designed by his then-girlfriend Vivienne Westwood. The Sex Pistols were often seen wearing Seditionaries clothing, as McLaren took advantage of the Pistols’ growing popularity. Other big-name punks such as Adam Ant and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders were frequent guests. However, the couple eventually split, and they closed the Seditionaries store in 1980.

Westwood designs – shirts with the word DESTROY and swastikas splashed across the front being perhaps the most famous of them all – sold in the Seditionaries store are in high demand and t-shirts can go from $100 to $1,000 or higher.

SEX wasn’t the only King’s Road shop vying for attention from punks. Around the same time, Stephane Raynor ran Acme Attractions with John Krevine. The legendary punk filmmaker Don Letts ran the store at one time and it catered to people like Bob Marley, Boy George, Hynde and Patti Smith. However, Raynor and Krevine closed the store in 1976 to focus on their Boy London clothing line, which had its own King’s Road store. Boy London designs are also highly sought after.

Vintage original band t-shirts from the likes of The Clash, The Ramones and other more iconic punk acts are also prized by collectors; if it can be proven that they worn by any of the members or any other big-name artists, the price goes up.

Of course, designers didn’t just splash controversial slogans across t-shirts. They also made custom blazers, leather jackets, patches, and dress shirts, which featured taboo images like swastikas, blood and anarchistic sentiments. Much of it, of course, was ripped and torn and shredded beyond recognition, but you can still find punk clothing items from punk’s heyday.  

Records

A rare 7" pressing of The Dictators' 1977
"Hey Boys"  single from Asylum Records.

Indie labels with little financial backing have always had to spend their money wisely. To that end, often when they pressed punk rock records, they often only produced 500 to 1,000 at a time, most of the time releasing 7” singles or 45s.

Bands like horror-punks The Misfits made good use of this business model. Their 45s are some of the most valuable around, often going for as much as $500. Others by bands like Black Flag and the Circle Jerks can also be worth hundreds, as are some records from labels like Touch & Go, SST and Dischord. Seattle’s Sub Pop label did the same thing, but went one step further by starting a singles club, where members would receive a 45 in the mail of bands on the label. Some were on colored vinyl or featured artistic sleeves. Early releases by Nirvana are sometimes worth hundreds or even more than a thousand dollars.

Going back to punk’s beginnings, some of the most expensive and rare records are relics that era, including one of the true holy grails among punk records, the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen/No Feelings,” which had gone for six figures – the AM and Town House pressings fetching $17,000 and $23,000, respectively. In 2012, a rare 7-inch promotional acetate of the single put out by the LTS label went for an astounding $20,000 on the U.K. eBay auction web site. In part, what makes Sex Pistols’ singles so valued is the fact that were continually given the boot by a number record labels, who pressed only a handful of their singles.

There are other valuable punk records out there, including XTC’s unreleased picture sleeve for “Science Fiction/She’s so Square” (Virgin 1977 VS 188), which has brought in more than $2,500. Going for under $1,000, Joy Division’s An Ideal for Living EP (Enigma 178 PSS 139) and Generation X’s unreleased picture sleeve for “Your Generation/Day by Day” (77 Chrysalis CHS 2105) – featuring Billy Idol, before peroxide – have fetched $800 and $500, respectively.

When it comes to records, the real money is in original recordings, not reissues. There are some characteristics of original recordings that set them apart – non-glossy sleeves, the lack of distributor names on record backs, and cheap plain labels. Early non-major label releases and obscure 45s are worth the most.

Photos and art prints

Visually, punk has provided some of the most compelling pop culture images ever, and those who documented early scenes in New York City and the U.K. with their cameras have gained fame for their work. Bob Gruen, for example, has taken some of the most iconic rock photography ever, including well-known shots of John Lennon. Being a New Yorker, he also was a fixture on the Big Apple’s punk scene, snapping classic black-and-white and color images of The Ramones, Jayne [or Wayne] County, Blondie and other New York City punk acts, as well as artfully shot images of The Clash playing live.

Stiv Bators of The Dead Boys
is the subject of this archival
pigment print from Ebet Roberts.

Gruen had competition in New York City. Eileen Polk, Godlis and Ebet Roberts also produced some of the most compelling punk photography to come out of that scene, with Godlis famously framing the graffiti-scrawled CBGBs bathroom for posterity. While they had the New York City scene covered, Edward Colver focused his lens on California’s vibrant punk community. One of the most famous punk rock photos ever was taken by Colver. It shows a stage diver doing a flip into a crowd of punks and was featured in the movie “American Hardcore.”

Ray Stevenson, Erica Echenberg, Denis O’Regan and Adrian Boot are some of the biggest names in punk photography in the U.K. Prints, negatives, and slides are all sought after by collectors.

Certain punk artists also achieved notoriety, including the subversive Jamie Reid, who may be best known for the ransom-note style lettering associated with Sex Pistols’ records and his “God Save The Queen” design, which featured a safety pin through her royal highness’s nose and swastikas over her eyes. Some of his murals are exceedingly rare.

Gig flyers and posters

This original D.O.A./Frightwig 1985
 German/Swiss tour poster is a rarity.

One of the most affordable options for collectors, gig flyers and posters were subject to all manner of destructive forces. Stapled to bulletin boards, telephone poles, kiosks, walls and any other places bands could think of to promote punk shows, flyers were often crudely drawn, Xeroxed or designed with stark, outrageous images intended to provoke reactions. Many, however, were damaged beyond repair.

U.K. flyers for the likes of The Slits, Generation X and the Pogues are in demand, while ones created for the aborted Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” tour are highly prized and worth several hundred dollars.

When it comes to availability, U.S. punk flyers might be somewhat easier to find. In true DIY fashion, many were designed by the band members themselves, although some artists found their own niche in flyers. Raymond Pettibon, responsible for many of the shocking and sometimes humorous flyers put out for Black Flag shows, is one of them. Others for bands like The Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Samhain, Agnostic Front, Youth Brigade, TSOL, Fear, The Germs, Crime, Negative Trend and more certainly are attractive to collectors. One for The Germs designed by their drummer for a show at the Whisky that featured a controversial Hitler Youth image is considered among the most sought after flyers around.

More expensive generally, and often featuring more sophisticated art work, punk posters of such acts as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, Adam and the Ants, The Damned, D.O.A., The Buzzcocks, Blondie, The Ramones, TV Personalities, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other punk acts were used mostly to promote new records. So, they were often posted on the walls of record shops, but many were often tossed away over time. Still others could be found at bus stops and concert venues. Whatever the case, flyers and posters are pieces of history that reflect the rebellious and challenging artistic impulses of punk.

Magazines and fanzines

Issue No. 11 of the U.K. 'zine
Ripped & Torn.

Swept up in the frenzy of the punk movement, many fans and devotees wanted to become part of the action. True to the DIY aesthetic of punk, many started underground magazines or fanzines as a means of documenting what was happening in their respective scenes.

In the U.K., Sniffin’ Glue, founded in 1976, was one of the earliest and most outrageous ‘zines, and though it was only around for a year, it made an impact. Grammar wasn’t much of a concern, and swearing was common, but it is remembered more for its chronicling of the early U.K. scene – mostly through its pictures. And there were other U.K. ‘zines, many of the cut-and-paste variety, that left their mark, including Zig Zag, Dangerous Logic, International Times and Ripped & Torn.

The U.S. had its share of ‘zines as well, with Search & Destroy and Paranoia covering the L.A. scene, while in New York, the aptly named Punk kept an eye on what was happening there. One of punk’s most well-known literary figures, Legs McNeil, helped found the Punk ‘zine.

Miscellaneous

From the 1977 Dutch "Monty" punk series comes this
collector's card of the Sex Pistols.

Like other musical genres, punk produced its share of unusual promotional items that were designed to market the bands. Along with the aforementioned buttons, pins and badges, all sorts of weird oddities are out there just waiting for a home. Finding them requires a little research on eBay and the Internet.

While there are far too many to mention here, a few of the more rare and interesting pieces include a mini baseball bat that served as a promotional piece for The Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat” single and a letter opener for the band’s second studio LP Leave Home – both of which can go for $500. Another fun item is a jigsaw puzzle that was made for The Clash’s Give ‘Me Enough Rope album. Collectors’ cards also were popular items.

Overall, punk continues to explode as a rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia market. As with most collectibles, rarity and condition set the price. No matter what you collect, however, the hunt is always the most enjoyable part of the hobby. 

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Backstage Auctions: Featured Punk Rock Memorabilia Available For Sale