The Dead Boys - Young Loud and Snotty

Their debut and their best from 1977 from Stiv and the boys. Includes 'Sonic Reducer' & I Need Lunch'. Album Description

The title says it all

Back in 1977, punk rock actually scared people. The Ramones were the first band out of the CBGB's scene to really get noticed, and as soon as that happened, the floodgates opened wide. Suddenly every angry displaced kid in America had a Sex Pistols album and a guitar. As soon as these bands got a hold of some Iggy or Dolls CD's, they had a roadmap.

The Dead Boys jumped on the highway to NYC from Cleveland, where they took punk's nihilism and magnified it tenfold. Notorious for their stage fights and violent behaviour (drummer Johnny Blitz almost died after being stabbed at a gig), they also became one of the first American punk bands to get a record deal. Inspired by The Ramones (it was meeting Joey in Ohio that lured Stiv and company to New York) and coming on like an even more manic Raw Power Stooges, the menace was no joke. Proto Punk Genya Raven took them into the studios, kept the tapes running and left them to make an album. Four days later, they emerged with "Young Loud and Snotty."

This was an album so brazenly raw that, to this day, there are few others like it. It was loaded with Punk Anthems ("Sonic Reducer"), juvenile sex ("Caught With The Meat in Your Mouth" and "I Need Lunch") and gothic rock that masked an Alice Cooper fascination ("Not Anymore"). They chucked the artier bands of the CBGB universe and went for the most abrasive, unpolished format they could find; there are those who claim American Hardcore started here. Guitarist Cheetah Chrome is sorely underrated, his snarling leads are razorsharp when listened to in context. Frankly, it took another few years before any other New York band came close to this kind of ferocity, and that would have been The Plasmatics' New Hope for the Wretched.

It's interesting to listen to "Young Loud and Snotty" over 30 (holy crap!!!) years later. While the impact of punk in the 70's and early 80's has been diluted by the warm fuzziness of nostalgia and sheer overload of influenced followers (Guns and Roses and Pearl Jam have covered DB songs), it is The Dead Boys that have yet to become commercials for cell phones (The Ramones), cars (The Jam, The Clash), cleaning products (Devo, Blondie), video games (Sex Pistols) or even become a Tv show theme (Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives"). When the late Felix Pappalardi tried to finesse them for the still ferocious and fiery followup, We Have Come for Your Children, the core DB fans cried it was too weak! That's because the uncompromising roar of "Young Loud and Snotty" still sounds like a snarled thuggish threat. Perhaps the only other band to maintain their menace of legend would be The Dead Kennedys, and that is saying something. March 2, 2008

Great HARD ROCK from a punk band

DATE: Early 80's, PLACE: Penny Arcade, Rochester, NY, TIME: It was dark out MYSELF: Very good buzz on. This band, believe it or not is in the top 20 of all the live shows I've ever seen. They completely destroyed the place. This band is another band that should have really gotten big and didn't. Buy the CD, you'll be glad you did. R. Lee, Rochester, NY August 25, 2007

A vastly overrated and even laughable album

I've owned two copies of this CD, both of which I bought at pawn shops for like $3 each. I think I've been listening to the album for eight years now, so quite a while. I enjoy a lot of the music that surrounds this album, e.g. The Stooges, Radio Birdman, The Pistols, The Dolls, The Avengers, Suicide, etc., and I manage to put this album on every so often too. But frankly, I think that this is a great example of a group whose hype exceeds their reality, at least on record.

The album starts solid with "Sonic Reducer", but "All This and More" is a step down, and by the time we get to "Not Anymore", I start either getting bored or else laughing at what I hear. Seriously, can you really say "Hey Little Girl" is a catchy pop song? Or how about when Stiv bellows, "FEEEEEEEEEED MEEEEEE!" in "I Need Lunch"? It reminds me of the lead singer of Green Jelly bellowing, "SPAAAAAAANK MEEEEE!!" on that god-awful "Cereal Killer: The Soundtrack" album. And that ridiculous half-grunt, half Southern drawl of Stiv's gets plenty of guffaws and jabs whenever I put this record on.

I know that the majority of people love music that is loud and rough-sounding, but seriously, when you get too sloppy, you lose all the punch that the music is supposed to have. And that's what happens with this music. It sounds so amateur and unfocused. Seriously, if you like this kind of rough, dirty sound but want it to actually be focused, listen to Radio Birdman's first album "Radios Appear" or, if you can find it, get their 1996 reunion album "Ritualism". Or, get the remixed version of The Heartbreakers' "LAMF" or dig around for a compilation of The Avengers' material. Any one of these alternatives are so much better sounding and successful in being decapitating music than is this laughable, amateur bucket of slop.

What amazes me is how you don't dare say anything bad about this album. I mean, God love Bomp Records, but is Stiv really the greatest rock singer of all time as they claim? Really, now. Better than Ronnie James Dio? Better than David Sylvian? Or David Bowie even? Or, for raw presence, was he really better than Iggy Pop or Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks? (By the way, Michael Monroe's band Demolition 23 covers "Ain't Nothin' to Do" and IMPROVE on it slightly.) But in the cult of punk, there are certain things you don't dare say, like "Patti Smith was boring," "Marquee Moon by Television would have been a great album if the band could actually play their instruments," and "Debbie Harry was cute, but Blondie weren't THAT great--hell, they didn't even count as punk rock!" Never mind that all of these statements are true. If you want to believe everything you hear and read about '77 punk rock, I'm telling you from over ten years of personal experience via collecting records and reading magazines and liner notes that you are buying into a willful delusion from people who, in their desire for a return to rock's fun, rockin' roots, went to the extreme of essentially negating musical ability altogether because groups like Queen were an ideal they couldn't attain. Now, let's face it, that topsy-turvy way of looking at the world is completely and totally mainstream, if Kurt Cobain's entry far above Tony Iommi in Rolling Stone's "Best Guitar Players of All Time" article tells you anything (Is he? Is he really?). Admit it, there's more Ramones shirts at the mall than Zeppelin, Sabbath, Floyd, or even AC/DC shirts, and you know it. I repeat: punk and punk journalism are MAINSTREAM, not to mention almost cult-like in their demands for conformity to their standards. And that's why you'll see the ratings so high on The Dead Boys' "Young, Loud, and Sloppy"--er, "Snotty"--because no one is about to dissent from the verdict the Gods of Punk hath handed down.

I expect to get some serious flack for this one, including the usual "Do you have ears" and "Do you have musical tastes" bologna. Answer to both: yes. And I probably have a music collection that's bigger than yours, and no it's not all Slim Whitman records either--I actually own or have owned all of the records I've shamelessly namedropped above in one form or another and have listened to them repeatedly too. And I'm sure you'll have some witty comback that you'll be so proud of. Seriously, can your witty comeback and listen to "Young, Loud and Sloppy" closely. Compare it next to "LAMF", "Radios Appear", The Stooges' "Raw Power", or any Motorhead record and see how well it stands up, REALLY. That's your homework for tonight. August 18, 2007

Punk classic

This album is a combination of punk rock, proto-punk, and pop punk. They have the bad attitude vocals in the bag (Stiv Bators was a damn snotty vocalist indeed), along with the energetic punk rock riffs, some pretty good leads, though some songs are slower and far less punk than they are pop. Regardless of that, the songwriting is pretty solid, and the execution is precise, so it's definitely the result of hard work by actual musicians, not just pissed off teens jamming for the first time in their parents' basements. Lyrics are politically incorrect and often resemble a frustrated attitude towards girls, which more of us than admit it can relate to.
This is one of the pillars of classic punk rock, so you should get familiar with it if you want a more complete understanding of what punk music was all about in its heyday. May 20, 2007

Dead but not forgotten

The Dead Boys' debut album was a strong dose of classic snot-nosed punk - but this album brings you the very rawest and best alternative takes. It's like listening to a new album, and a good argument can be made that veteran punk fans will find this version even more powerful and appealing than the original. It's like having an indie version of a classic studio album, and in many cases the tunes are more powerful and immediate. December 28, 2006

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