The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! is the debut album by American punk rock band The Dictators. It was released in March 1975 and is considered one of the first examples of punk rock.[1][2][3]

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!
Cover photo by David Gahr
Studio album by
The Dictators
ReleasedMarch 1975
Recorded1975
StudioCBS Studios, New York City
GenreProto-punk
Length34:48
LabelEpic
Au Go Go (1989 Australian release)
ProducerMurray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman
The Dictators chronology
The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!
(1975)		 Manifest Destiny
(1977)

Response

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[5]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal9/10[6]
Entertainment WeeklyA[7]
Record Collector[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[9]

The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! has been well-received critically and is considered a precursor to punk rock. In its retrospective review, AllMusic notes that while the album was confusing to audiences at the time of its release, it became inspirational for dozens of groups to follow.[4] Trouser Press enthused that the band deserves "scads of credit" for "blazing a long trail, melding the essentials of junk culture... with loud/hard/fast rock'n'roll and thus creating an archetype".[10] According to a 2001 article in The Village Voice, the album's "blueprint for bad taste, humor, and defiance" has been replicated in the work of such bands as the Ramones and Beastie Boys.[11]

Trouser Press lauded the album as a "wickedly funny, brilliantly played and hopelessly naïve masterpiece of self-indulgent smartass rock'n'roll".[10] Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Go Girl Crazy's junk-generation culture and smart-aleck sensibility did provide an essential blueprint for '70s punk. With its TV references and homely vocals, this ground-breaking and long-unavailable album continues to inspire underground groups everywhere."[7] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff enjoyed the album and considered the Dictators "more obviously comedians than musicians", "with a sense of self-deprecating humor poking sticks at the seriousness of heavy metal".[6]

Dave Marsh was less enthusiastic though, describing the record as a "banal collection of recycled 'Pipeline' instrumentals coupled with a vocalist who sounds, yes, precisely like a yowling wrestler on Saturday afternoon TV" in Rolling Stone,[12] and giving the album zero stars in The Rolling Stone Record Guide.

Influence

In addition to this early punk rock influencing the style to come, the album was also one of two factors influencing the creation of Punk magazine by John Holmstrom and music journalist Legs McNeil. In Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, McNeil said that the album so resonated with him and his friends that they started the magazine strictly so they could "hang out with the Dictators".[13]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Andy Shernoff, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Next Big Thing" 4:20
2."I Got You Babe" (Sonny & Cher cover)Sonny Bono4:08
3."Back to Africa" 3:35
4."Master Race Rock" 4:13
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."Teengenerate" 3:24
6."California Sun" (Joe Jones cover)Henry Glover, Morris Levy3:04
7."Two Tub Man" 4:08
8."Weekend" 4:00
9."(I Live For) Cars and Girls" 3:56

Personnel
The Dictators
Additional musicians
  • Handsome Dick Manitoba – lead vocals track 1, shared with Shernoff tracks: 2, 5 & 7 (Credited solely as "Secret Weapon")
  • Allen Lanier (credited as Alan Glover) – keyboards on "Teengenerate" and "Cars and Girls"
Production

References
  1. Rombes, Nicholas (2009). A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974–1982. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 20. ISBN 978-0826427793.
  2. Waksman, Steve (2009). This Ain't the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk. University of California Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-520-25310-0.
  3. Wolf, Mary Montgomery (2007). "We accept you, one of us?": Punk rock, community, and individualism in an uncertain era, 1974--1985. p. 317. ISBN 9780549325819.
  4. Deming, Mark. "Go Girl Crazy! – The Dictators". AllMusic. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  5. Christgau, Robert (1981). "D". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor and Fields. ISBN 0-89919-026-X. Retrieved February 24, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  6. Popoff, Martin (2003). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal – Volume 1: The Seventies. Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-1894959025.
  7. Robbins, Ira (February 22, 1991). "Go Girl Crazy". Entertainment Weekly. No. 52. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  8. Needs, Kris (August 2013). "The Dictators – Go Girl Crazy!". Record Collector. No. 417. p. 88. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  9. Catucci, Nick (2004). "The Dictators". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 234. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  10. Robbins, Ira. "Dictators". Trouser Press. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  11. Lefelt, Jack (October 9, 2001). "Manifest Destiny". The Village Voice. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  12. Rolling Stone, June 5th 1975
  13. Holmstrom, John; McNeil, Legs (2006). Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (10th anniversary ed.). Grove Press. p. 286. ISBN 0-8021-4264-8.

Further reading
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