The Dickies

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The Dickies
The Dickies (2010)
The Dickies (2010)
General information
Genre (s) Pop-punk , fun-punk
founding 1977
Website www.thedickies.com
Founding members
Leonard Graves Phillips
Guitar , vocals
 Stan Lee
Keyboard, guitar, saxophone , vocals
 Chuck Wagon (actually Bob Davis )
Bass , vocals
 Billy Club (actually Bill Remar )
Karlos Kaballero
Current occupation
singing
 Leonard Graves Phillips
guitar
 Stan Lee
guitar
 Dave Teague
bass
 Eddie Tater
Drums
 Adam R. Gomez
former members
Guitar, vocals
 Steve Hufstetter
Guitar, vocals
 Scott Sindon
Keyboard, guitar, vocals
 Glen Laughlin
Bass, vocals
 Laurie Buhne
Drums
 Jerry Angel
Drums
 Nickey beat
Drums
 Rex Roberts
Drums
 Cliff Martinez

The Dickies are an American punk band from California that were founded in 1977 and have continued to this day. At the beginning of their career, the Dickies' musical style was significantly influenced by the music of the New York punk band Ramones and continues to resemble it to this day in terms of humorous lyrics, high playing tempo and distinctive melodies. The Dickies mainly deal with fast-played interpretations of well-known pop songs, so-called up-tempo punk . The Dickies' own compositions are characterized by a higher degree of complexity and a greater variety of styles. The music lexicon punk! describes the Dickies in its fourth edition from 2003 as "probably the fastest punk band in the world" .

history

The line-up of the band changed very frequently over the years. The only founding members who are still active members of the band today are Leonard Graves Phillips (vocals) and Stan Lee (guitar). The musical activities of the band were interrupted several times for some time in the course of their career; However, since the group was never officially disbanded even in times of long inactivity, it can now be regarded as one of the "longest serving" still active punk bands.

plant

A special characteristic of the Dickies' work is their tendency towards high tempos for the genre as well as jokes and parody , which can already be seen on the debut album , starting with the band name The Dickies itself (in German roughly: "Die Pimmelchen"). Accordingly, the band logo, which has been in use since the late 1980s, forms the calligraphic representation of a (flaccid) penis and scrotum from the letters of the name . A similar phallic humor can also be found in the band's musical repertoire, for example in pieces such as If Stuart Could Talk (in which the singer's penis gives an imaginary speech), Going Homo and Gigantor .

Another typical feature of the Dickies' music repertoire are their punk cover versions of some famous pieces by other bands, which are always played at a very fast pace compared to the original versions by the Dickies. A prominent example is Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues ; in the original a worn ballad , the romantic text of which in the Dickies version is alienated and taken to absurdity through the high playing speed and distorted e-guitar sounds typical of punk.

One of the most famous songs and the most successful piece of the band is their interpretation of Banana Splits ("The Tra La La Song"), played in the same style , first released in 1979 as a single. The song is originally a theme tune for the Saturday morning cartoon The Banana Splits Adventure Hour that was widespread in English-speaking countries, and the Dickies version reached number 5 in the English charts in the same year. The song is part of the score in the superhero comedy Kick-Ass .

The band's humor is also present on the covers of the albums they have released. For example, the titles of their first two albums, including photos printed on their covers, are parodic allusions to popular American films: The title of the debut album The Incredible Shrinking Dickies and its cover photos play on the science fiction thriller The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957 an (German film title: The incredible story of Mister C. ), while the name and graphic design of the follow-up album Dawn of the Dickies caricature the popular US horror film Dawn of the Dead from 1978 (German title: Zombie ). Titles from later albums make fun of fear of terrorism ( Stukas Over Disneyland ) as well as colloquial idioms ( Dogs From The Hare That Bit Us , a corruption of the phrase "hair from the dog that bit me" , roughly equivalent to: "a fake evidence “, And second coming , which can mean both a return of Jesus Christ and a second orgasm ).

Trivia

Dickies guitarist Stan Lee is known for his trademark, a lemon-yellow Gibson SG electric guitar, the front of which is adorned with a large-format Spider-Man sticker to indicate that its owner has the same name as the famous US comic book author .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
The Incredible Shrinking Dickies
  UK 18th 02/17/1979 (17 weeks)
Dawn of the Dickies
  UK 60 11/24/1979 (2 weeks)
Singles
Silent Night
  UK 47 December 16, 1978 (4 weeks)
Banana splits
  UK 7th 04/21/1979 (8 weeks)
Paranoid
  UK 45 07/21/1979 (6 weeks)
Nights in White Satin
  UK 39 09/15/1979 (5 weeks)
Fan Mail
  UK 57 February 16, 1980 (3 weeks)
Gigantor
  UK 72 07/19/1980 (2 weeks)

Studio albums

  • The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (1978, A&M)
  • Dawn of the Dickies (1979, A&M)
  • Stukas Over Disneyland (1983, PVC, Closer)
  • Killer Clowns from Outer Space (EP) (1988, Enigma)
  • Second Coming (1989, Enigma)
  • Idjit Savant (1994, Triple X Records )
  • All This and Puppet Stew (2001, Fat Wreck Chords)

Compilations & live albums

  • We Aren't the World - live (1986, Roir)
  • Great Dictations (1989, A&M)
  • Locked 'n' Loaded (live, 1991, receiver)
  • Dogs from the Hare That Bit Us (1998, Triple X Records)
  • Still Got Live Even If You Don't Want It (1999, Roir)
  • Punk Singles Collection (2002, Spectrum Music)
  • Live in London (2002, Castle Music)

Singles

  • Paranoid / Hideous / You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla) (1978, A&M Records, USA only)
  • Paranoid / I'm OK, You're OK (1978, A&M Records, UK only)
  • Eve of Destruction / Doggie Do (1978, A&M Records)
  • Give It Back / You Drive Me Ape (1978, A&M Records, UK only)
  • Banana Splits / Hideous / Got It at the Store (1979, A&M Records, UK only, UK charts number 5)
  • Nights in White Satin (1979, A&M Records, UK only, UK charts number 39)
  • Fanmail / Tricia Toyota (1979, A&M Records)
  • Banana Splits / Sounds of Silence (1980, A&M Records, USA only)
  • Gigantor / Bowling with Bedrock Barney (1980, A&M Records)
  • Just Say Yes / Ayatollah You So / Dead Heat (1990, Overground Records)

Video albums

  • Dickies over Stukaland (1991 Tribal Video, PAL. Live recordings of the 1990 European tour and interviews)

Web links

Commons : The Dickies  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Graf: Punk! The lexicon . S. 188 ff. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-521-X .
  2. ↑ a b Chart sources: UK