Dead Boys - History Part 1

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 History Part 2 
"Me & Jimmy met over a Kinks Greatest Hits record at a party in January 1975. The big thing was Iggy...Met Cheetah in the summer of 75. He & Blitz were in a band called Slash, then they joined Rocket From The Tombs with Crocus Behemoth from Pere Ubu. I came to New York in Easter of 76. Thunder's band was playing so he invited me up. On July 4th I went to see The Ramones. Joey helped me jive Hilly Crystal that we had a band. We got a job booked the 22nd of July...hadn't seen the guys since January. We met them at the airport, rehearsed 4 times and played. We were all into Iggy, that's what brought us together... we kept going up once a month until Hilly was interested enough to put money in for a demo tape."
Stiv Search & Destroy 4 1977.
The Dead Boys ( named after a line from one of their songs - Down In Flames) had a reputation for a really wild, controversial live-act. Brash, aggressive and macho  - 'Your pretty face is gonna get a punch' ran a line in one of their songs.

Abandoning all artistic pretensions, their motto was: "Fuck art, let's rock!". Coming to the fore as the UK punk scene was starting to make ripples across the ocean, they took the vehemence and aggression of the Sex Pistols and applied it to American themes. In no sense politically motivated, where the British sung about 'No Future' the Dead Boys anthem was 'Nothing To Do.'

What they were kicking against in Cleveland was 'hopeless boredom' as Jimmy Zero described in Sounds 27.8.77

They reflected the frustrations of kids in those days. They looked new and sounded new, they were fresh dangerous and exciting and conformed to the image of what punk rock should be.

By the time they arrived in New York they had a ready made audience in CBGB's and within 6 months in January 1977 had secured a deal with Sire already home of The Ramones.

 History Part 2 

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