Product Description

Much like the Sex Pistols, the Dead Boys enjoyed an outsized reputation among punk rock enthusiasts despite having made very few recordings. Part of that is because, like the Pistols, they featured a charismatic frontman in Stiv Bators, and part of that is because, like the Sex Pistols, what they recorded was so good! This is the second of the two albums they released during their short career, and while it's not quite the blow to the solar plexus that their Young Loud & Snotty debut was (poorly-chosen producer Felix Pappalardi is an obvious culprit), it's still a slice of prime late-'70s punk. Includes the classic 'Ain t It Fun'. An exclusive release from the Noble Rot label, with cool digipack packaging!

Track Listing

1. 3rd Generation Nation
2. I Won't Look Back
3. (I Don't Wanna Be No) Catholic Boy
4. Flame Thrower Love
5. Son of Sam
6. Tell Me
7. Big City
8. Calling on You
9. Dead and Alive
10. Ain't It Fun

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59184 in Music
• Released on: 2008-07-08
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Forget Felix, the Album is Still Great
Despite Felix Papalarddi's frankly hideous/generic production values, the listener cannot ignore the power of the Dead Boys performance. The group as a whole had matured into a true musical powerhouse with a tag-team, fairly intricate guitar duo like Chrome and Zero, and a rhythm sextion as tight as Jeff Magnum and Johnny Blitz (pre-knife fight). The true magic is exuded by Stiv Bators though, with his slurred, under-enunciated, pure-attitude vocal performance. "I Won't Look Back," "Third Generation Nation," and the cover of the Stone's "Tell Me" stand out as my favorites, but the clincher of the album is the closer, "Ain't It Fun." (Later covered by the now defunct Guns N' Roses on the album 'The Spaghetti Incident?!') With a band as volatile and dangerous as the Dead Boys, "Ain't It Fun" stands as a great coda to the most underrated band in rock n' roll.
The only thing that could've improved this album is the absence of Pappalardi, but you can find versions of these songs at their rawest on live recordings. I found the alternate takes of the sessions in the hopes that it could be a repeat of the YL&S mixes, but sadly, they aren't any better. I prefer this mix, and these songs are favorites. Don't bother beong bogged down by Felix, just know that all the Dead Boys probably called him a load whenever his back was turned.

what was he thinking?
Felix P. screwed this LP from the get go. Way to 'radio friendly' as other reviewers have noted. On 'Young, loud..', Genya Raven captured their sound. Great bass, guitars in front (and LOUD) and Cheetah Chrome's lead even louder!
'..Children' production is just too homoginized--too slick. The tunes are DB classics though, Tell Me, Ain't it Fun, Catholic Boy, and of course Son Of Sam.
After Stiv's death, the scope of unreleased studio/live/rehearsal material of the Dead Boys became a fact.
Some good---most barely tolerable
get the 2 DB studio LP's to start and then get the Live @ CBGB.
Although video of the DB is semi-rare, try to find it and then match up the live versions with the studio versions and you can see that they were a GREAT live R & R band

These guys were good.
I didn't even know this was still available, my copy is an old vinyl record, and I got it at a time when I bought and taped recordings by numerous punk bands, and was WIDELY criticized for doing it. I must've been precocious, because the music I liked back then earned me a lot of ridicule, only for the same people to come around later, and actually see something in it.

The Dead Boys have all the elements of late '70's punk; torn clothes, weird hair, disheveled all-around appearance, violent reputation, and so forth. But underneath, is a top-notch band. I admit to not knowing all the specifics about the knife fight that nearly killed drummer Johnny Blitz, but listen to him here; he plays as well as anyone I've heard elsewhere. I remember reading that the person (people?) who attacked him "tried to cut his balls off," and I've always wondered how he fared after.

This was a band that could play anything they put any effort into, and did it well. Their version of "Tell Me" is every bit as good as, and I think a little better than, the Stones' original. The opener of this set, "Third Generation Nation," sets the mood, they were what was happening at the time, even though they weren't chart-toppers. Real talent often isn't.

They show that they had no sacred cows, as you hear in "(I don't want to be no) Catholic Boy," and the addition of two guys from The Ramones is a nice touch. "Ah-Men!"

My own personal two favorites are "Son Of Sam," and "Ain't It Fun?", "Sam" being about the killings at the time by serial killer /prison inmate turned minister (imagine my surprise), David Berkowitz. The section in the middle has a mini-depiction of one of the killings, footsteps, a gunshot, and this scream that will make you cringe, and the tribal sounding drums, peppered with sirens, has this surreal effect, reflecting the fear that hovered over Yonkers, New York at the time, really heavy-hitting stuff.

"Ain't It Fun?" is, I guess what could be called a ballad, it's got an emotional melody, really expressive guitar solos (Cheetah Chrome is a very good guitarist), and heart-felt lyrics about someone befriended by the band who lived a short, tragic life, with lines like "I punched my fist right through the glass, and I didn't even feel it, it happened so fast," just a summing-up of someone's life, with a voice at the end, in the distance, saying, "I'm dead, I'm dead..."

You know they were onto something pretty good when, this many years later, I can still remember their stage names; Cheetah Chrome, Johnny Blitz, Jimmy Zero, Stiv Bators, and Jeff Magnum.

And it took me by surprise a little while ago, to hear that Stiv Bators mysteriously died; though I guess it shouldn't have, with the Johnny Blitz incident and all, but it usually is a surprise when something like this happens.

All said though, The Dead Boys had a good, solid band, worth listening to.