''The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!'' is the debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American punk rock band The Dictators. It was released in March 1975 and is considered one of the first examples of punk rock.

Response

Critical reception

''The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!'' has been well-received critically and is considered a precursor to punk rock. In its retrospective review,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

notes that while the album was confusing to audiences at the time of its release, it became inspirational for dozens of groups to follow. ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

'' 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". According to a 2001 article in ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', the album's "blueprint for bad taste, humor, and defiance" has been replicated in the work of such bands as the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...

and Beastie Boys. ''Trouser Press'' lauded the album as a "wickedly funny, brilliantly played and hopelessly naïve masterpiece of self-indulgent smartass rock'n'roll". ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

'' 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." Canadian journalist

Martin Popoff Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionall ...

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". 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 ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'', and giving the album zero stars in ''

The Rolling Stone Record Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

.''

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 Roderick Edward "Legs" McNeil (born January 27, 1956, in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States) is an American music journalist. He is one of the three original founders of the seminal '' Punk'' magazine that gave the movement its name; as well ...

. 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".

Track listing

Personnel

; The Dictators *

Andy Shernoff Andy Shernoff (born April 19, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He is a founding member of The Dictators, one of the original New York punk bands, in which he wrote nearly all of the songs, played bass guitar and ke ...

– lead and backing vocals, bass guitar * Ross "The Boss" Funichello –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the feature ...

, backing vocals * Scott Kempner –

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guita ...

* Stu Boy King –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Additional musicians * Handsome Dick Manitoba – lead vocals track 1, shared with Shernoff tracks: 2, 5 & 7 (Credited solely as "Secret Weapon") *

Allen Lanier Allen Glover Lanier (; June 25, 1946 – August 14, 2013) was an American musician who played keyboards and rhythm guitar. He was an original member of Blue Öyster Cult. Lanier wrote several songs for Blue Öyster Cult albums, including "T ...

(credited as Alan Glover) – keyboards on "Teengenerate" and "Cars and Girls" ; Production * Murray Krugman,

Sandy Pearlman Samuel Clarke "Sandy" Pearlman (August 5, 1943 – July 26, 2016) was an American music producer, artist manager, music journalist and critic, professor, poet, songwriter, and record company executive. He was best known for founding, writing for, ...

– producers * Tim Geelan, Lou Waxman –

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

* Ed Sprigg – mixing at the

Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...

, New York City and Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis * Howie Lindeman, Robert "Corky" Stasiak – tape operators *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bish ...

– mastering at The Cutting Room, New York City *

David Gahr David Gahr (September 18, 1922 – May 25, 2008) was an American photographer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Russian immigrant parents. He enlisted in the US Army the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served in the infantry in Eu ...

– front cover photography * Borneo Jimmy - "inspiration"

References

External links

* {{Authority control The Dictators albums 1975 debut albums Epic Records albums Albums produced by Murray Krugman Albums produced by Sandy Pearlman Au Go Go Records albums