The Dickies are masters of the Sped-Up Cover, as well as the Ironic Cover (another of Stinky's five cover categories). They had hits in the UK with punk versions of Paranoid, Silent Night, the Banana Splits theme, and Nights In White Satin.
Dickies' guitarist Stan Lee has called the band's cover songs "affectionate piss-takes of hippies and the old culture." Stan and singer Leonard Graves Phillips were raised in the California suburbs on a diet of American pop music, TV cartoons, the British Invasion, psychedelia, and early heavy metal.
When The Dickies finally made a collection of all cover songs (1998's Dogs From The Hare That Bit Us), the irony was gone. In place of the piss-takes was a sincere affection for psychedelic pop and hard rock. The song choices are a bit more eclectic than, say, the Ramones' covers album Acid Eaters, and The Dickies gave props to their contemporaries with a few punk and power pop covers.
Of course, The Dickies play faster than most of the bands they cover. Even with a bonus track, they cram 30 songs into 76 minutes. The Dickies Jukebox is just slightly over 80 minutes. It won't quite fit on a CD.
If you enjoy The Dickies Jukebox, you might also dig Songs Redd Kross Taught Us and my Naz Nomad post.
DICKIES JUKEBOX: https://pixeldrain.com/u/8qbuNmf5
ReplyDeleteDICKIES COVER VERSIONS: https://pixeldrain.com/u/uC1RKh2R
Leonard trades verses with Monkey (from The Adicts) on The Dickies' version of a Cheap Trick obscurity, "I Dig Go Go Girls".
I don't know how many peole have fun memories of a Dickies song. One of mine is this. Daughter of my brother, until she was 16, we had BananaSplits song as a way of greeting. We'd la-la-la against each other till her mother told us to quit and do proper greetings. It stopped when they moved country.
ReplyDeleteI award this comment four bananas. That's a lovely memory. I expected you to call me out for breaking the 80 minute barrier!
DeleteLast weekend my brother and I were driving around listening to Stukas Over Disneyland. The one-two punch of Rosemary and Hunchback, the glorious Wagon Train, the brilliant Led Zep cover, that title track... I didn't know back then that they were grieving the death of Chuck Wagon; they sounded like they were having great fun as usual. The Dickies wrote fantastic original songs, some of them in collaboration with former members of The Quick.
There are some parallels between The Dickies and Redd Kross: the love of psychedelia and pop culture (including TV theme songs); pushing back against the "rules" of punk rock to embrace the good times of their suburban California roots; both bands covered The Quick's song "Pretty Please Me"; Leonard dated Charlotte Caffey, and she later married Jeff McDonald. "Dogs From The Hare That Bit Us" is probably more like "Teen Babes" than "Acid Eaters", and both of them are EP's.
I won't call you out on this. I take out a song that is not in my top and there it goes. I am delighted to see Elvis Costello - Clean Money here, and Now I need to check if Johnny G's version is an uncredited cover.
DeleteYes The Dickies were just a fun band, a novelty act. Over time I greately enjoyed them for keeping me upspirited in their original way.
You had me at "Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah!"
ReplyDeleteThis looks GREAT! Thanks Jon.
Eep Opp Ork to you too, my friend!
DeleteThis is magnificent! SPx
ReplyDeletePretty cool Jonder. I had never heard Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah before, great novelty song!
ReplyDeleteIt came from an early episode of "The Jetsons" cartoon. Judy Jetson writes the song for an Elvis-like singer called Jet Screamer:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/U15rzqfSofo?si=SGg4xKMeDbmt7Zrh
The Violent Femmes also recorded a version of Eep Opp Ork:
https://youtu.be/QkYVuRt08Vc?si=-DSUpLSzR4_MWRhX
Ohhh, I did watch The Jetsons as a kid, but can't recall that particular episode... The Violent Femmes too!
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