& The Dead Boys
One of these days, after folks have really had a chance to think about what punk rock was, and why it was important, Stiv will get his due. For what it's worth, Iggy once told him he was the second best singer in rock & roll (after Jim Morrison). Also for what it's worth, The Dead Boys were far and away the best "punk" band I ever saw--and I saw them all.
The first time I saw them, in fact, was in New York where I was stopping at some point in 1976, after a trip to London in which I'd seen one of the Sex Pistols' first gigs, and checked out the Damned and whatever other bands were breaking out. I knew the Pistols were revolutionary and I was hoping to interest my friends at Sire Records in signing them (which I failed to do) but meanwhile discovered there was a band right here in America doing it a whole lot better.
Sure, it was largely theatrics. When Stiv cut himself open with a broken bottle and had to be rushed to hospital in the middle of his set (but made it back in time for the second show) he wasn't doing anything Iggy hadn't done before, and with less premeditation. But it was also somehow a lot more immediate, out of control, and indefinably REAL than anything English has ever been... it takes an American to really pull off the "I don't give a fuck" pose", and not give in to the temptation to make a political statement out of it. This was pure American punk in the classic tradition, so it was no surprise to me when I later met Stiv and learned he was a fan of Nuggets and all the cool garage bands of the '60s. We struck up a natural friendship and ended up making several singles together, and one classic album, his solo venture Disconnected, as well as assembling the live Dead Boys album Night of the Living Dead Boys, which comes closest to capturing the essence of this band than any of their official records.
I also came to know Stiv as a person, and like everyone else who knew him, I learned what a different man he was from his public image: thoughtful, considerate, a true friend, but also a prankster and practical joker, with an irrepressible sense of humor, which attracted celebrities to him like flies, and made his life an unending series of bizarre, fascinating adventures that came to its end far too soon.
Bomp has an enormous Photo Archive featuring The Dead Boys in all their incarnations, and of Stiv with the various bands he put together for his Bomp sessions. Many of these remain unpublished, until now. --Greg Shaw
BUY CD 
