The Dictators’ Go Girl Crazy! 40th Anniversary Edition

Forty years ago, rock ‘n’ roll icons the Dictators released their liver-quivering debut album, the classic The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! The proto-punk outfit – comprised of audacious frontman “Handsome” Dick Manitoba, guitarists Scott “Top Ten” Kempner and Ross “The Boss” Funochello, bassist Andy “Adny” Shernoff, and drummer Stu Boy King – followed a fast ‘n’ loud musical aesthetic heavily influenced by 1960s-era garage-rock and British Invasion bands and lyrically littered with pop culture references to professional wrestling, crappy television shows, hot rods, and fast food.

In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the release of The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!, the good folks at Real Gone Music have whipped up an interesting release for Record Store Day’s Black Friday event on November 27th. The label will release a Black Friday exclusive, The Dictators: The Next Big Thing EP, which will be pressed on opaque red vinyl. The four-song 10” EP includes rowdy remixes of three songs from the Go Girl Crazy! LP – “The Next Big Thing,” “Two Tub Man,” and “Weekend” – which have been sonically-altered by Dictators fan and punk legend Andrew W.K.

The Dictators: The Next Big Thing EP will be released in a limited edition of 2,500 copies featuring back cover and label artwork taken from previously-unseen photo contact sheets, and the record also includes a previously-unreleased song from the original sessions, “Backseat Boogie.” On December 4th, 2015 Real Gone Music will continue their Dictators celebration with the reissue of The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! in an expanded and re-mastered anniversary edition.

Reissued on CD for the first time in over 20 years, this new edition includes nine bonus tracks in addition to the nine original songs, including Andrew W.K. remixes of “Weekend” and “Two Tub Man,” the previously-unreleased “Backseat Boogie,” and the unreleased single mix of “(I Live For) Cars and Girls.” Shernoff contributed liner notes for the reissue, and the packaging includes several rare, previously unseen photos.

Unceremoniously dumped by Epic Records after The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! failed to produce the sort of overnight success the label expected, the band signed with Elektra Records and released a pair of critically-acclaimed livewire LPs – 1977’s Manifest Destiny and the following year’s Bloodbrothers – neither of which performed commercially (the former inched onto the chart at #193). Both albums are considered classics today, and the band’s unbridled rock ‘n’ roll spirit would influence a generation of died-in-the-wool rockers to follow.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! 40th Anniversary Remastered & Expanded Edition