Dictators: Stay With Me

One of these days, I'm going to do an "11 Songs" list for The Dictators.

They've got a show on 12/31 in NYC, actually. These days they seem to be going by Dictators NYC, possibly because it's not entirely the original lineup (no Andy Shernoff, for one.) I only did ever see these guys live once, but it was a hell of a show. The dive bar of dive bars in New Brunswick, NJ - The Court Tavern. If we were 15 feet from the furthest member of the band I'd be surprised. $10 for the show, too, which was a fortune by Court standards. I went based on hearing how good they were live and playing "The Dictators Go Girl Crazy" too many times.

My friend picked up all of the CDs I was missing from the merch booth and loaned them to me.

Out of all of the Dictators songs, this one really stands out to me:



From the "s" at the end of "shuffles" to that distinctive guitar hook and the final fade-out distortion ending with a sudden chord, it's a classic garage-rock pre-punk song. It could be a song by The Ramones except that it's twice too long and too lyrically deep for the early albums by that band. It's smart and like few other breakup songs it feels both angry and desperate.

I could play this song every day, and I regret that it took so long for me to discover it. I have a distinct memory of listening to this in Japan and having it stuck in my head earworm style while I was riding around my town. To this day I hear it and picture a certain street in Niigata. Weird but true. Give it a spin or ten.