Author Archives: Salvi C.

Note: This is the second post in The DFFD Blog Goes Girl Crazy! special — a monthlong series commemorating the 35th anniversary of the release of ‘The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!’

Dateline: Suburban Boston, 1975.

It was my senior year of high school, I wasn’t quite 18, and I was still worshiping at the altars of Elton, the Beach Boys, and the Raspberries. I didn’t know any better, because there really wasn’t anything better to know about. What else was there for a kid from the ‘burbs? J Geils was great, but they were homegrown and played in town 10 times a year, so we took them for granted. I hated Zep, hated Bad Company, the Coop was in the bottle, Grand Funk was over the hill. It was a musical wasteland. So, I went searching, and started digging in the used stores for stuff I’d never heard of, and reading reviews of new acts. I saw this one review of a new band called the Dictators that used the phrase “Nazi surf band.” “That sounds pretty good,” thought I, and seeing that there was a wrestler on the cover sealed the deal. I needed this lp, and added it to my search list. The problem was it was nowhere to be found! I hit every store in town — nada. I’d do a sweep every week — zip. Boston was not hip to the Dictators!!

The picture above is from Christmas morning 1977. Those jammies were high style at the time.

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The month of March commemorates the 35th anniversary of the release of The Dictators Go Girl Crazy! We’re celebrating this sacred event with a monthlong series of posts. We’ll have personal stories, from the staff and also from respected guest writers, about hearing the album for the first time and the influence it has had. We’ll also have reviews and ads from BITD, trivia (did you know, that if you play “Back To Africa” backwards, you can hear Ross say “I buried Stu-Boy?”), and plenty of other foolishness. Be there or be square!

— Salvi C.