Power poppers in the closet
The Dickies — Rosemary
(from the EP Stukas Over Disneyland, PVC Records 1983)
Stukas Over Disneyland, the last thing the Dickies released in their first go-round, is the record that makes plain the dirty little secret of the early Dickies: for all their connections to the L.A. punk scene and all the goofily rude aspects of their persona (right down to that legendary hangin’ wang logo), they were really just a power pop band at heart. Heck, this EP even includes a cover of the Quick’s “Pretty Please Me,” featuring the Quick’s own Steven Hufsteder, who by this time was one of the Dickies’ guitarists. But the opening track, “Rosemary,” is even more of a straight-up power pop gem, as well as one of my favorite things this highly underrated (by punks and power-poppers alike) band ever did.
–Stewart Mason
Andrew said,
September 22, 2008 @ 8:07 am
Dawn of the Dickies is one of the great lost power pop records. Blew my high school mind when I got a hold of it.
Dean said,
September 25, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Yes! One of my favorite tunes from Leonard, Stan and the boys. We had the honor of playing a series of shows with some lineup or other in the late 80’s and they were (still) most excellent live too.
Stu Pope said,
June 17, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
“Stukas Over Disneyland” is still one of my favorite album titles of all time.
I’ll always be grateful to the Dickies for their great cover versions of “Nights in White Satin,” “Paranoid,” etc. I once saw them open for the Ramones, and while it’s hard to say which band was sloppier, a fun time was had by all.