#johnny blitz

arturo vega - blitz benefit cbgb may 4-7 1978

Roberta Bayley/Redferns/Getty Images

Dead Boys “Younger, Louder and Snottier” 1989. Necrophilia Records. Pink vinyl. Today, February 18th, is Cheetah Chrome’s 65th birthday (b. Eugene O’Connor, 1955). Younger, Louder and Snottier is the rough mix recording of the Dead Boys classic debut Young, Loud and Snotty - even messier, louder and crazier than the official release. This record’s story from the liner notes, I believe written by Stiv Bators: “the assistant engineer, Bob Clearmountain...made a quick mix for the Boys to take back home to Cleveland [from Electric Lady Studios in NYC]. It was recorded over a cassette copy of Quadrophenia by the Who. Ten years later, I was about to tape over this cassette, thinking it was the Who...Surprise. Surprise. Surprise!!! The MIX everyone had forgotten. I played for the Dead Boys. They were shocked, pissed off and felt cheated! This was how we sounded LIVE!!! In further investigation, no one saved a copy of this mix- no one!!”  Besides having the rough tracks from the original LP like “Sonic Reducer,” “All This or More (I wanna be a dead boy),” “Li’l Girl,” “I Need Lunch” and “High Tension Wire,” it also includes a live cover of the Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” recorded in ‘77 in San Francisco. 

And of course I cannot post about the Dead Boys or Cheetah Chrome without including this photo from 2017 of me with Cheetah and Johnny Blitz. So here it is. Again. 

Dead Boys live at the Casbah in San Diego, CA