The Dickies
Dogs From the Hare that Bit Us (Triple X)
by Jon Sarre
Anybody remember The Dickies? They started out as punk gods incarnate to legions of Hollywood scenesters and other worthless degenerates, got signed to A&M back when such a thing mattered (the Carter Administration, I think), released the most overrated punk song in history (“You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)”), got dropped from their label (still during the Carter Administration, I believe) and now exist as two bitter, middle-aged men (guitarist Stan Lee and singer Leonard Phillips) who hate the very guts of each other and over the years have recorded so many of other peoples’ songs that someone whose name I can’t recall (in the liners to We Aren’t the World, ROIR cassette, I lost the tape years ago) dubbed ’em the “world’s highest paid cover band.” They’ve done some great ones, sure, “Nights in White Satin,” “Communication Breakdown,” “Eve of Destruction,” the Monkees’ “She,” Japanese cartoon theme “Gigantor” (arguably their best song ever) and “The Banana Splits Theme” to name a few. I guess it was only a matter of time before they knocked off a whole album of the things, right?
Obviously there was some stipulation in the contract that Dogs From the Hare That Bit Us couldn’t simply be a compilation of their more inspired cover songs. Stan, Leonard, and the three sidemen referred to as “vermin” in the notes had to record “new” old stuff. Out of the nine tracks on this record, unfortunately, only two transcend being merely palatable (the Weirdos’ “Solitary Confinement” and longtime encore number, Human Beingz’ “Nobody But Me,” tho’ Uriah Heep’s “Easy Living”‘ll grow on ya if ya give it a chance). The rest run the gamut from annoying rehashings of phony psychedelia (Iron Butterfly’s “Unconscious Power”) to lame (The Beatles’ “There’s a Place,” the Hollies’ “Can’t Go On,” the Knack’s “Let Me Out”) to simply dippy (Donovan’s “Epistle to Dippy”). Someone has definitely slipped a couple of notches here. Could it be the lack of chemicals?
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