Stiv Bators "Disconnected" 1980****

I recently saw the movie CBGB, about the historic New York club whence Punk began. The film focuses on the story of the owner Hilly Kristal, rather than the music. Fair enough - I personally couldn't care less about the protagonist, but it's not my film. It was still fun to watch the director trying to cram all of the scene's major players in his movie. Most are given a few seconds and presented with a caption with their name on it, so that we know who we're supposed to be watching: Patti Smith, Joey Ramone, Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, Richard Hell, the members of Television and Talking Heads, even Iggy Pop (who shouldn't be in the film at all, as he never had any connection with CBGB's). All singers play a decorative role, except from the Dead Boys' Stiv Bators. He's one of the basic characters and he's presented as goofy, irreverent, comically self-destructive and talented - although the movie doesn't make it clear exactly where his talent laid. He's said to have been the wildest performer of the CBGB's gang, probably inspired by Iggy's legendary antics.

Watching the film's depiction of him reminded me a story I read about Bators almost choking himself to death with the microphone cord on stage and getting carried to the hospital - he had permanently damaged his neck, just to perform a stage trick! Anyway, by 1980 the punk movement had run out of steam and the Dead Boys had disbanded. Bators would have to continue aping his older self aping Iggy Pop or move on - and move on he did, with a few singles and his only solo album "Disconnected". He toned down the aggressiveness and embraced new wave, power pop and garage rock. Opener "Evil Boy" sports a catchy chorus and melodic hard rock guitars and "Bad Luck Charm" betrays countless hours of listening to the "Nuggets" compilations of obscure 60's garage. "A Million Miles Away" and "Swingin' A-Go-Go" are melodic guitar punk a la Radio Birdman while "Make Up Your Mind" and "The Last Year" recall the Flamin' Groovies with a dash of The Beatles. He was one of the first to re-discover the Electric Prunes' psychedelic classic "Too Much To Dream" and plays it quite well. "Ready Any Time" and "I Wanna Forget You (Just The Way You Are)" are more current sounding new wave/power pop.  "Forget You..." probably wins the prize for imaginative title, but the result is rather forgettable. My version of the CD contains 5 bonus tracks: Alternate versions of "Evil Boy" and "Swingin' A Go-Go", a half-finished song without words ("Crime In The Streets"), a loose  and naughty take on Syndicate Of Sound's "Little Girl" and spoken word "Junebug Skillet". In this album, Stiv Bators managed to find a direction that suited him well, merging his punk origins with the more commercial sounds of power pop and 60's garage rock. Unfortunately, it didn't meet with the success he probably expected (and deserved). The future would hold for him a move to England, another - relatively successful -  band (Lords Of The New Church) and a tragically premature death at 40, after getting hit by a taxi in Paris. In typically self-destructive fashion, he refused medical treatment claiming he felt fine, only to die the same night from internal bleeding. He left behind an underrated musical legacy that is well worth discovering...

**** for Evil Boy, Bad Luck Charm, A Million Miles Away, Swingin' A-Go-Go

*** for Make Up Your Mind, Too Much To Dream, Ready Anytime, The Last Year, Wanna Forget You (Just The Way You Are), Evil Boy (Alternate Take), Swingin' A Go-Go (Alternate Take), Little Girl (Live)

** for Crime In The Streets (Instrumental), Junebug Skillet (Barbecued Yardbird)