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Dead End America
By
Scott Stemple
Every time I hear the
Pagans’ “Dead End America”, I envision the cover of that 7”. It’s a pile of
dead bodies on the front page of the old Cleveland Press and the headline
reads: “Scene Of Mass Suicide”. If there is any city in the world that was
(is) likely to have a mass suicide, it’s Cleveland, Ohio! Cleveland truly
is Dead End America. This not only applies to music. It’s sports,
politics, painting, acting, writing, and even trying to earn a living.
Never has one city disregarded and ignored more raw talent then Cleveland,
Ohio.
Anyone from Cleveland that
has had any kind of success did it the only way possible....they left. Pere
Ubu, Devo, and the Dead Boys went to New York. Drew Carey, Bob Hope, Tom
Hanks, and Halle Barry went to Hollywood. Sure, Alan Freed coined the
phrase “Rock-N-Roll” in Cleveland. He even started the Moondog Coronation
Balls at the old Arena Downtown. But you know what? It wasn’t long before
he moved them to New York. The Rock-N-Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum is in
Cleveland, but you know what? The induction ceremonies are in New York.
Typical. The ongoing tradition of Cleveland is to release records by such
local originals as the Electric Eels (‘78), Pagans (‘86), Easter Monkeys
(‘90), and the Mirrors (‘78) (just to name a few) many years after the fact.
If the Pagans’ “Buried Alive” album had been released in 1978 like it
should have been, the rest of the world would have had the privilege of
seeing and hearing one of the best punk bands ever, in their prime. Of
course it never happened. That album is as good if not better than ‘Never
Mind The Bollocks’, ‘Ramones’, ‘Damned Damned Damned’, etc. Well....you
know the list. Welcome to Dead End America!
Back in the late 70’s /
early 80’s, Cleveland’s small scene of punk bands were as good as any major
city’s. The problem was unless the bands themselves dug into their own
pockets to put out a record (which was true for a lot of cities), no one
even knew they existed. The first time I saw the Defnics, Offbeats, and The
Dark in 1981 I thought to myself, “man, these guys are as good as all the
records from Frisco, LA, and New York that I have at home”. And they were!
Unfortunately, kids from those towns didn’t have our records at
home...because there weren’t any. Thanks to the recent onslaught of
releases from Smog Veil Records, there is a huge catalog of that great
original Cleveland music from “back in the day”. These were released in
true Cleveland fashion, 20 years after the fucking fact! I should note that
I have a personal interest in these releases (I appear on a handful and all
my old friends on the rest). I guess 20 years late is better than never.
Welcome to Dead End America!
John Morton from the
legendary Electric Eels recently said to me, “You need to get out of this
town, it just drains your creativity.” John moved to New York in 1979. He
comes back to Cleveland once in a while, doesn’t stay long, and complains
about it the whole time. The last time I saw John he said to me and my
fellow Chrome Kickers, “You guys don’t know how gay this town is ‘cause you
live here. I just had to drive to Lakewood to get a cup of fucking coffee!”
Living in Cleveland my whole life, it’s hard for me to see John’s
perspective. But, I trust he knows what he’s talking about. I do have a
theory about this. To me this dead end town also causes bands and artists
to have a really unique perspective and sense of humor that can only be
found in Cleveland. Just pick up any recent Smog Veil release and see for
yourself. Playing to 6 people a night will do that. On the other hand, if
you have a “classic rock” or Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band there’s a line
around the block! Welcome to Dead End America.
It used to piss me off
that all this talent went unnoticed, but now that I’m older I honestly don’t
care. The Velvet Underground really didn’t get any appreciation in
their time...now they’re in the Rock-N-Roll Hall Of Fame (inducted in New
York of course). So maybe 100 years from now, people will be crawling
over each other to collect all the Cleveland music they can get their hands
on. Then again...they probably won’t. Welcome to Dead End America!
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