VIA PRESS RELEASE | John Belushi, Jerry Nolan join the Dead Boys for a special night at CBGBs.
With the Dead Boys’ first all-new album in over 40 years drawing closer every day, Cleopatra Records continue preparing for its release with the latest in a series of deep dives inside the Cleveland punks’ archive… the night that the Dead Boys became, for one show only, the Dead Dolls.
With regular drummer Johnny Blitz hospitalized following a murderous street attack, and in desperate need of funds for his medical costs, guitarist Cheetah Chrome conceived a benefit show at the band’s regular hang-out, CBGBs.
Swiftly, one concert became a full weekend, as the great and good of the New York punk scene turned out to perform. Blondie, Suicide, the Ramones, the Dictators, Sic Fucks, the Erasers, James Chance and the Contortions, the Student Teachers, the Fleshtones, the Mumps, Helen Robbins, Shrapnel, the Dots, the Rudies, the Senders, and Divine and the Neon Women all stepped forward.
Even more excitingly, Blitz’s place at the drum kit was filled not only by New York Doll Jerry Nolan, but also Saturday Night Live regular John Belushi, a long time friend of the band’s.
“He was really concerned about Blitz,” recalls Cheetah. “In fact. the doctor who worked on Blitz was one of Belushi’s.” He was also, the guitarist continues, “into really good meat and potatoes, like a blues drummer. He was high on the blues from Chicago. He had a studio in his basement, with a full kit set up. We used to go down there and bang around. “He could hold a beat very well, he was very straightforward. For a blues drummer, he was good.”
The Dead Boys’ set tonight was split almost equally between their own material and, in tribute to Nolan’s past, the Dolls. “Me and Blitz grew up on the Dolls,” says Cheetah. “We played a lot of Dolls music while we were fucking around at rehearsals, and the Dead Boys did as well, just jamming on them. “It was a labor of love. We were rehearsing with Jerry the week before the show, and I remember I was really looking forward to doing the Dolls stuff.”
Even Dolls vocalist David Johansen’s love of the harmonica did not prove an obstacle. Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators, says Cheetah, could already sing anything. It turned out he could play anything as well, or at least make it look that way. “He would do the harmonica parts with his hands. Like on ‘Pills,’ he didn’t have a harmonica to play. He’d just put his hands up to his mouth and make the noise, and it sounded just like the real thing.”
