Andy’s latest: Are You Ready To Rapture.
1974: Rare inner sleeve for the Dictators Go Girl Crazy, Andy on right.
Andy Shernoff has had a longer recording career than Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters. That in itself is not so remarkable, there are plenty of pediatric rockstars out there who have been around longer. What is remarkable is that he’s still great. When was the last time Ray Davies or Pete Townshend wrote a good song? (If you ask me, and you shouldn’t cuz I ain’t gonna argue about it, I’d say 1970 and ’67 receptively).
Andy’s last great song was released a couple of weeks ago (Are You Ready To Rapture, see video above, I assume you can order the 45 rpm from his website).
Shernoff, who’s career began with might be the greatest (and definitely the funniest) ever fanzine– Teenage Wasteland Gazette (a never published final issue of which has resided in Handsome Dick Manitoba’s closet for forty something years), is best known as full time songwriter, bassist and sometimes lead singer for NYC rock’n’roll institution the Dictators, whose 1974 debut The Dictators Go Girl Crazy (Epic) remains one of the greatest and most perfect punk rock records ever released. He shepherded the Dictators through three more fine LP’s– Manifest Destiny (Asylum,1977), Blood Brothers (Asylum,1978) and D.F.F. D. (Dictators Multi-Media, 2002), and don’t forget Norton Records‘ 2009 release Everyday’s Saturday that features their original demo tape and many incredible studio outtakes including lost tunes like Fireman’s Friend and Backseat Boogie (a project I think I instigated when I lent Billy Miller two CD’s worth of un-issued Dictators stuff, still in the vault are tunes like Too Much Fun and Tits To You as well as a killer Interstellar Overdrive). Andy was also the guiding light behind Dictators spin-off Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom, fronted the Bel-airs and the Master Plan (with the Fleshtones’ Keith Streng), co-wrote tunes with Joey Ramone (for both the Ramones and Joey’s solo album), produced a bunch of bands, and was involved in dozens of other projects that slip my mind at the moment (including a second career as a punk sommelier).
I bring this up to you because I happened to wander into my own bar (Lakeside Lounge, 162 Ave B., NYC) two Wednesdays in a row (a rare occurrence these days, I assure you) where Andy currently holds court at 7 PM with his acoustic review, and I have to say, it’s the best hour of live entertainment I’ve seen in eons. The set changes weekly, and Shernoff has an incredibly deep catalog of great tunes to pick from, but I think last week’s show which opened with an acoustic reading of Master Race Rock and included Dictators classics’ Baby Let’s Twist, and Hey Boys, and a beautiful version of Joey Ramone’s Don’t Think About It was as perfect a set as I’ve ever seen. In between tunes Shernoff talks about his life and times in rock’n’roll, some of these stories are hilarious (the first Dictators shows), some are touching (the final days of Joey Ramone), some are both (the David Roter story). With free admission and half priced drinks, you really can’t possibly go wrong. Andy will also be appearing at the Norton Records 25th Anniversary shindig in November, I’m not sure which night but all four are sold out, so you’re either all ready going or you ain’t.
Andy Shernoff may actually outlive rock’n’roll (or did that already happen?), but he’s one of the last of the breed, and there are too few left to ignore him.