The Dickies

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Interview: Stan Lee

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In 1977, while Fleetwood Mac was spreading Rumours, Jackson Browne was Running on Empty, and Eric Clapton had a Slowhand, musicians with an edgier aesthetic were taking a different path, the path of punk rock.

That year, a group of such musicians in Los Angeles formed The Dickies, who by now are one of the longest-running punk rock bands that ever was. The Dickies’ first release was a 1978 single featuring a hyper-speed cover Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, and other early singles included covers of the children’s TV show theme song “Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)” and The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin”.

In addition to their masterful punk rock interpretations of others’ material, The Dickies also wrote loads of smokin’ originals, often with twistedly amusing lyrics and themes. Their classic albums are usually considered to be The Incredible Shrinking Dickies and the follow-up Dawn of The Dickies, both released in 1979, but that’s not the end of their story, with various additional releases by the band over the years.

This interview with founding guitarist Stan Lee was for the Dickies concert at the Majestic Ventura Theater on 12/12/14, for which they shared the bill with Pennywise. It was done by email, with answers received in the early morning hours of 12/6/14.