& The Mg's - Behave YourselfĠ4 - Carla Thomas - I'll Bring It Home To YouĠ5 - Mar-Keys - Sack-O-Woe - The Mar Keysġ3 - Deanie Parker & The Valadors - My Imaginary Guyġ5 - Carla Thomas - What A Fool I've Beenġ7 - Oscar Mack - Don't Be Afraid Of Loveġ8 - Cheryl Johnson & Pam Johnson - That's My Guyġ9 - Booker T. They did it all, leaping from slam to simmer on perfectly vocalized close-harmony ballads that anticipated the glories of mid-’60s soul with blueprint accuracy.09 - Carla Thomas - (Mama, Mama) Wish Me Good Luckġ4 - Carla Thomas - I Kinda Think He Doesġ6 - William Bell - You Don't Miss Your WaterĢ1 - Barbara Stephens - That's The Way It Is With MeĢ5 - The Canes - Why Should I Suffer With The BluesĢ9 - Rufus Thomas - Can't Ever Let You GoĠ2 - Booker T. They did the jungle hop with the beeb-a-lee bop, mammer-jammered at the hootenanner and got clean for their mama’s papa’s sister’s brother’s uncle’s crazy child - the one with the champagne eyes. When they weren’t hollering, they spoke in wildly poetic, almost indecipherable tongues (langga langga oli-oki changa-chang). Not yet 21 when they started on Specialty, these cats were upstarts, hardcore they not only wrote, played and produced all their songs, they both flat-out Screamed Into The Microphone.
“The Don & Dewey mix of heat, jive and unadulterated talent was a shock in its day. I can’t describe them any better than Jonny Whiteside, who described them thusly in the LA Weekly: A huge inspiration to The Blasters, this is down-home, funky-ass R&B at its best. But, being a fan of the deep cut, I opted for this obscure Los Angeles duo. I could’ve gone with Little Richard here and did so originally. But by the end of the tour, it’s all downstrokes.” At the beginning of a tour, I can’t play that way all the time because I’m so out of shape. In fact, I copied her rhythm style on ‘Richie Dagger’s Crime.’ She uses all downstrokes. Smear said of Caffey (in an interview that has sadly gone MIA from the Googlenet), “She is a great rhythm guitarist and I think she’s also responsible for making punk rock melodic … through the guitar playing.
However, the guitarist that Pat credited as his biggest influence on this song was none other than Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go’s. Smear, in particular, is a revelation with his classic intro, jagged playing in the verses, and from 1:12-1:30 (“He could set your mind ablaze/With sparkling eyes and visionary case”) seemingly channeling John Fogerty‘s spacey guitar sound from Creedence’s debut. “Richie Dagger” sounds like a spastic blend of the Heartbreakers (“One Track Mind”) and X (“Sex And Dying In High Society”), with Pat Smear (guitar), Lorna Doom (bass), and Don Bolles (drums) going in three different directions to the same flophouse. The Germs (clockwise from upper left): Lorna Doom, Don Bolles, Darby Crash & Pat Smear