The Dickies

Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Dickies

The picture cover of the Dickies' 1979 Banana Splits (Tra La La Song) UK single

The Dickies were amongst the first punk rock bands to emerge from Los Angeles, the first California punk band appear on network television and sadly the first California punk band to be signed to a major record label (instead of an independant lable.)

The Dickies' style was campy and humorous with obvious influences from The Ramones. They were extremely popular in the UK and had a top 10 hit with "Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)" in 1979; oddly enough, many of their lyrics were about aspects of Southern California life not easily decipherable to those unfamiliar with the region, in songs like "Waterslide", "I'm A Chollo", "Manny, Moe and Jack", and "(I'm Stuck in a Pagoda with) Tricia Toyota", which is about a local TV news anchorwoman.

Drug problems slowed them down considerably in the 1980s, but they have continued playing and recording sporadically to the present day. In 1988 they did the theme music for the cult classic movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

Singles

• Silent Night (1978) - UK #47
• Eve Of Destruction (1978)
• Give It Back (1978)
• Banana Splits (Tra La La Song) (1979) - UK #7
• Paranoid (1979) - UK #45
• Nights In White Satin (1979) - UK #39
• Manny, Moe And Jack (1979)
• Fan Mail (1980) - UK #57
• Gigantor (1980) - UK #72
• Killer Klowns (1988)
• Just Say Yes (1994)
• Roadkill (1994)
• Make It So (1996)
• My Pop The Cop (1998)
• Free Willy (2001)

Albums

• The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (1979)
• Dawn of the Dickies (1979)
• Stukas Over Disneyland (1983)
• Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
• Great Dictations (1989) - Compilation
• Second Coming (1989)
• Locked 'N' Loaded Live In London (1991) - Live album
• Idjit Savant (1994)
• All This And Puppet Stew (2001)

References

• Guinness Book of British Hit Singles 7th Edition - 1988

External links

• [The Dickies Archive - A comprehensive Dickies web site]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.