Tuesday, August 4, 2020

Dylan Goes Punk



What we have here is a clip of Bob Dylan performing "Jokerman" on the David Letterman show in 1984. I recall watching the show but not realizing at the time that his backing band was none other than one of my favorite punk bands, The Plugz, who I have written about a number of times on these pages.

The Plugz were from East L.A. and featured Charlie Quintana on drums, who went on to play with John Doe, The Havalinas, The Plimsouls and Izzy Stradlin's JuJu Hounds. Sadly, he passed away in 2018. On bass was Barry McBride for the first album and Gustavo Santaolalla for the second. The Plugz were led by Tito Larriva, who wrote the songs, played guitar and sang lead. Larriva went on to form Tito & Tarantula, as well as becoming an actor, appearing most notably in a bunch of Robert Rodriguez films, among others. For the Dylan performance, it appears that Larriva is on bass and Santaolalla is on guitar.



I have sung high praise for both Plugz records before and I'll quickly say again, they are worth your time. It's a special kind of punk that takes many turns and the secret weapon is Larriva's songwriting.

But that's not why I am here.

Singer-songwriter Daniel Romano was also taken by The Plugz backing Dylan that he decided to record the entire "Infidels" record with his band Daniel Romano's Outfit, in the style of The Plugz. The record is cleverly titled "Daniel Romano's Outfit Do (What Could Have Been) Infidels by Bob Dylan & The Plugz."



It's a brilliant idea and it really works. This is not to say "Infidels" needed a change. I think "Infidels" is a fantastic record, ranking pretty high on my Dylan list. But as a change of pace, this one is whole lotta fun and kinda brilliant.

You can, and you should, as my pal Steve Simels likes to say over at his place Power Pop, get Daniel Romano's Outfit over HERE.

(h/t hpunch)

9 comments:

Bill said...

Wow! This is pretty sweet. I think I'll plump the $10 for it.

Infidels has always been a favorite. The songs sound great "punked up." Just shows what good songs they are.

zillagord said...

Daniel Romano is incredible. I highly recommend checking out his catalogue, and his live show is a must!

Ken D said...

The clip from the Letterman show is amazing. Thank you. But watching that Bob Dylan makes me wonder what I'm missing with "Rough and Rowdy Ways," which does almost nothing for me. A few okay songs but mostly I'm left wondering, "You mean this is the same guy who wrote "Baby Blue," "Just Like a Woman," and "Jokerman"?

Will definitely look up the Plugz and D Romano. (As was said on BW only recently, it's new music if it's new to me.)
Excellent post, Mr. N.

Sal Nunziato said...

@Ken D.
I am in the middle of a similar conversation with an old friend and bandmate, who sent me an email that said, "I don’t think I like Dylan’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways” or the new Fiona Apple. but I find myself being drawn back to both. Why? Any help would be appreciated. :-)

I wasn't sure if it was a real question or if he wanted a real answer, but I basically said this. I really like the Fiona and I really love the new Dylan. I just think it's easier to listen to pop music.

Museum or movie? Recipe for risotto or ordering a pizza? I love both the Dylan and the new Fiona Apple, but have played them both a lot less than the new Paul Weller, which I played four days in a row. It's just easier and more fun. You know, you only take out the good Scotch on special occasions. That's how I see it.

hpunch said...

It's rare when a clever concept turns out to be even better when executed. This is one example.

A Walk In The Woods said...

Oh hells yes!! I like it.

Dylan is my favorite artist, so I buy all the stuff like this. This one is an easy sel because I've always loved that Letterman performance with the Plugz.

It amuses and delights me how nowadays a Dylan cover record generally needs to find its own niche. This is a micro-niche if'n I ever saw one!

Another of my favorite recent Dylan cover albums is this one that just came out, which I pre-ordered on vinyl from Bandcamp and am so glad I did. It even features a cover of maybe the best of his new 2020 songs, and she released her version I think before Dylan's was even out on CD yet!!! (he's alriddy released it as an MP3 on iTunes and such)

https://emmaswift.bandcamp.com/album/blonde-on-the-tracks

Bill said...

@Sal and @ Ken D
I think that's a perfect description of the new Dylan album. With the exception of faster songs like False Prophet and Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Rough and Rowdy Ways is a hard listen. But per the discussion on the Now Playing blog a couple of weeks ago, there's something mesmerizing and mysterious about the whole thing.

steve simels said...

I remember watching that Dylan clip at the time and thinking, hmmm, that’s interesting.

heartsofstone said...

Thanks for the awesome Daniel Romano's Outfit tip.