Mommy, Mommy, Mommy -- Look at your son!

"Hate the Police" by the Dicks -- Inarguably one of the most potent anti-establishment rants of the American hardcore era. Wheeled out by the legendary Texas band in 1980, the song bluntly details the actions of a corrupt cop who beats on minorities and otherwise abuses any sense of  justice that local law enforcement types are popularly associated with. Perhaps not surprisingly, the song resonated strongly with a lot of people at the dawn of Reagan-era insanity, and the biting implications were made no more palatable by the fact that Dicks frontman Gary Floyd was openly gay. Factor in the reality of Texas not being known as a beacon for progressive thought at the time, and you've got yourself a textbook example of American protest song history.

Although this is not a Dicks history lesson (and far be it from me to think I could offer one of any substance anyway), it should be noted that "Hate the Police" is still available on the band's brilliant retrospective on Alternative Tentacles Records, which you can buy here. You can also download the MP3 of "Hate the Police" from the label by right-clicking on this link.

Mudhoney covered "Hate the Police" on the exemplary Mondostereo compilation LP (Away from the Pulsebeat Records, 1988) and their version of the song became (and probably still is) one of the most-looked-forward-to moments of the band's live shows.Years after the Dicks packed it up, Gary Floyd formed the hard blues group Sister Double Happiness, who carried the performance legacy of "Hate The Police" up through the end of the 20th century. Below are videos of each of those bands performing their renditions of the song -- Mudhoney (left) recorded live in Prague, 2006, and Sister Double Happiness (right) recorded live in Zurich, 1993.

(If your browser can't deal with our embedded flash player, you can watch the YouTube versions of Mudhoney here, and Sister Double Happiness here.)

Sister Double Happiness broke up sometime in the 90s, and with no definitive word as to whether Gary Floyd's excellent and criminally overlooked followup group Black Kali Ma continued performing "Hate The Police", WFMU is pleased to offer this off-the-cuff cover as performed by Billy Jam (vocals) and Scott Williams (accordion) during the transitional moment between their two fine radio programs. [Download MP3]

More: Kill from the Heart | Gary Floyd Interview | Mudhoney visits WFMU
Dicks Real Audio:  Off-Duty Sailor | Anti-Klan Pt. 2
Black Kali Ma Real Audio: Wonderful | Movin' On

Comments

[WmMBerger]

Mike,
When I moved to San Francisco in 1999, one of the first celeb sightings I had was sitting on the 71 Haight bus directly across from Gary Floyd. Boy was I dying to say something to him, or at least sing that Butthole Surfers song to him, but I didn't. "Kill From the Heart" is one of my all-time favorite punk rock songs, and somehow seeing Gary in all his chubby, black-spectacled glory told me that I was in the right place.

Now why the hell did I move back to NJ??

[Mike Lupica]

William, that is so awesome to hear! I didn't want to include this story in the main post because it would only have detracted from the issue at hand, but "Kill from the Heart" is one of my alltime top songs as well. Funnily, it was also a source of extreme frustration for me because I first taped it off of WPRB when I was in high school, but missed the DJs mic break so I didn't know who it was by until years later when I randomly picked up a Dicks LP.

[WmMBerger]

Back when I was in junior high ('77-'80), PRB had a Sunday night Midnight-5 a.m. show that was almost exclusively punk singles. For a while, I lived for that broadcast and would be very tired or late to school on Monday mornings, 'cause I didn't want to miss a thing. It was the first place I heard the "California Uber Alles" single, "Punish or Be Damned" by The Screamers, and so many other great records of that era.

[henry]

inquiring minds want to know who was the DJ of the punk singles show...or at least male or female?

[WmMBerger]

Sorry, I cannot recall the DJ of the PRB show, but I suspect that it may have been helmed by different people from week to week...not really sure.

[Mike Lupica]

I forwarded this thread to some old PRB acquaintences who are currently engaging in behind-the-scenes brainstorming as to who may have hosted this mysterious punk singles show of which Captain Berger speaks. All that has been learned so far is that there were only a few DJs fighting WPRB's prog-leaning programming of that day, and all were thusly relegated to late night timeslots.

[Ken Katkin]

Hi. I became involved with WPRB in the mid-1980s. I'm not sure about who would have hosted that show in 1977-1980, but I do know that around 1980 a Princeton undergrad named Mark Dickinson started a midnight hardcore show called "The Decline and Fall." Mark hailed from Los Angeles and had been a teenaged participant in the burgeoning 1970s L.A. hardcore scene. His show covered pretty much all California punk rock (NoCal and SoCal) and also whatever else he could find that was aesthetically consistent. Eventually "The Decline and Fall" was taken over by Crucial Youth bass player Krishna Jain, and later by another Princeton student named Ethan "Eddie Mosh" Stein. Before Mark Dickinson, the only punk WPRB figures I can think of would have been Evie Ward and/or Tom Burka. The iconoclastic Mr. Burka's attitudes were very punk, but his musical tastes were more wide-ranging. Evie Ward, who also DJ'd at WPRB before 1980, was probably better characterized as a new-waver than a punk, but new-wave had it all over what most WPRBers were playing during the station's dark prog days.

p.s. It's nice to know that our then-humble college station was a formative influence on the fabulous William Berger!

p.p.s. Today, Mark Dickinson is a nationally-known astrophysicist!

[Control Rat X]

Mike,
Glad the Dicks and "Hate" moved you. Your comment on Texas in the 80s is humorous because outside of Houston, Austin was about the most tolerant place you could be gay in the state. There were SO many gays and lesbians in the Austin punk scene, being out was hardly a revolutionary act. Gary and others fostered in me very healthy attitudes about the LGBT world and about authority.

Thank you for filling in the West Coast memories, guys!

[sid bators]

LOVED the Dicks, Pat Duncan hooked me up with a copy of their show at Patrix in New Brunswick which I was at and STILL listen to.

speaking of old local punk radio, does anyone remember Daniel Martin Cooney from WSOU?

[Pinball King]

Aww, WFMU has never played "Kill From the Heart". Now I can't hear it!

[Kirsten]

I actually attended the Mudhoney concert when this live recording was made - I believe you can see the back of my head at some point in the video. What a hilarious surprise to see it as I was surfing through this blog! Thanks for the post.

[Mungo]

I am pleased to report that Daniel Martin Cooney is alive and well and living in Northern NJ.
He is married to a beautiful Monkey and has a fine young Tiger for a son.
He was quite pleased to see that sid bators has not forgotten him.
Remember him?
Its been 28 years since then and I still haven't found a way to GET HIM TO LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

[Daniel Martin Cooney]

Wow. Daniel Martin Cooney. I was researching some of my favorite old punk songs and he came into mind. I did a google on his name and this came up. Yes, Daniel Martin Cooney was an excellent d.j. I was about 12 when I listened to his show and used to rate the songs he played. I still have the lists somewhere! I wrote him a letter with a request to drop a bomb on select topics which he did, playing Anthrax by the
Gang of Four. He then sent me a drawing of his infamous worm with his Clash lunchbox. Remember...candy is dandy, liquor is quicker but sex won't rot your teeth! Glad to hear he is doing well. Lots of fond memories of that show!