Pagans - Shit Street

So usually I talk about something that happened a really long time ago when I talk about a record.  Today I’m going to talk about a record that I never had until I was an adult.  I kind of wish I had known about The Pagans when I was a kid, but let’s face it – no one knew who they were.   No one knew then, and very few know now, but The Pagans were quite possibly the best and most “punk” of all the early Cleveland Punk bands that were making an everlasting impact on a musical generation that if not for the internet, never would have known who The Pagans were.

The Pagans were probably more out to just be a Rock N’ Roll band and have fun than to actually be famous, or everlasting or to be Punks on the scene.  They were undoubtedly Punks, but I don’t know that they were Punk Rock so much as just Punks that got high a lot and were probably unbearable to live with (Read singer Mike Hudson’s book Diary of a Punk for more info).  When an actual Punk Rock movement came along, I think The Pagans were okay with being labeled Punk, but they weren’t out to change the world.  They were just making music that they liked, and to hell with anyone else.  You can tell by their cover songs, like Little Black Egg, Heart of Stone and Can't Explain.  These guys came from a good place musically.  I think that's why I like so many of the early Punk bands compared to the bands doing Punk today. 

So the first Pagans song I ever heard was probably Six and Change or maybe What's This Shit Called Love on an old Cleveland show that used to play on WCSB called London’s Burning.  They had a really funny commercial that aired on other college shows that started off with The Clash singing London’s Burning, and then the DJ would do a voice over that said, "Are you bored, and do you hate everything?"  How could I not listen to that show?  I’m not bored, and I don’t hate everything, but this guy seemed to actually like Punk Rock and didn’t take it so seriously!  I forget when it was on, but I think it was pretty late and I used to listen to it like Friday after work (I worked mostly night shifts back then).  He played all sorts of stuff.  It didn’t have to be just British, but in the early 80’s here in Cleveland people considered Punk to be something from England, not a local thing.

This is too bad, because The Pagans captured the feel of this gritty, crumbly and kind of dirty city far better than the Michael Stanley Band ever could.  I still think they capture the essence of what Cleveland is better than almost anyone.  The Pagans are noisy, brash and sloppy.  The Pagans drink too much, and it shows.  Most people won’t get The Pagans, and that’s just so like Cleveland to me.  Most people that aren’t from here seem to wonder why anyone would ever come here, even for fifteen minutes, let alone actually live here.

I remember one time when I had to go to Massachusetts for work for a week or two.  I had been there before, and I knew exactly where I needed to go.  When I got in my rental car, I put Shit Street in the cd player, and twisted the volume knob and let The Pagans blast through me like a sonic boom.  I completely missed my merge and would up pulling into a State Highway Patrol station and asking them just how far away I was from my hotel.  I think he considered giving me a field sobriety test, because I was at the other end of the state!  But it just didn’t matter because I felt like I was just rubbing the stink of home all over MA with The Pagans.  So I was happy enough about that.  I switched cd’s because by then Shit Street was over, but I also wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the hotel again.

It was a Pagans week for me, too.  I remember I went to a Newbury Comics store out in the boonies (people on the East Coast call where I was the boonies – I thought it was just suburbia), and figured I’d buy some cd’s with my per Diem.  I don’t remember what cd’s I chose, but I remember the cashier was probably still a teenager, but a future music snob in training.  While he was ringing up my music he told me, “I really like your picks here!  I’m going to say that you’ve bought the best music all day, so you’re my favorite customer today.”  Now, I love having my ego stroked and being told that I listen to cool music, because believe me, no one else ever tells me I listen to anything good.  So I asked the kid what kind of music he liked and he said he liked garage rock, early punk (not Green Day and the modern punks) and stuff like early Stones and Kinks.  I talked to him about The Yardbirds and asked if he know them.  He didn’t, so I told him Clapton and Jimmy Page played with them, but not to hold that against them because their best music was done with Jeff Beck, and that Jeff didn’t do any lengthy soft jazz stuff when he was with them.  He said he’d check them out.  We talked about a few other things and I asked if he had ever heard any Cleveland Punk bands.

“Uuuuh…no.  I don’t think I ever heard any bands from Cleveland,” he says.  I told him, “Hey, I’m not saying they’re all good, or even that most of them are any good, but you guys have one copy of The Pagans Shit Street over there.  I’m sure with your store discount it’s not much of a risk for you to check them out.  But if you like the stuff I bought today, then I think you’ll like them, because I’ve been listening to Shit Street for three days straight.”

I gotta hand it to the kid.  He looked over his glasses and said, “There’s only one copy?  I’ll go grab it now.  Is it kind of raw?”

A million ideas about how raw The Pagans were entered my mind, like “It’s more raw than Ted Nugent’s dinner, “ or “It’s as raw as a skateboard trainee’s palms.”  I just said, “If you want raw, you want the Pagans.”  So he went and grabbed it and rang it up for himself while we were still talking.  He asked if I had seen them, and I said I hadn’t.  No one had.  Maybe 100 people can legitimately claim to having saw The Pagans and they were the same people that went to every show (might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea).  I told him a song like Boy Can I Dance Good would have been my teenage anthem if I had actually heard it back then.  I told him Dead End America is the political Punk song to match anything by Stiff Little Fingers, The Clash or The Pistols.

I still believe that, too (not that I said this all that long ago).  I thought it was really cool to talk to a kid that wasn’t my kid about the music I love and see him actually care.  I thought it was really cool of him to try to turn me onto bands that I was already either really digging myself, or didn’t care about.  But the kid was just so dorky, like me when I was his age.  His enthusiasm was so cool to me.  I could tell looking at him that he wasn’t a popular kid and it didn’t matter to him.  He had something to care about, and he found a place to be where maybe everyone didn’t care about the music he liked the same way he did, but once in a while, he’d find someone like me that had time to kill on a day when no one was in the store and he could talk.  The way we used to talk at record stores.  We’d go in and just talk about music and it was great; and that was a great afternoon hanging with that kid, even if he never does get who or what The Pagans were all about.

When I left, instead of playing new music, I put The Pagans back in.  Cranked it up and let it start spreading Cleveland stink all over Massachusetts.  And I missed my exit on the way back, but I didn’t care.

As I mentioned, I have the cd of Shit Street.  It’s kind of nice because there’s some bonus tracks on there, but they’re mostly pretty raw live recordings.  It’s also available on vinyl, and I have that, too.  It has a song called Jaguar Ride (old Electric Eels song) on it that isn't on the cd.  When I was in Memphis a year or so ago I told my wife I had to go to Goner Records.  I liked the store, but I like my options here in Cleveland better.  In fact, I think while I was at Goner I ended up buying a copy of Shit Street and The Dead Boys – We Have Come For Your Children.  The guy at the register said, “These bands are both from Cleveland.”  I told him I was, too.  So this vinyl is terrific, because I bought it new.  The recordings are pretty much a lo fi experience, but I don't know if I'd have it any other way.