DETROIT - It has been 30 years since we lost the nefarious, repugnant, rock star known as Stiv Bators. He was animated, raw, and always creating new dimensions to his persona. But like all the enigmatic groundbreaking rock stars he leaves us with wanting more. Stiv would bounce around from band projects after The Dead Boys until his untimely end. Bators would get struck by a cab in Paris, France. He died of internal bleeding and was 40 years old.
Rock music has gone through several changes and the window of 1977 seems like a long time ago. There was a brief and brilliant explosion that lasted for two years with The Dead Boys bursting out on stage at New York's CBGB's. The energy was too powerful to remain or go the distance. That band took a self-imploding pill and disintegrated. Stiv would get his inspiration to be his rockstar in his Ohio roots taking musical cues from The Sonics, The Rolling Stones, and Alice Cooper. The one musician that gave him the real go-ahead was Iggy Pop. After seeing Iggy and the Stooges in Detroit, Michigan Stiv was propelled to create something iconic on his own. He noted that rock and roll had nothing to do with music but had everything to do with posturing, acrobatics, and theatrical staging. The attitude was everything and he began to fake his age when introducing himself people.
THE LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH - AND THE REINVENTION
A little Stiv Bators goes a long way but once you get near his energy you need more. My first run-in with Stiv was in 1986 while watching MTV and IRS The Cutting Edge program. While Stiv was not a featured band on the show IRS Records would show their commercials promoting their newest albums. They were so hypey that I was hooked immediately and wanted to hear all of them. One of the commercials was for The Lords Of The New Church "Method To Our Madness". Stiv looked crazed with his long, unruly, black hair and black leather. This was the first time I ever laid eyes on him and I could feel the danger, excitement, and the rawness of his music. I wanted to jump out of my chair and buy his album. Maybe it was the young testosterone in me. Maybe it was the fact that Stiv was car surfing at the end of the camera. The car was driving off into the distance with Stiv riding the rooftop like a surfboard. This was madness and not the kind of rock and roll that came from nice bands like The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones.
STIV HITS THE SILVER SCREEN
A year later I would come across Stiv Bators in a cameo in John Waters sick classic "Polyester" (1981). Why Water's would cast Stiv into one of his movies is no big mystery. John Water's is the Prime Minister of Bad Taste.I didn't connect him as the singer from The Lords Of The New Church but again, I liked his energy. Stiv played a hoodlum character who hijacks a date. Stiv plays the unloveable Bobo and has short hair, ripped up clothes, and carries a baseball bat. His girlfriend is in a car with a preppy geek and they are on their way to the library. Bobo and his pals cut them off on the road and come out with his bat and steal the girl away. From there they tear off into the night fueled on beer and mayhem. Stiv leans out the window of the moving car with a broom and whacks people on the butt. They are outraged and yell obscenities and the kids in the car find this hilarious. Stiv finds his next target, the legendary Jean Hill, a large black woman who is standing on the street corner. Jean is infuriated after getting the broom treatment and flags down a bus. She throws the bus driver out of his seat and the takes over the wheel. She tears after Bobo and his pals until the car loses control and wipes out. Jean then jumps out of the bus and runs over to Bobo's car and bites on the back tire and pops it. Then she tears the passenger door open and pulls Bobo out of the vehicle and starts laying hurt bombs to his rib cage. That is what entertainment is all about baby.
STIV BATORS MEETS HIS UNTIMELY END
In 1990, I was in and out of the clubs and bars and got all my rock and roll news second hand. The story I heard about Stiv was actually more interesting than what really occurred. At the Nectarine Ballroom, all the hip kids would keep me filled in with what was happening. The version I heard was that Stiv was indeed struck by a car and had staggered home. He didn't seek medical treatment but went straight to bed. When he woke up he was horrified at his reflection in the mirror. His entire body was blood red from internal bleeding and he reportedly said, "Dude... What The Fuck?" and then dropped dead. This is absurd. How could my drunken club buddies know what he said let alone what he looked like? There was no alternative radio scene back then and we didn't have the web. Who knows where they came up with this wacky assumption?
The truth was he did get hit by a car. Stiv's girlfriend got him a doctor who checked him out. They couldn't find anything wrong with him and did not admit him to a hospital. Stiv went home and died the next day from internal bleeding. The rest of the story about waking up blood red and looking at his own reflection didn't happen. Stiv would have loved that story though I am sure as part of his legend. Stiv Bators wanted a big legend that would outlive him and his wild, manic, and insane ways.
STIV RETURNS BACK TO LIFE IN THE CBGB MOVIE
Stiv has been brought back to life in "CBGB" directed by Randall Miller. We get some insight into the years of the Dead Boys. The creation of the Dead Boys legend is great to behold but like with all of Stiv Bator's media presence it's not enough. The scene where The Dead Boys enter a party store is almost like out of a John Water's movie. Stiv and his pals start to grab bags of chips, sandwiches, and beer out of the cooler and start eating it right in the store without paying for it. They get crumbs all over, make a mess, and food is falling on the floor. This infuriates the owners of this bodega and they come out with baseball bats. The fights break out and two of the store owners start beating the bandmembers. Jimmy Blitz, from The Dead Boys, gets stabbed multiple times and was put in the hospital.
Another scene from the movie shows The Dead Boys on tour using a truck from the CBGB bar. The bar owner, Hilly Kristal, trusted these roughnecks with his prized vehicle to do the band tour to promote the first album. "Young, Loud, And Snotty". One of the guys in the film, possibly Stiv, fell asleep at the wheel and flipped the truck over on the freaking expressway. The band climbs out of the truck one by one miraculously all alive. It appears that this band is aptly named. Like Sid Vicious before them the band feels the need to live up to their own name.
STIV AND PRANK PHONE CALLS
Even though all of this mayhem and destruction I find myself needing more. That being said, I guess I am a rabid fan of Stiv Bators. I started to look for anything related to them and was able to find extra live recordings, re-issues, and the documentary "STIV: No Compromise No Regrets" movie. There is a strange but hilarious nugget in there regarding Stiv and his infamous prank phone calls. His bandmates remember fondly of Stiv calling up businesses using strange cartoon voices. The clip in the movie features Stiv calling up a barbecue restaurant with a quasi New Orleans voice. He asks for a barbecue yardbird ( barbecued chicken ) and gumbo. Again, I would love to hear more of these. I am sure someone has a collection of Stiv's prank phone calls somewhere in their personal library. This would make a great CD comparable to The Jerky Boys.
MTV AND STIV BATORS
Perhaps the oddest fact regarding the crazy life of Stiv Bators may be that he dated MTV's VJ Martha Quinn. This is truly an oddball pair. Quinn was very clean cut and squeeky clean next to the wild Bators. Stiv would vomit on stage, throw live grasshoppers out into the audience and sometimes was unable to stand after taking an assortment of drugs.
The rock groups that came out from this time had a very homemade quality. There was no rock video shows in the early 70s, no Youtube, no MTV, and no elaborate video wall displays for live shows. The bands that came out during this time had to be their own best special effect. That meant that every band had to have their own style of stage presence. They didn't wear t-shirts with other bands' logos on them. They certainly didn't come on stage wearing baseball caps. They were extreme, crude, outrageous looking, and in some cases could barely play. There was no autotune, and you didn't need 50 producers to crank out a tune. Rock and roll were real and although it has been called many names as it has evolved. You got New Wave, Punk, Goth, Hardcore, and many other genres out there today but it all boils down to loud, fast, and crude rock music. Stiv Bators was a big part of that sound and carried with him an unmatched ferocity that has endured the test of time. Stiv would have been proud of the attention he has received today in contrast to his humble beginnings in Cleaveland, Ohio.
ROCK ON!!
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