Farewell to Ross “The Boss” Friedman of The Dictators, who passed away yesterday from complications of ALS. He was seventy-two.
I was first introduced to the Dictators’ music by Kicks magazine’s Billy Miller, who kept telling me how genius the band was, even though I didn’t get it at first. Eventually, it all began to make sense. They were a heavy rock band, surfacing in that weird no-time between The Stooges and The Ramones, that really established what American punk rock was all about—rebellion, of course, but stoopid stuff: hamburgers, professional wrestling, cars, girls, surfing, beer. Their songs (written by Andy Shernoff, who produced my first albums by the Untamed Youth back in the 1980s) were little pop masterpieces disguised as punk or hard rock. Songs like “Master Race Rock” (a play on the fact that they were all Jewish and had the balls to call themselves The Dictators), “Teengenerate,” “Two Tub Man,” “I Live for Cars and Girls,” covers of “California Sun” and “I Got You, Babe.” They were freaking hilarious!
I always knew Billy Miller was right, but sometimes it took me a little while to come around. I became a huge fan of The Dictators, and when I finally got to see them live, jeezus, what a band. Andy Shernoff wound up producing my first two albums, and Scott “Top Ten” Kempner sang on one of our albums. We backed up “Handsome” Dick Manitoba at Billy and Miriam’s wedding. I was sort of officially/unofficially running in the same circles as these guys, and it was cool as hell.
I once asked Andy Shernoff how The Dictators got signed to a major label at a time when there were no other bands like them. His response was simple: “There was a girl at the label who really liked Ross’s guitar playing. He was a super-hot guitar player, and he got us signed.” And there you have it.
Ross “The Boss” Friedman was a powerhouse, one of those dudes that when you put a guitar in his hands, he could dazzle the room. He was shit-hot. In the history of punk rock, The Dictators were always sort of odd men out, mostly because of Ross’s shit-hot guitar solos in a genre that usually didn’t even HAVE guitar solos. It didn’t matter. He just plastered people’s ears against the wall with sheer balls and sheer volume. If you liked it, it was flippin’ great.
After The Dictators broke up, Ross went on to be the guitarist in Manowar, one of the most comical of all the 1980s heavy metal bands, but in that band, it was still just Ross the Boss, killing it as he always did, in his own highly stylized manner.
I got to sit in with The Dictators a few times over the years, most recently on last year’s Underground Cruise. Ross looked older, and pretty unhealthy, but when the band kicked into “I Live for Cars and Girls,” all the licks were intact. I looked over at him, and he just nodded and plastered people’s ears against the back wall. Ross the Boss was a hell of a guitar player, and he will be sorely missed. Condolences to Andy Shernoff tonight. Dictators forever, forever Dictators. May Ross “the Boss” Rest In Loud.
