Watch the late Gary Floyd perform with The Dicks in Akron, OH, 1982
Frontman for The Dicks, Sister Double Happiness and Black Kali Ma’s numerous seeming contradictions made him dangerous and subversive, in the best possible way.
“It was 1980,” says Gary Floyd, singer of one of Austin’s most crucial punk bands The Dicks, in this clip. “I wanted to say something loud, and I wanted it to be in your face. I wasn’t giving a damn about offending, as long as I did offend them.”
It was reported last night Gary passed away yesterday in his adoptive home of San Francisco at age 72. He had been in poor health for some time. Every time I’d seen him the last few years, he was on a portable oxygen tank, likely one of the reasons the periodic Dicks reunions that occurred in the first 15 years of this century ultimately ceased.
On the surface, it shouldn’t have worked. Gary seemed to be a mass of contradictions: An angry, offensive punk rocker who practiced hindu and retained his hippie ideals, a card-carrying Communist amongst anarchists (or at least anarchist play-actors), a wailing blues singer who loved country music fronting Austin’s hardest punk band as the scene reacted to the blues traditionalism practiced down at Antone’s and the Armadillo’s outlaw country stranglehold. A peaceful, kind man, you also did not want to cross him. But that was the way with The Dicks, who looked like a more dangerous Divine (on the occasions the openly gay Gary wore drag) backed by three surly, hungover ex-cons who’d knock you over the head with their guitars if you looked at them the wrong way. Which may have been partly true (except for the ex-con part), but they were all truly the sweetest souls you could meet, playing the most badass music in Austin. These supposed “inconsistencies” ultimately made Gary Floyd, and The Dicks in turn, the biggest existential threat to every orthodoxy, especially punk orthodoxy. And we loved them for it.
Gary deserves a more extensive memorial, which I’ll happily post next week. For right now, let’s enjoy this clip presenting The Dicks on tour in Akron, OH in 1982. Forgive the distorted camcorder sonics — it’s evident these guys are a tour-hardened machine at this point, ready to decimate everything in their path. Corrected setlist below. Enjoy! And rest in peace, Uncle Gary. Thank you for your compassion, wisdom and friendship over the years.
01. 01:22 Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
02. 04:34 Dicks Hate the Police
03. 06:47 Bourgeois Fascist Pig
04. 08:52 Rich Daddy
05. 11:18 Anti-Klan (Part 2)
13:03 Anti-Klan (Part 1)
06. 15:23 Louie Louie (Richard Berry cover)
07. 18:15 Pigs Run Wild
Gary Floyd - Lead Vocals
Buxf Parrot - Bass
Pat Deason - Drums
Glen Taylor - Guitar
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