Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk

by Legs McNeil

So I turned around to Johnny Blitz, the drummer, and I said, “GET THOSE FUCKING THINGS OFF.” He said, “I don’t really know what they even stand for.” I said, “GET THEM FUCKING OFF AND I’LL TELL YOU WHAT THEY STAND FOR. They stand for a race of people that were almost annihilated. They stand for that your manager is Jewish. The owner of this recording studio is Jewish. And I’m Jewish and I’m your producer and I can lose the drums VERY FUCKING EASY!” He took off the swastikas. I mean, I knew the Dead Boys weren’t Nazis. I knew that they were young punks. Anything that’s “baaaddd” they wanted to do. I was there once. But not with swastikas. So I turned them on to bagels. They never had a fucking bagel. In Cleveland! I said, “What’s with Cleveland? Where were you, in Dachau? What do you mean you never had a bagel!” They didn’t know what a bagel was. I mean, you fuck, what part of Cleveland did you come from? Cleveland, Germany?