Q. When is the Jay Years compilation CD gonna come out?
A. It's been three years after the Dean years CD came out...and I can report that yes, there is progress being made as far as putting together the "Jay Years" CD. Details will be revealed here when they become available.
One possibility I've heard is both the "Dean Years" and "Jay Years" in one double-CD.
Q. What-all cover songs did the Micronotz do?
A. The band covered many songs by many bands throught their seven years. Early on, the covers of chioce was "Search and Destroy" by the Stooges, "Born to Lose" by Johnny Thunders, and a few Ramones tunes. The most influential records for the band in the early going was "Sid Sings" and "It's Alive", the double-live Ramones LP.
As they began to write more originals, the amount of cover songs decreased, but there were still quite a few in the set list: "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin, "Take Another Piece of My Heart" by Big Brother and the Holding Company, as well as the songs that appeared on their early releases: "Let it Out", and "I Got a Right" by the Hombres and the Stooges, respectively. Generally, cover songs were done to please the crowd, and to provide some comic relief. Dean was known to sport a big-hair Southern belle wig during performances of "Take Another Piece of My Heart".
By the time Jay came on board, the 'Notz had elevated the concept of a cover song to an art form. Jay Hauptli almost admitted as much in an interview in January of 97:
Jay: You've got to play some of that stuff, you know. But that's the thing you know about covers, they're covers. You're not there to mimic anything especially in a band like that. Not like in a bar band where you're playing the Top 40 things or whatever. It's like, we'd do whatever we want you know? That's why it's always fun to things like "Scarborough Fair" or you know, bad Beatles songs. Doing "Michelle". I loved doing "Michelle"! You know, (sings) "Michelle, my belle, these are words that go together well boh dah dahdududududud (like a punk rock Michelle) You know? Just rave that shit up, cause that's the beauty of covers, you can either break them down, or you can just rave them up. And it's much more easier to take a pussy song and jack it up...
Girls will do it to ya every time
Dean took some heat from his girlfriend for the songs "Blonde Haired Ghost" and "It's Not Alright". She pressured him to change one line in "Blonde Haired Ghost": "Her deep brown eyes were so radiant" to "her deep green eyes were so radiant. (Guess what color eyes she had?) The line was not changed. Also, the line "I'm tired of being attacked" was interpreted as "I'm tired of being attached".
MORE TO FOLLOW: (to be updated the first week of April, 1999)