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This is an interview I did with Loren ‘Dog’ in April– May 1999.
..Detroit’ Jack
..D’ J: Would you talk about your high school daze . . . where you went and if you were involved in any bands?
Loren ..Dog’: I went to the same high school as Magic Johnson, Everett High School in Lansing, Michigan. It was the late 60’s. I barely graduated in 1970, the same year as that great Stooges song. In those daze I was a wallflower, not a jock, not a stoner, not a greaser, just a shy kid, a fan of Rock and Roll. All my friends were totally into drugs, but I really wasn’t at that point. I was into politics, the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society).
..D’ J: What was the music scene like at that time? Which bands were you into and what influences did they have on you?
Loren: It was a great time in Michigan in those years. My favorite bands were the MC5, the Stooges, Amboy Dukes, Alice Cooper, Jimi, Stones, but, the Detroit sound made me who I am today. I think the Amboy Dukes were the first Detroit band I saw that blew me away. Then I started getting MC5 and Stooges records, also the Frost. They were a huge influence on my playing and attitude. Where most people said Eric Clapton was god, to me it was Wayne Kramer. The MC5 were the badest motherfuckers on the planet to me then and now.
..D’ J: How did the Dogs come together? What gelled and inspired your creativity and sound?
Loren: Well, I was playing with a drummer all through Junior High, a guy named Art Phelps. In 10th grade we met Mary Dryer the bass player, and we started the Dogs in 1969. She played like Jack Bruce from Cream and I thought I was Pete from the Who. We didn’t know what we were doing for a while, but we did get it together. I wanted the band to be like the Stooges and the MC5, using Marshall amps, making a statement and playing real fucking loud. We wanted to make a difference. Art quit the band and we brought in Ron Wood on drums. He was a real hoodlum, juvenile punk. That’s when we really turned into the Dogs. We had a band house, took drugs. All there was to do was go to gigs, smoke dope and play rock and roll.
..D’ J: Would you talk about John Sinclair, the MC5 and how the Dogs’ classic song “John Rock” came to be and why?
Loren: Well, we thought John was like the high priest of our society, “the high society,” manager of the 5, and the whole Detroit scene. But, when he got arrested and went to jail there were benefits to raise money for the legal defence fund and we the band, the Dogs wanted to be a part of that, but, his Rainbow Party people would never let us play. We thought John (once he got out of jail) was turning into the people he was fighting, the cops, politicians, and the feds. So, we were a mutant backlash from suburban Lansing saying, “we had to free his mind back to Rock and Roll.” Plus, he was bad rappin’ the MC5, so we thought, “fuck you.” But deep down inside we really liked him. We opened for the MC5 when Back In The USA came out. We were a punk backlash to the counter-culture he started in the Motor City.
..D’ J: Spin magazine voted “Slash Your Face” as one of the Top 10 punk rock songs of all time. How does that feel?
Loren: Ah yes, Spin magazine. I think it was a real honor to get picked for that song, “Slash Your Face.” It’s a powerful slice of attitude like, “who the fuck do you think you are to think any of us are better than the next man, and we aren’t going to take it lying down.” So, “you better lock your door, cause we can’t take it anymore.” Oh Yeah.
..D’ J: I love the guitar work on “Younger Point Of View,” and the words really say a lot about the band’s thinking. You mentioned before that Rhino Records had decided to put a different version of that song on their “D.I.Y. – L.A. Punk Scene Compilation.” What’s your point of view? (couldn’t resist!)
Loren: Rhino used a 4-track version of the song from the “John Rock” single. They had used a different version for the “Saturday Night Pogo” compilation record released in 1978. I liked that one better; it was recorded at the Record Plant in L.A. on 24 track, killer sounding!
..D’ J: Could you talk about the Mabuhay in San Francisco (later the On Broadway) and the live recording the Dogs did there?
Loren: Well, the whole Mabuhay recording came about because of Lou Bramy who was not only our manager, but, also managed Journey and the Y&T, which was a hard rock band from the Bay Area in the late 70's on London records. Lou was a S.F. kingpin manager type. He rented the Record Plant 24 track mobile unit which sat outside for two nights of recording. The “Mab” was the first New Wave and Punk club in San Francisco and was managed by Dirk Dirkson, a funny guy who looked like a middle aged school teacher, very smart and a smart ass. He liked the band, and the crowds were into spitting and throwing popcorn and beer cans at us. I remember dodging stuff. The first song was “Sleaze City,” which was about L.A., how people come here with all of their dreams, and how the city has a way of making those “dreams fade like a pair of jeans.”
7:46 PM
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