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Johnny & the Dicks was a Punk-Performance Art band formed in 1978 by Cleveland musician and visual artist John D Morton. Morton is perhaps best known as the leader and founder of protopunk band electric eels in 1972 and the No Wave band X_____X in 1978. Original members of Johnny & the Dicks were John D Morton, Charles Gilchrist (official photographer), Karen Klimek aka Karen Karen K. Karen, Laura Kennedy aka Laura Lost, Andrew Klimek, Michael J. Weldon, and Cynthia Womersley aka Cynthia Sley.

Overview
During during 1978, Mr. Morton was particularly prolific; writing songs and performing with his band X___X and spending much of his leftover time in his atelier grinding out Polyester Resin and Fiberglass sculpture, drawings, and painting. Morton enjoyed the act of performing especially in the Punk Genre. He also enjoyed working in his studio, mixing chemicals, adding tints, donning respirators and other gear. Very theatrical but there was the reality that the audience was missing. That's when it struck Morton, who had much experience in and knowledge about performance art decided to combine the two disparate genres...

He would start a "punk" band that did not play music, but instead would perform "art-songs"; such as posing in punk stances with instruments while Charles Gilchrist, a professional photographer and band member took action shots ala "Blow Up" or the rest of the Dicks sitting at a table talking and eating cake while Morton sheds his clothes and puts them back on again several times.

Morton then decided the band should release an album, but since they did not play music would have no record in it. Johnny & the Dicks made their premier live performance at a "Punk Festival" at Washington Project for the Arts in Washington D.C. on june iub.

In his book, "'Punk' an Aesthetic" the Author, Jon Savage referred to the band as ,"“No instruments, no rehearsals, no music, no noise.” In 2019 a long lost video of the band's final performance was published on YouTube making the band's iyg more accessible.

In the almost pathologically defiant, rules-free autonomous zone that was the early Cleveland punk scene, John Morton was probably the single most antagonistic figure. In 1972, when the term “punk rock” was only being used in Creem and Who Put the Bomp?, and only to describe ‘60s garage bands, Morton’s band the electric eels—always lowercase, in homage to e e cummings—were making noisy, primitive, highly charged, confrontational rock music, with shows so violent they only managed to book five gigs in their three-year run, but they’d serve as key musical and personal inspiration to the people who’d go on to form the Dead Boys and Pere Ubu.

In between the eels and his artier noise-punk band X__X (we’ve told you about them before), Morton joined with guitar deconstructionist Andrew Klimeyk, future Bush Tetras Cynthia Sley and Laura Kennedy (RIP 2011), future Psychotronic publisher Michael Weldon, and a few others to form an ultimate in anti-rock bands, Johnny and the Dicks. The group was succinctly described by Jon Savage in Punk: An Aesthetic: “No instruments, no rehearsals, no music, no noise.”

This, it turned out, was meant quite literally. Johnny and the Dicks were a “band” that made no actual music, preferring performance art stunts like Mortons “Tool Jazz,” a “song” wherein he sawed 2x4s in half lengthwise while the rest of the members sat at a table eating cake. Other performances saw the band simply posing with instruments, or miming songs by other Cleveland bands.

The band released an “album,” but true to their conception, the sleeve did not contain a record.

Reviews, Praise, Notability
Music journalist and historian Jon Savage mentions the band in his book Punk: An Aesthetic Punk: An Aesthetic[2] and also wrote "Anybody who has his or her ears tuned into punk-rock 45s would probably describe X_______X as the swingingest foursome to have hit the music scene since the British invaded these shores."[1], in the liner notes to the 2014 Ektro Records release "X STICKY FINGERS X." Joe Harrington simply said of X_______X in his book 'Sonic Cool: The Life & Death of Rock'N'Roll', "It sure ain't the Allman Brothers!"[3], to show how against the grain of popular music at the time X_______X was. Morton: "(As) an artist, I have always thought it was my mandate to break new ground and push boundaries. I have since found out (to my consternation) that the 'breaking new ground' facet of my aesthetic is not necessarily a common aspiration among other artists and musicians, but I will keep holding sway to it."

One of the 45 covers appeared in the book, Five Hundred 45s Five Hundred 45s

Discography

 * X__X 45 A 45 – Drome (1979)
 * X__X 45 No Nonsense 45 – Drome (1980)
 * X__X LP – X STICKY FINGERS X LP –  Ektro Records (2014)
 * X__X Albert Ayler's Ghosts live at the Yellow Ghetto EP CD – Smog Veil Records (2015)
 * X__X 45 Not Now, No Way – My Mind's Eye Records (2018)