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Check the exclusive video of the LP for sale!
Check the exclusive video of the LP for sale!
“No cowbell, no sucker raps, no hairspray and no spandex!” – Rulers of Rock
The Plasmatics chainsawing their way through Butcher Baby (literally — I mean, Wendy had a chainsaw in her hands) on a late-night TV show in 1980, when I was 11 years old, remains probably my most profound rock’n’roll moment. Not only did it seal the deal as to what I was gonna do when I grew up, but it set a standard that, really, nobody has ever surpassed.
In life and death, Wendy O. believed in three basic tenets: Never Compromise, Never Surrender, and (most importantly), Posers Get Lost. The Plasmatics, her crazed punk-metal shock rock wrecking ball, was the supersonic distillation of her Nietzsche-like belief system, and they blazed a trail of chaos and mayhem through the 70’s and 80’s that nobody could touch. Not Alice Cooper, not the Sex Pistols, nobody. Somebody had to be the wildest rocker of ‘em all, and that somebody was Wendy O. Williams.
In life and death, Wendy O. believed in three basic tenets: Never Compromise, Never Surrender, and (most importantly), Posers Get Lost. The Plasmatics, her crazed punk-metal shock rock wrecking ball, was the supersonic distillation of her Nietzsche-like belief system, and they blazed a trail of chaos and mayhem through the 70’s and 80’s that nobody could touch. Not Alice Cooper, not the Sex Pistols, nobody. Somebody had to be the wildest rocker of ‘em all, and that somebody was Wendy O. Williams.
By the way, New York punks rapping was really nothing new. Hip-hop and punk were blood-brothers in New York City. Debbie Harry was really the first mainstream rapper. Everybody knows the Beastie Boys started out as a hardcore band, and Dee Dee Ramone spent a good chunk of time spitting out awkward rhymes as his gold chain-festooned alter-ego, Dee Dee King.
It was the last album she ever made. She essentially retired from rock’n’roll in the early 90s and moved to Connecticut, devoting most of her time to animal advocacy. In 1993, she attempted suicide for the first time by hammering a knife into her own chest, which is, I mean, that is the most Wendy O. way to go possible. She was discovered and rescued by Rod Swenson, but for Wendy, the die was already cast. On Monday, April 6th, 1998, Wendy O., the Metal Priestess, the Queen of Shock Rock, the Kommander of Kaos, the baddest rock’n’roll motherfucker who ever lived, took a walk into the woods near her home. She sat on a rock and fed some squirrels, then she took a pistol and shot herself in the head. In a press release on April 7th, Swenson wrote that Wendy had been talking about suicide for nearly four years, because she “felt, in effect, she’d peaked, and didn’t care to live in a world in which she was uncomfortable, and below peak any longer.”
Wendy did it her way, right until the end. She even decided when the end was going to happen. For a lesser light, Deffest! And Baddest!might seem like a remarkably ignoble end, a truly jaw-dropping misfire, the kind of stupendous flash metal suicide that could keep you up at night, decades later, wondering what the fuck you were thinking. But it’s Wendy, man. Who cares? Remember that time she blew up a fucking car onstage? What a bad-ass.
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Wendy Orleans Williams was born in Rochester, NY. She grew up on a farm, and ran away from home at age 16. In the early 70’s, she wound up in Europe, where she started a career as a stripper. She moved back to Noo Yawk and met up with filth hound Rod Swenson, who first employed her as a dancer, nude model, and one-time porn star – she had a memorable bit part in Candy Goes to Hollywood (1979) – before ol’ Rod had the brilliant idea of setting this powderkeg to blow live, on stage, with a full-fledged rock n’ roll band. And so, the Plasmatics were born.
“We’re about violence and destruction, destroying objects and material possessions of our greedy society”, Wendy said back in ’79, and she meant it, man. Early Plasmatics gigs featured exploding televisions, hangings, blood, tits, electrocutions, and searing, rip-roaring punk rock’n’roll. They were signed to Stiff, released the seminal New Hope for the Wretched in 1980, and then started doing stuff like blowing up cars on TV. There were obscenity busts, there was filth and fury, there was magic and madness. Wendy had an insatiable need for speed and excitement, which manifested itself in rock n’ roll-as-shock-performance-art. Fire, destruction, explosives, public nudity, she did it all, baby.
She went solo in 1984, releasing the Gene Simmons-produced WOW, which is a spectacular record. She followed that with the monstrous, live-without-a-net Kommander of Kaos and also starred in the camp classic women-in-prison flick Reform School Girls. She released a final “Plasmatics” album (it was really just another solo record) in 1988 called Maggots, which is a “thrash metal opera” about the apocalypse. And when that still didn’t feel weird enough, she decided to try out hip-hop. New York punks rapping was really nothing new. Hip-hop and punk were blood-brothers in New York City. Debbie Harry was really the first mainstream rapper and the Beastie Boys started out as a hardcore band. Dee Dee Ramone spent a good chunk of time spitting out awkward rhymes as his gold chain-festooned alter-ego, Dee Dee King.
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PAL-1258 DJ [ULTRA RARE PROMO LP. Both labels of the record and the back golden stamp mention: For Promotional use Not for sale]
Deffest! and Baddest! is the third solo studio album released by Wendy O. Williams and the last album she ever recorded. The album is unique in that it is a departure from the punk rock and heavy metal that brought her to fame. Williams experimented with rock based rap and hip hop on the album. The album was credited to “Wendy O. Williams’ Ultrafly and the Hometown Girls” but it is recognized as a solo album (Williams had creative control over the album and performs lead vocals. The “Hometown Girls” refers to the backup singers on the album, Katrina Astrin and La Donna Sullivan).
Wendy O. Williams’ Ultrafly And The Hometown Girls Deffest! And Baddest!
Label: Profile Records
Catalog#: PAL-1258 DJ [ULTRA RARE PROMO LP. Both labels of the record and the back golden stamp mention: For Promotional use Not for sale]
Format: Vinyl, LP, 33 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1988
Genre: Hip Hop, Rock
Tracklist
A1 Rulers Of Rock 3:15 “No cowbell, no sucker raps, no hairspray and no spandex!” – Rulers of Rock
A2 $ 10,000,000 Winner 3:35
A3 Super Jock Guy 3:05
A4 Early Days 3:52
A5 The Humpty Song 2:55
B1 Know Wa’am Say’n? 3:27
B2 On The Irt 3:59
B3 Lies 3:18
B4 La La Land 3:31
B5 Laffing ‘n’ Scratching 2:02
Guitar Katrina Astrin (tracks: B1, B4)
Guitar [Lead, Rhythm] Wes Beech
Performer [Scratching] Stool School, The
Producer Rod Swenson
Vocals [Additional] Hometown Girls, The, Katrina Astrin, La Donna Sullivan
Vocals [Lead] Ultrafly, W. Orlean Williams*
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