The Slut Boys: The Origins, by Donny Crenshaw!

.........."In the beginning there were Drums...1962. New Orleans Saint Peters
St. Off Bourbon Preservation Hall Jazz. Me, Seven years old sitting
on a worn dusty wood floor five feet in front of a Beautiful Black Pearl
Bass Drum and Kit. A quart jar sitting in front of it with a piece of
paper taped to it reads: SAINTS $20 ALL OTHERS $5. Around it a
Seasoned Black Battalion of Feeling Master Musicians Play. I also
feeling it, drink in the music, Sweet Emma Barrett facing the wall
playing the piano banging it sweet a big chaw under her bottom lip.
Drums, Piano, a Trombone, Banjo, Trumpet, Guitar, Clarinet/Sax. All
Singing. For me, a Drumming Foundation of Dixieland Jazz a True
Great American Art Form. I revisited many times in my youth. Today
sounds nothing like it did in 1962, so has not preserved it like it was,
they play too clean not melding not having the United Sensual Soul
Passion and Emotion as the past. So to me, a Drum Kit was the
coolest thing in the world. Bottom-Line, I needed Drums. Black
Pearls...

Drums in The Theatre. 1964.  Nine years old Bickfords Automat Time
Square Broadway Musical Dad walks me down to see The Pit
Orchestra before every show I gravitate to the drums complete with
Sound Effect Devises which fascinated me. With
maybe 10 Broadway Musicals under my belt I gain a Pomp Ass
Knowledge of the “Best” in Music NYC Show Music sets the Bar.
Drums plus the best of the best.  I get my First Snare Drum for X-
mass.  Dad says if you stick with it (pun intended) for a year I will get
you a Bass-Drum ( Blue Sparkle)  and Cymbal for B-Day and X-Mass
next. And, since it was 1964 and also on Broadway I have to mention
The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles, Ringo playing Black Pearl
Ludwigs, The Dave Clark Five, with a Drummer/ Singer... And of
course, Charlie Watts!!! The Beat Goes On! Drums from every angle.
So that year of Television’s inspiration turned into perspiration and I
stuck with it and how. Wow. Blood Sweat and Tears Later Further
down the road a Rock n’ Roll Heaven awaited. The chrysalis is set-
Rock Music.  Flash forward.  1971.  Old enough to know better. All cat’s
are grey in the dark. Rock n’ Roll metamorphoses into Rock. “ ...We
never got it off on that revolution stuff” - All The Young Dudes. Ballad
of Dwight Frye Sunrise Alice Cooper comes wafting, slinking,
slithering seductively scrolling up the hallow out onto Florida High
Corridor where I am walking at ears length. What is that crazy music
man!?! ... Ben Wilcox is giving a Report on Rock. We meet. Ben has
all the best Rock n’ Roll Records.

Iggy Pops up The Ramones have the same last name. We play
music in his bed room with his piano for years. Trying to write songs. I
Wish It Would Rain...We need a band. Drums and Keys to the Future.
Required Stolen Rock n’ Roll Guitar ala Mick Ronson. 1972. Billy
Bob-Nut McButtsquare enters, and with a Stolen Church Guitar and
Amp via David H. Bob-Nut and Sean Bonbon Baboon. They stash
axe and rig with me on W. Indian Head Dr. to be used in Kind by Billy
to our future advantage. Billy quickly becoming one of the best Rock
n’ Roll Guitarist I’ve ever heard. Billy volunteers as Front Man,
Lustfully. Drums, Keys and a Guitar Rig..It’s gonna get Big, Watch It
Grow! The Big Rig! Watch Out! Jumpin’ Jack Flash!
Rock and Soul Music. 1974. Now We needed a Bass Player. So In
struts a True Nature Boy with a Flair and So Coming to us offa Dusty
Rhodes and Deepening the bench was Jim Ballard an Adonis With a
Pitch Perfect Soulful Voice a Paul McCartney Hoffner Bass and a
Blonde Bowl Cut like Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. Brian Jones
Bar B. Q. and Grill was Open for business. Rock On Gordy (gorden
solly) Rock On Rick Rock on Dusty.

Look for our Grand Opening in 1979! ...Coming to The Lucky Horse
Shoe near you. Pump It Up...

London Rock.1975. Ben and I half of the future Slut Boys attend
college in London studying Theatre and Economics. Like Mick.
London theater being the only legitimate Theater out side of NYC. We
Studied Pubs and Rock Shows more though. With England Rocking
the only legitimate pubs in the world .The Hammersmith Odeon
Theater held big shows where Ben and I saw Lou Reed’s “Rock and
Roll” album Tour show and Ian Hunter’s and Mick Ronson’s Show
performing “Once Bit and Twice Shy”. Rocky Horror Picture Show on
Kings Road was Rock and Theater. In a critique of the Play I said, “ If
you have seen David Bowie this is Old Hat”. On Kings Road I Entered
Sex Where Vivian Westwood Cat Girl and Malcomb McClarion were
standing donning and selling Bondage Ware and Safety Pinned High
Courtier sic with me not realizing really what I was seeing. There
were some clues to what was to come in London in a short year but
us “hicks” as Iggy would call The Slut Boys later on at our
Tallahassee show in 1980 were already playing High Energy 3 chord
accessible songs instead of studio band crap. Also in London I saw
Kilburn and the Highroads twice , with Ian Dury Singing and Teddy
Boys attending and Ben saw Cockney Rebel, Twinks attending, all of
whom were a foreshadowing of the eventual Punk Scene. We both
missed The Pink Fairies or Hawkwind. Even though We were
regulars at The Famous Round House and Marquee Club. The
Seminal Prototype Punk Song “City Kids”, in my humble opinion, was
Released in 1973 by The Pink Fairies, who played at The Round
House often. If you’ve never heard it look It up ands see if you agree.
Flash to 1976-1979.In the Aftermath of England and Many years of
Practicing, Ben, Billy, Jim, and I were building a Mistique around town
or in our case a Mistake. Also, We were all Trisexual!?!... Always
Trying to have sex... We had finally found a place to rehearse outside
of our parents houses, having tortured them enough. It was right
across the street from Tallahassee Civic Center, Where U-2 walked
in one night after their gig and jammed with us. We dubbed it The
O.K. Club because we boarded up the window to protect our
instruments and so I sprucing up the joint painted the plywood panel
as a window looking out over a Jamaican Bay, on it The O.K. Club
backwards as if looking out the club window. We had a refrigerator
and a simple wooden Bar, which was too tall being built by Dicky, the
lead cow of our entourage, who was six foot six. People could not
understand it was our Rehearsal Space and not a BYOB Bar. Most
Practice sessions Lasted through the Night with an assortment of
friends and Seekers of Fun and Rock n Roll. People were beginning
to know our reputation as wild drunks and drug users. And
TRISEXUAL. ...Rock n Roll Party...So with our Reputation and
Identities being Infamous we had built a “Mystique”. I worked as a
Paste-Up Artist at that time. I worked the graveyard shift and had
gravitated to a small room with four light tables and a crazy cool girl
who listened to LOUD Rock Music all night long. Her name was Patti
Milnes and I later found out she was legally deaf. As she knew our
band, one night she was singing along with “Dirty White Boy” and
pointedly sang over the light table towards me,... ‘Dirty White “SLUT
BOYS”, Dirty White “SLUT BOYS”... I immediately stood up and said,
...That’s It! That’s it! We had a band name. So, Later on in an
interview in Musician Magazine, when asked what were some of the
things that Stood Out on their first American Tour, Bono said, “ We
jumped up and Jammed Wild Thing with The Slut Boys at The O.K.
Club”. The names stuck with him. Every body loved to repeat the
name The Slut Boys. Andy Warhol did with his fey voice when I told
him our band’s name. Ooing and ahhing with a sparked interest
he repeated it to Christofer Macos and Bob Colacello with a
rare giggle. I had Warhol enjoying his evening because of Patty Milnes
Improvised Genius.

I knew the Controversial name; The Slut Boys was what we were and
would serve us well as an advertising coo. Our first gig was at The
Lucky Horse Shoe Bar. Whore Shoe. Fuck me Pumps. Yeah Yeah
Yeah... Some how some feminists found out a band named The Slut
Boys were to perform at the bar. Ben liking or trying to avert a
Politically Correct Catastrophe wanted the band name to be The
Solenoids.So that day at the bar after we had loaded in and had a
sound check we noticed 5 or 6 women with anti The Slut Boys
picketing signs. They were ready to picket a Name a woman had
authored. As I remember The Slut Boys was on the sign by the door
announcing that nights booking. And the Feminists were waiting to
engage us. At this time we came out and changed the Name to The
Solenoids at which the Feminists Sighed and put down there signs of
protest. Damn, unhappy anti- fans, now wondering what to
do for the night. That’s no fun. I was disappointed and voiced my
opinion as to the name change. We drove back over the hill to the
O.K. Club to wait and fuel up for show time. I lobbied that we were
Slut Boys and should be proud of such a Perfect band name.

Somehow we grew some balls and I won out and We Knew the
Correct name was The Slut Boys. At that we raced back over the hill
and put up The Slut Boys as our Name. The Feminist were revived
and happy and picked back up their sings and as they fell into line
they fell right into our hands. Free Publicity! IT WAS ON!!! I didn’t
related to a car part but I did connect as a Slut Boy. Thank You Patti.
With a few years of upholding our reputation and hosting and opening
for artists such as Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, The Fleshtones and more we
did Tallahassee a great favor with our high energy Suspenseful
shows. How do they do that? Riotous Rock n Roll Shows. Employing
Strippers, throwing bags of dog food on the crowd, chain sawing
guitars in two, showing up late in a limo and too many pounds lost
collectively with the crowd we ruled Tallahassee’s vacuous cultural
scene. The Slut Boys had that united sensual soul passion that I had
studied listening to Sweet Emma in 1962. We were bad asses and
we new it! Dolomite!!!"
​
Donny Crenshaw is a seminal musician who helped shape the early
underground culture in a town abandoned by new ideas.  His hobby is
chasing dragonflies in the nude.

Mr. Crenshaw’s article appears here in its original unaltered, unedited
edition in order to maintain the integrity and intent of the writing.