CLEVELAND Program pays tribute to Stiv Bators' legacy

The band's remaining members will play together onstage.
By JOHN PATRICK GATTA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
He left this world in the most bizarre of circumstances. Struck by a car, Stephen Bator walked away from the scene only to be doomed by internal injuries later that evening.
That was 14 years ago, but fans, friends and family of the Dead Boys' wild and energetic frontman known as Stiv Bators haven't forgotten his contributions that added a little excitement to the music world. On Saturday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, his legacy with the punk-rock act the Dead Boys will be recalled during a tribute program. Later that day, the remaining members of that band will play together onstage for the first time in nearly two decades.
Interest in music
Raised in Girard, the young Stiv attended Catholic school at St. Rose and then Ursuline. Listening to the big-band music of his parents, Stephen and Marian, eventually led to an interest in the British Invasion acts such as the Rolling Stones. His supportive parents signed him up for guitar lessons, and even let their only child practice with his bandmates in their garage.
"He was always into music. Maybe he would try something else, but his heart was always into music. We let him go and follow his heart," Marian said during a recent interview.
In the early '70s, Cleveland produced its own brand of alternative rock, but it was largely ignored and/or disdained by listeners. Bands such as Rocket From the Tombs created music that was the antithesis of the arena rock from that era, but it's influence and timelessness continues to find devotees in the 21st century.
Recruited a guitarist
Cheetah Chrome played guitar in Rocket, and through his friendship with Stiv, he ended up in the Dead Boys.
As Chrome recalled during a phone interview from his Nashville home, Stiv frequented Rocket gigs. He would hear about band problems through one of its members, Peter Laughlin. "So, Stiv set out to steal me," he said, laughing.
Soon after Rocket From the Tombs disbanded, Stiv quickly recruited Chrome to join with guitarist Jimmy Zero, bassist Jeff Magnum and drummer Johnny Blitz.
Influenced by highly explosive artists such as the Stooges and its frontman Iggy Pop and the Ramones who tore rock down to its raw, visceral core, the five members of the Dead Boys left their Northeast Ohio homes for the gritty streets of New York.
The group released "Young, Loud and Snotty" in 1977. The follow-up, "We Came For Your Children," arrived the next year. Like their live shows, both were in-your-face musical explosions. A recently released DVD, "Live at CBGB 1977," chronicles an early performance.
"Punk now would never have been called punk then," said Chrome. "It's a joke now. Anything that's punk now is being done by 50 year-old men.
"Back then we were all broke, we were all hungry, we were all rebelling against something. Now, the bands, the flavor of the week mentality that the music industry has nowadays. They throw money at them as soon as they come out, and it just becomes another cog in the machine. It's nothing that's changing anything. It's easy to fall into that trap. I wish somebody would have thrown a million bucks at us, but it was pretty much the hard way."
Catchy sound
What's kept interest in the Dead Boys despite its brief existence, plus a reunion in 1986-87 that included a gig at Youngstown's Cedars Lounge, is that the band's short bursts of sound relied on catchy hooks that could be embraced by a generation several decades ago or today.
While the elder Bators never became fans of punk rock music, they remained loyal to their son's chosen method of creative expression. Not only did they attend concerts by the Dead Boys, and Stiv's final group, Lords of the New Church, in Ohio, but they also traveled to watch him play in New York and London.
Recalling those days, Stephen said, "The kids ignored us, most of 'em. They were like, 'Well, that's all right if you're here. Makes no difference.'"
Still, he and Marian never relinquished the roles of concerned parents. "I was worried about him a lot of times in New York. You're always worried about him anyway.
"I tell you one thing, he never got away with anything. His mother always made sure that she knew where he was at. Track him down. Wherever they went, she always found out what country, what city. He said, 'Mommy, you're like Sherlock Holmes.'"
Based on what Stiv used to tell the kids in the neighborhood growing up, maybe he had a knack for predicting the future.
"A couple of the boys up here, they used to tell us, 'Stiv says that he's gonna get himself a band and someday he's going to L.A. and make albums and someday he'll even go to Europe,'" said Stiv's father, who still chokes up a little when revisiting some of the memories of his son.
"And everything came out for him. All those dreams that he was thinking about came true."