We Don't Need Watkins - Nixons Revenge (1980)The origins of Desperation Squad can be traced directly to a factory in the City of Industry, the legendary Glass Arts of California, where rock and roll slackers could come in during the day and do light assembly work for a nominal paycheck. Bruce Watkins and Craig Herring of Stratus worked there, along with "Jumpin" Joe Gonzo of Prisoner, during the morning shift. Mr. P came in during the afternoon and spent most of the time with Brian Waddington dreaming up ideas for Nixons Revenge, a concept that originally was utilized to needle Watkins and the others, whose groups were perceived as "commercial" and increasingly irrelevant in the newly emerging punk rock/new wave era of the late 70s. Watkins would respond caustically that talk was, essentially, cheap. The pressure was on for Nixons Revenge to actually perform a live show and shake off the "Greatest Band That Never Played" label. Since the band was made up mostly of members unable to play musical instruments, an initial problem was to find musicians capable of sharing the stage with such a formidable group of creative artists and for a brief, poorly thought out and foolhardy moment it was suggested that Stratus itself wear hoods and back the band. This idea was quickly rejected. It was Alan Waddington who finally decided that the band would do it backwards. He, a drummer, would play bass and Paul Peterson, a bassist, would play drums, and that the rest of the band would be spearheaded by various members of the Gorillas - Brian, Jack Cheese, Kiko Misuki - who would just merely do the best that they could. This concept was greeted with much skepticism, especially by an increasingly vocal Watkins, who doubted the arrangement could be pulled off. Boiling over with seething anger, Mr. P impulsively wrote "We Don't Need Watkins" in time for the Mt. Sac track club dance, to settle once and for all the issue of "qualified" musicians and as a symbolic pie in the face of stodgy conventional backyard party bands. Historical notes: "We Don't Need Watkins" was an immediate smash hit, especially with the rest of the members of Stratus and their followers. This unexpected success led to a major creative decision for Nixons Revenge, who subsequently decided that they had no interest in performing a song, any song, twice. Thus "We Don't Need Watkins" was never played again during an original Nixons Revenge show. However, the song was reprised at least twice in other forms, such as "We Don't Need Watkins Clothes" and "We Don't Need Watt," an homage to Ronald Reagan's notorious Secretary of the Interior James Watt. Westmont is a section of Pomona created to house workers of the General Dynamics defense plant. Mom Watkins is the name of the band that first performed the song "Pam Slam" one night in Ditsler's basement. The LyricsWe don't need Watkins Watkins is a pussy Watkins you can fuck off |