Bear in mind, in 1974, the Pandora’s Box of trans sexuality had not been opened in rock and roll. Rock and Roll was still waiting for the REAL THING! and then Wayne County showed up, and the ‘real thing’ had arrived. This recording is from a ‘live’ performance at the Westbeth Theatre in Manhattan; the show was titled Wayne County At the Trucks!, financed and produced by David Bowie’s Mainman organization, which had worked with a solo Mick Ronson, Lou Reed, Mott the Hoople and Iggy Pop. Since the sight and sound of Wayne County was generating as much heat on the street as Bowie himself in the early 70s, Mainman thought it wise to sign Wayne. This performance was revolutionary in many ways. Wayne County was the most outrageous and challenging character rock and roll had ever seen, making Bowie look like John Denver in comparison, and the setting for Wayne At the Trucks was in keeping with Wayne’s previous tenure as a star of theatre, in Andy Warhol’s “Pork” (where Wayne first caught the eyes of Angie & David Bowie) and other productions. Wayne At the Trucks brought something new to rock and roll. Every song had it’s own scenery, props, costumes, etc like a Broadway play. Breaking the rules of rock and roll, the band was off to the side of the stage, while Wayne stood front and center. The attitude and subject matter was punk before punk, hip hop before hip hop, blatant and obscene to a degree never seen before in pop music, at a time when it was considered totally off the radar. Jimi Lalumia
NYC 2006