JOHN WILKES BOOTH
Even by punk rock standards, the bandmembers’ names in the Gynecologists were inventive: bandleader and chief songwriter Tommy Afterbirth (lead vocals), John Wilkes Booth (keyboard player turned guitarist), Simon Scrotum (bass guitar – he was also an insurance salesman), and Milburn Drysdale (drums). Milburn Drysdale (played by Raymond Bailey) was the banker who lived next door to The Beverly Hillbillies family; in this classic sitcom that was filled to the brim with colorful characters, he was probably my favorite of them all. By the time that their 1984 release, A Goat . . . You Geek came out, the new bass guitarist named Kid Death (who is from Oregon) had improved their sound as a “a much more straight forward kick ass punk rock band”, as John Barge put it.
As far as I can tell, they only ever took one photograph of the Gynecologists; it is immediately identifiable from the stovepipe hat worn and the electric guitar held by the namesake of the real John Wilkes Booth who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Its first appearance was on the back cover of their debut release, Feces and Psychopaths, where the bandleader Tommy Afterbirth had the appellation “M.D.”.
(June 2016)
