Bronx tales: Dion ups his game on new LP Girl Friends.
Allison Michael Orenstein
“I’M IN Florida and I have a T-shirt on.” Dion DiMucci is 84 and feeling great. The Bronx-bor n rock’n’roll angel who transfor med ’50s and ’60s music with his doo wop street group The Belmonts and such pop’n’roll slammers as The Wanderer and Runaround Sue is excited to talk about his new album Girl Friends, and its collaborations with blues, soul and folk luminaries including Susan Tedeschi, Carlene Carter and Maggie Rose. It’s his third LP for Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive label, records that, in Dion’s words, are all about “a total expression of joy and sorrow”. “I started out my career strong,” he says, “and I want to end it up strong.”
You’ve picked some tough voices and mean guitarists to collaborate with. Does that say something about your perspective on women?
It’s funny. When I was a kid, Paul Anka was singing “Put your head on my shoulder”. I said, We gotta start singing about women with some gravi-tass!
So I started putting songs together like Donna The Prima Donna and Runaround Sue.