Ashes to Ashes: Remembering Scott “Top Ten” Kempner
Saying goodbye to the influential proto-punk and roots rock guitarist and songwriter
Bronx NY-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist Scott “Top Ten” Kempner passed away this week at the age of 69 from complications related to early onset dementia.
Although the critically-acclaimed, multi-talented musician never enjoyed commercial success commensurate to his abilities, Kempner has the distinction of playing with one of the most influential rock bands of the 1970s in the Dictators, and one of the most influential 1980s-era outfits in the Del-Lords. In a sort of rock ‘n’ roll trifecta, Kempner also performed and collaborated with one of the most important artists of the 1960s, Dion DiMucci, in the 1990s band Little Kings.
Kempner was visiting a friend at school in New Paltz, NY in 1972 when he met, and began playing with bassist Andy “Adny” Shernoff and guitarist Ross “The Boss” Friedman. The three formed the Dictators, adding drummer Stu Boy King and the band’s secret weapon – roadie and occasional singer “Handsome” Dick Manitoba. Kempner made his bones with the Dictators, earning the “Top Ten” nickname that would stick with him throughout his career. The Dictators released their debut album, The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!, in 1975. Produced by Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman (the masterminds behind Blue Öyster Cult), the album sold poorly but would soon be considered as an important pre-punk classic. Critic John Dougan wrote for All Music Guide that the Dictators were “one of the finest and most important proto-punk bands to walk the earth.”
The Dictators broke up after releasing two more scorched-earth records – Manifest Destiny (1977) and Bloodbrothers (1978) – both of which crackled with energy and intelligence, and providing more teenage kicks than any of their British punk brethren. After the Dictators’ initial break-up, Kempner formed roots-rock pioneers the Del-Lords with guitarist Eric Ambel, bassist Manny Caiati and drummer Frank Funaro. Named for Canadian film director Del Lord, who shot many of the early Three Stooges’ shorts, Kempner envisioned the band as a 1960s-style blend of garage-rock, blues, country and folk music with harmony vocals like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. The Del-Lords toured extensively and released four studio albums between 1984 and 1990, including their critically-acclaimed swan song, Lovers Who Wander.
Having honed his songwriting skills as the Del-Lords primary wordsmith, Kempner released his underrated albeit acclaimed solo debut, Tenement Angels, on the Razor & Tie Records label in 1992; the album was reissued on CD and vinyl by NYC-based GB Music in 2010.
Produced by Lou Whitney (who had overseen the Del-Lords’ debut Frontier Days) and backed by Lou’s excellent band the Skeletons, Kempner subsequently toured with the Skeletons, who backed both him and his buddy Dave Alvin, on a dozen or so dates until the label’s tour support funds dried up. Although Kempner wouldn’t release a solo follow-up until 2008’s Saving Grace, he kept busy during the 1990s and 2000s as a guitarslinger-for-hire for bands like the Brandos, the Helen Wheels Band, the Paradise Brothers, and what was possibly his longest association, the Little Kings, performing alongside his musical idol Dion.
Kempner’s third and final album, the solo acoustic Live On Blueberry Hill, was released in 2015 by GB Music. In between, there were reunions and music to be made; Kempner reunited with the Dictators in the late ‘90s to record D.F.F.D. and again in 2006 to play the closing nights at New York City’s legendary Bowery dive CBGB. ¡Viva Dictators!, a live album recorded in NYC, was released in 2005. The Del-Lords reunited in 2010 to tour for the first time in 20 years, subsequently releasing the Elvis Club album in 2013. The Dictators got back together in 2020 with a goal of recording new material, and Kempner appeared on the band’s first new single in over a decade, “Let’s Get The Band Back Together.”
Former Kempner publicist Cary Baker, in a press release announcing the artist’s death, included testaments from several of his friends and associates. Andy Shernoff of the Dictators said, “Scott was one of the greats, the best buddy a boy could ever want. We bonded over rock ‘n’ roll and we laughed about everything. We had a million inside jokes that nobody understood. I watched him grow from a guy running his SG guitar through his home stereo in his bedroom to playing Marshall amps cranked on stages around the world. His songs and music will speak for themselves. His glorious memory will remain with me forever and I will cherish it.”
Says Dion, “Scott Kempner was the quintessential rocker, a free abandoned guitar player, a superb arranger, a prolific songwriter, with the great sense of rhythm. I had the adventure of a lifetime playing with him in our band Little Kings. But most of all he is a dear friend and brother whom I love and will truly miss. Eternal rest my friend.”
Longtime friend and fellow Del-Lord Eric Ambel said, “Scott used his Dictators experience as the heart of that band to inform the songwriting he did for the Del-Lords. His songs weren’t solo songs adapted by the band to play, they were written specifically for the Del-Lords and informed by our lives together and that’s just a part of what made Scott and his songs so unique.”
AUDIO: Dion ‘N’ Little Kings “King of Hearts”
In a 2008 interview with Scott for Blurt magazine, when the Del-Lords’ catalog was being reissued in CD by American Beat Records, Kempner remembered those carefree early days of the band.
“We used to rehearse in this building right across the street from the Port Authority on Eighth Avenue, twelve floors of empty rooms that were rented out to bands,” he told me. “Madonna was there at that point, the dB’s were right across from us, Iggy was there, the Fleshtones…it was a really fun time!”
Kempner’s goal for the Del-Lords during the MTV era is also his career writ large.
“We were holding on for dear life to rock ‘n’ roll,” he said, and his entire catalog of music is the very embodiment of that ever-rockin’ spirit.
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