45 years ago this week, a record changed my life. That was the first time I heard "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" by the Ramones.
It wasn't the first time I'd heard the Ramones; my campus radio station in Brockport had played "Blitzkrieg Bop," which I liked, but "Sheena" was the track that had immediate, seismic impact on 17-year-old me. I am not exaggerating when I say that moment was, for me, as important as hearing the Beatles had been in the previous decade.
I've written about the experience before, and I'll direct you to those pieces here. First, we have the specific piece about the record that changed my life. The events also inform the "Sheena" chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Reading Phonograph Record Magazine had hooked me on the Ramones well before I ever heard the Ramones, and that whole crucible of rockin' pop discovery in my late teens and early twenties set me on my path.
What path is that? The path to cohosting This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl (which, of course, takes its title from a line in a Ramones song) and to writing about rock 'n' roll. To writing my first attempt at rock journalism in 1978. To twenty years freelancing for Goldmine. To writing contributions to books (including one entry about the Ramones). To this daily--DAILY..?!--blog. And now to writing two books of my own, both of which include material about the Ramones. The first of those books will be published in the spring.
None of this happens for me without the Ramones. It all started with a 45 rpm single that changed my life.
Happy birthday, Sheena. You're looking mighty fine at 45.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl
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