10 SONGS: GABBA GABBA HEY! A Celebration Of THE RAMONES

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.

The second of two editions of 10 Songs this week draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1183: GABBA GABBA HEY! A Celebration Of The Ramones. This show is available as a podcast.

THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop

Hype first: I wrote a book about the Ramones. It's called Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, and its recent publication made me wanna program a lot of Ramones into the ol' TIRnRR playlists throughout April and May. That plan culminated in this Memorial Day weekend special edition, celebrating all things Ramones and Ramones-related.

HEY-HO, LET'S GO!! It seemed imperative to start the show with "Blitzkrieg Bop." And since my book presents my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., we went with an in-concert recording of that line-up, from the album Greatest Hits Live. 

The kids are losing their minds? 

Okay by me!

THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Saturday Night

It's been documented elsewhere, but I dig the specific phrasing Johnny Ramone used when telling me about the genesis of "Blitzkrieg Bop." We played a clip of Johnny's comments on the show, right after we played "Blitzkrieg Bop:"

JOHNNY: We started out, and I think we wanted to be a bubblegum band. At one point, the Bay City Rollers were becoming popular. They had written “Saturday Night,” and we then sat down and said, “We have to write a song with a chant in it, like they have.” So, we wrote “Blitzkrieg Bop.” Somehow, in our warped minds, I think we thought we were a bubblegum group.

CC: You weren’t that far off, that’s the thing that’s amazing. I think a lot of us had to have it pointed out to us, but it’s really not that far of a jump from the Bay City Rollers to the Ramones. 

And then we played the Rollers. S! A! T-U-R! D-A-Y! NIGHT! Hey-ho, let's go. No, not that far of a jump at all. It's all pop music. See? The kids are losing their minds! Keep on dancing to the rock 'n' roll.

THE BEATLES: I Saw Her Standing There

Her Majesty's Ramones. I often call the Ramones "the American Beatles." The phrase refers to the Ramones' sheer impact upon me and many others, and ignores the vast disparity in record sales between the two groups. If the Ramones were to issue a counterpart to the Beatles' megacolossalsupersizedselling collection 1, the Ramones would have to use a negative number.

The Beatles' influence was huge, and they for damned sure influenced the Ramones. And apart from whatever other material inspiration the Beatles provided for the Ramones, there's one specific element at the beginning of "I Saw Her Standing There" that affected ever single live show the Ramones ever did, and it likewise affected a few of their studio recordings.

What element is that?

Take it, Paulie!

One-two-three-FAH!!

Dee Dee (and C.J.) made note of that. 

DUST: All In All

A Ramones celebration requires music performed by the Ramones, whether as Ramones or in individual works outside of the group's aegis. We played a number of Joey's extracurricular projects. We played three of C.J.'s solo tracks. We played "Good Rockin' Tonight" by Lemmy, Johnny Ramone, Danny B. Harvey and Slim Jim Phantom (the only non-Ramones release I'm aware of Johnny doing). We played Dee Dee solo. We played Teenage Head with Marky Ramone. 

And we played Marky's first group Dust. From the book:

CC: Marky, you recorded with Dust and with Richard Hell and the Voidoids before joining the Ramones. Was Dust your first band?

MARKY: Yeah, that was in high school. I was sixteen years old when I did the first album, and I think I was in tenth grade at Erasmus High School on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. And the other two guys I grew up with; the guitar player’s name is Richie Wise, and the bass player’s name is Kenny Aaronson. We put out two albums on Buddah Records, which was a subsidiary of Kama Sutra, which was run by Neil Bogart. We toured with Alice Cooper and Ike and Tina Turner at the time, and Uriah Heep and a lot of different bands.

But still, we were only 16 years old, and the group disbanded after two albums. That, I guess, was right after I graduated or got out of high school at the age of 18. So, Kenny decided to join Stories, of “Brother Louie” [fame], and had a hit for, I think, two weeks; it was number one in the summer of ’73. The guitar player went on to produce KISS, the first two albums, KISS and Hotter than Hell. 

I was not at all familiar with Dust, but "All In All" rocks, in a decidedly and agreeably '70s way. It doesn't sound like KISS--maybe closer to the pre-KISS Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley group Wicked Lester--but you can still hear why Richie Wise was an appropriate choice to co-produce (with Kenny Kerner) those first two KISS LPs.

SIBLING RIVALRY: See My Way

I know of two errors I made in my Ramones book, both of which appear near the book's end. I mistakenly claim I saw the Ramones nine times; cross-referencing my recollection with comprehensive lists of the entirety of the Ramones' tour history, I can only verify eight Ramones shows for me. I must have double-counted one of the four times I saw 'em in Buffalo in the '80s. In fairness to me, it was the '80s, after all.

A much happier mistake involves Joey Ramone's surprise phone call to me, a week or so after we'd done the interview. Because I wasn't expecting the call, my memory convinced me that there was no way--no friggin' way--I had the presence of mind to record it.

I did record it. The tape exists, and I recently found it, stuffed in a box in my garage. Sometimes you're happy to be wrong.

We played two little excerpts from that tape on our Ramones special. We heard Joey talking about working with General Johnson of the Chairmen of the Board on a beach soul remake of "Rockaway Beach." And we heard Joey talking about his brother, Mickey Leigh:

JOEY: Right now, I’m working on a project with my brother. His name is Mickey Leigh. Years back, he had a band called the Rattlers that a lot of people know about. He’s done a lot of work throughout, working with different people. Like Lester Bangs, he had a band with him called Birdland. I guess he’s had a few bands recently, a band named Tribe, and Crown the Good. But right now, he’s got a new band. I always wanted to work with him because I think he’s a really talented guy, a great songwriter, great guitar player, he’s got a great style, real original and exciting. So, he’s working with kind of a three-piece situation right now. His new songs, I think, are great, and so we decided to do a project together. We’re gonna call it Sibling Rivalry, because that’s how brothers are. It’s a reworked version of Blodwyn Pig’s “See My Way.” It was a very obscure English band, and it’s a great song, and he rearranged it and it’s like much better than the original. So, we’re gonna do the song, take different parts in the vocals. Daniel Rey’s the producer, and it’s comin’ out great.

I loved Joey and Mickey's "See My Way" as soon as I heard it. It was a no-brainer that our Ramones special would include that, as well as the Rattlers' 1979 single "On The Beach," which featured a guest appearance by Joey.

In a tangent unrelated to the book or the radio show, this week I saw a Facebook post from Mickey Leigh, dismissing haters and emphasizing that he and Joey were supporters and fans of each other's work. Joey's comments above prove that was true. So I told Mickey about it.

I don't know Mickey. We're just Facebook friends, and we have had no interaction prior to this. But I was touched beyond description by Mickey's response:

"Don't know whether to smile or cry. But I gotta say THANK YOU for this and I'm so glad I just happened to catch it!!"

Man. How often do you get a chance to offer anything--anything--of substance to the family of someone whose work meant such a great deal to your own life? Those opportunities are rare. I'm absolutely delighted I had this chance. You're welcome? No, Mickey--thank YOU.

RONNIE SPECTOR: She Talks To Rainbows

This Ramones tribute's concept required examples of a lot of other artists covering Ramones songs. We needed to hear the Ramones Songbook as interpreted by Rockaway Bitch, KISS, Josie Cotton, the Pretenders, the Flashcubes, Hayley and the Crushers, Miriam, Green Day, Shonen Knife, Weird Al Yankovic, P. J. Soles, and more. And we needed to hear Veronica. We needed Ronnie Spector.

Without checking pesky things like, y'know, facts, my memory says the late, great Ronnie Spector released a total of three Ramones covers. The first was, I think, an early '80s cover of "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow." And Spector's Joey Ramone-produced EP She Talks To Rainbows offered two more Ramonesongs, the title tune and "Bye Bye Baby."

"Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" is represented on this playlist with a performance by the late Lisa Marie Presley. Ronnie sings "She Talks To Rainbows." Joey approved. So do we. 

THE RAMONES: I Wanna Be Sedated [Ramones-On 45 Mega-Mix!]

One doesn't normally associate the Ramones with extended dance mixes. That seeming dichotomy works to perfection in "I Wanna Be Sedated [Ramones-On-45 Mega-Mix!]."

It's loud. It's danceable. It's the bubblepunk of the Ramones caught makin' out with club chicks. It's "I Wanna Be Sedated" set to a heavier beat, with bits of "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Teenage Lobotomy," and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" edited in, peppered with prerequisite dance-mix Sensurround moves, but retaining a far-from-sedate line-of-sight with the purity of the Ramones.

I should hate this. I freakin' love it. Awright, all you punks 'n' bumpin' bunnies alike: we can't control our fingers, we can't control our brains. Can't control our feets, either. BAMbambumpbam, ba-bambambumpbam. We know what we want.

THE SIMPSONS [THE RAMONES WITH HARRY SHEARER]: Happy Birthday, Mr. Burns

From the book:

CC: How did the Ramones’ appearance on The Simpsons come about?

MARKY: The guy who runs the show, or who is in charge of the show, is a fan. He wanted a song, so he found out that we were in New York, and he came down to the studio and asked us to say a few lines. So, we said our lines and he recorded them. He took some photos back, and they worked on the photos on how supposedly we looked to the artist there. And that’s how we got on the show. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Mr. Burns.

CC: It’s like the Standells appearing on The Munsters. It’s a classic moment in TV history.

MARKY: That was great. Do you remember F Troop? They had a thing with “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

CC: Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember that.

MARKY: That was wild. That was funny.

JOHNNY: I don’t know who got it for us. They just did it, and we went to the studio on Fourteenth Street, said our lines, recorded “Happy Birthday.” It took us longer to figure out how to play “Happy Birthday” than it did to record it. It became difficult to play because you only hear it a cappella. Took us a while to figure it out, fooling around with it for about half an hour or an hour, which is long.

C .J.: The Simpsons I wasn’t surprised about. They have a lot of bands, like underground type bands on it, not even underground, like, you can’t call the Chili Peppers and AC/DC underground, but you can call them, like, I don’t know. I could just picture us being more on The Simpsons than I could on the Leno show, which we also did.

CC: Still, after all these years, the Ramones never appeared on Saturday Night Live, which I find amazing.

C. J.: Isn’t that incredible or what? 

C. J., "incredible" ain't the half of it. Smithers, have the SNL guys, er...well, inconvenience them a little, anyway. No need to get rough.

AMY RIGBY: Dancing With Joey Ramone

"RAMONES" by Mötorhead and "Dancing With Joey Ramone" by Amy Rigby are the two all-time finest tributes to the Ramones. As I said yesterday, not even celestial intervention could have kept either track out of our Ramones special. Rigby's song earns a chapter in my long-threatened next book, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Does Amy Rigby dream about the Ramones? We have a song here that says she does, and her autobiography Girl To City suggests it as well. Rigby was an active and avid fan of the scenes at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City in the '70s and '80s, and if the folkier and janglier aspects of her music seem to separate her muse from the grunge of Bowery and Bleecker, rest assured that muse wears a leather jacket, chain-smokes, and swears like a muthuh. Seriously: do not cross Amy Rigby's muse. That damned muse will cut you as soon as look at you.

But "Dancing With Joey Ramone" does not concern itself with the perceived seamier aspects of punk or underground pop. It is a bittersweet (mostly sweet) celebration of the joy within the Ramones' music. It borders on the giddy, in a good way, delighting in the thrill of dancing with the departed Joey, trying to copy every move he makes, swaying to the sounds of the Temptations, the Crystals, the Dave Clark Five, the Searchers, the Ronettes, the Coasters, the Shadows of Knight, the Brooklyn Bridge, and "Hanging On The Telephone," by Blondie or the Nerves, or both. It is engaging and happy, human, a fond and fanciful remembrance of a unique singer taken from this mortal world before the world ever quite got around to showing its appreciation for his work. Well, we closed our eyes for a minute, and then he was gone.

But it is as Amy says: the music kept playing, on and on and on and on. It plays still. Amy Rigby understands. The dream of the dance. You know how dreams are. 

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

The Ramones' final album, 1995's ¡Adios Amigos!, opens with this line-in-the-sand statement of intent, a Ramonesified cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up." And I take great satisfaction in the fact that a track on the very last Ramones record is among my all-time Fave Raves, right alongside the irresistible music on the Ramones' first four albums at the end of the '70s. Grow up? As if.

We're told that growing up is inevitable. It isn't. We age, sure, but there's more to life and living than the accumulation of calendar pages. What do you want to be when you grow up? When I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. Somewhere along the way, I figured out I could be a better writer if skipped the maturity phase entirely. Honestly, I don't think I could have hacked adulting. Grow up! I say no. Why on Earth would I ever wanna do that?

Understand: I'm not Peter Pan, nor do I wish to be. I have responsibilities, and I carry them out. That's part of the deal, and that's cool. We can accomplish stuff, serious shit, without abandoning the sense of glee that helped get us this far.

Because I am proudly and emphatically a 63-year-old kid who still dreams, still reads superhero comic books, still listens to my rockin' pop music a little louder than I should. 

And I wrote a book. It's a book crafted by the wide-eyed spark that's always driven me, whether I was a six-year-old discovering Batman or a teenager hearing "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" for the first time.

As always: Growing up is for squares, man. The Ramones weren't gonna do it. We don't have to do it either. Don't want to. Won't need to. Ain't gonna.

IN-PERSON EVENT! On June 29, I will be making an in-store appearance at GENERATION RECORDS, 210 Thompson Street in NYC on behalf of my  new book GABBA GABBA HEY! A CONVERSATION WITH THE RAMONES. The book contains my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., which were cited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as essential reading. I'll be at Generation to chat with fellow Ramones fans, talk about the book, the interviews, and how the music of the Ramones impacted my life. If you are in the New York area on June 29th, I would love to see you at Generation Records. Hey-ho, let's GO! 

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

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