We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of the publication of my first book, Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones. The book's official publication date was May 9th of 2023, but it was already out and about by late April of that year. The book is still available from publisher Rare Bird Books, and you can still purchase autographed copies directly from me.
The book collected my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., the four headbangers that represented the Ramones' final line-up. A condensed version of these interviews was published in Goldmine in 1994, and later cited as "essential reading" by The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame when the Ramones were indicted in 2002. I am very proud of this work, and I'm grateful to Rare Bird Books for allowing me to preserve and expand upon it.
Two years on, let's look back at how the book ends. This is the book's coda, my closing arguments after Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J. have had their say and we have bid them all a fond ¡Adios Amigos!
CODA:
Chewin' Out A Rhythm On My Bubblegum
Joey Ramone did not live to see the Ramones become icons of pop culture. Today, the music of the Ramones is routinely heard in TV commercials and sitcom soundtracks. There was at one point plans for Martin Scorcese to direct a Ramones biopic, and at this writing Netflix is developing a 2022 movie based on Joey's brother Mickey Leigh's autobiography I Slept With Joey Ramone, with Pete Davidson as Joey. The world has changed since the end of the '70s and the end of the century.
Although Joey passed before the Ramones' popular ascension, he was able to see the trend in that direction; he saw the magazine articles, the comments from other artists acknowledging a debt to the Ramones, and he was aware of the demand for more Ramones shows. He was too sick to consider a Ramones reunion for one more tour, or even just one more show.
Joey may have...strike that, he probably expected his group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he certainly believed they were worthy. The Ramones were first eligible for induction in 2001, the year Joey died. He passed in the spring, and the Ramones were among the winners when the Hall announced its honorees later in the year.
The induction ceremony was in 2002, as the Ramones were celebrated alongside fellow new inductees Gene Pitney, Isaac Hayes, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, and Stax Records visionary Jim Stewart. In his speech inducting the Ramones, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder said, "the Ramones were our Beatles."
The Hall officially inducted Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy, and Marky; latter-day Ramones Richie and C.J. were snubbed, in spite of Johnny's righteous insistence that they were Ramones, too. They should have been recognized as such.
In accepting the induction, Tommy said, "This means a lot to us. It meant everything to Joey." Dee Dee thanked himself. Johnny said "God bless President Bush." A dysfunctional family to the end. Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz was asked if the Ramones would join the Hall of Fame's traditional jam session after the awards. Frantz chuckled, and said, "The Ramones don't jam...!"
Dee Dee succumbed to a heroin overdose in 2002, less than three months after thanking himself at the Hall of Fame. Prostate cancer claimed Johnny in 2004. Tommy died in 2014, also taken by cancer. The four original members of the Ramones are gone, and many have joked that they're together now in the hereafter, still fighting and squabbling as they did in life.
The Ramones battled each other like brudders. But they were indeed brudders, united not by blood but by a bond unique to their experience. Some of them may have denied it, but the bond was there.
In the course of our discussion, Joey made a point of complimenting Johnny's distinctive guitar style, and he made a favorable comparison of Marky to the likes of Ginger Baker. Marky was pleasantly surprised--flabbergasted, really--to hear that Joey had said that.
When Joey died, Johnny said something to the effect that he didn't like Joey, and that he couldn't understand why Joey's death depressed him. After Joey was gone, Johnny told Ramones tour manager Monte Melnick, "I'm not doing anything without him. I felt that was it. He was my partner. Me and him. I miss that."
In my interviews with the Ramones, Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J. spoke on the record. The sole instance where I was asked to take something off the record was one moment--one--when a member of the Ramones made a relatively innocuous personal observation about a bandmate. The remark was factual, and in fact it was discussed openly and on the record by two other Ramones. Nonetheless, the Ramone making the comment thought the comment could seem hurtful, and requested that it be deleted from the transcript. That request stands.
Brudders. Hell, brothers. We will never see their like again.
The few, the proud.
Semper Fi.
Gabba gabba hey.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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