Commando

by Johnny Ramone

  Johnny, Tommy, and Dee Dee. Ramones instore signing at Licorice Pizza, Los Angeles, August 26, 1976. Photo by Jenny Lens. © JRA LLC. All rights reserved.

  Eddie Vedder and Theo Epstein wearing the wig. Used courtesy JRA LLC photo archives. All rights reserved.

  Photo by Dave Toussaint (www.photographersnature.com), under license to JRA LLC. All rights reserved.

  On Johnny’s plot at Hollywood Forever, a cemetery off Santa Monica Boulevard, the same one where Dee Dee was buried in 2002, stands an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of Johnny. “It’s me from the guitar up“ is how Johnny described it a month before he died.

  Carved in the base of the monument is a simple statement, dictated by Johnny: “If a man can tell if he’s been successful in his life by having great friends, then I have been very successful.”

  EPILOGUE

  JOHNNY WAS A DEAR FRIEND. HE WAS GROUCHY, HE WAS LOYAL, kindhearted, soft on the inside, set in his ways, and well … grouchy :) We were similar, which is why we got along so well. He took a paternal role in my life, and I respected and loved him dearly. Johnny handpicked certain people to be in his orbit, and I feel fortunate to have been one of them.

  The day Johnny died, in his chair at his Los Angeles home, was one of the most incredulous, fantastic, and macabre experiences of my life. He waited until his orbit of loved ones was surrounding him, and then he let go … Linda (his wife), Eddie Vedder, John Frusciante, Vincent Gallo, Steve Jones, Rob Zombie, Pete Yorn, and my husband and I all gathered around him for hours, telling stories into the night, saying our farewells, laughing, crying, and sitting around him—even sitting around him while watching the coverage on the news that he had passed away. It was incredibly profound and comforting. It was a punk rock and rock and roll version of the movie The Big Chill.

  He was taken away and cremated the next morning. It was very much like an Irish wake and exactly the way Johnny would have wanted it to be. It is also how he liked things to be in life—surrounded by who and what he liked—and it was punk rock. I will never forget that, and I will never forget him … He was a legend, a good friend, and well … he was grouchy :)

  —Lisa Marie Presley

  Johnny and Lisa Marie, 2001.

  On January 14, 2005, the eight-foot-tall bronze Johnny Ramone Memorial Statue was unveiled by Johnny’s wife and companion of over two decades, Linda Ramone. (From left to right) Eddie Vedder, Rob Zombie, Nicolas Cage, Linda Ramone, John Frusciante, Vincent Gallo, Pete Yorn, Tommy Ramone, CJ Ramone, Lisa Marie Presley and husband Michael Lockwood, and Seymour Stein. Used courtesy JRA LLC photo archives. All rights reserved.

  RAMONES | Grade: A

  After each take, the engineers would ask if I wanted to hear it back, and I’d ask them how it sounded.

  “It sounded good.”

  So I just said, “OK, let’s keep going.” I didn’t need to hear it back. I wanted to move on.

  We did all our tracks in two days at Radio City Music Hall. We were rushing because I knew we would have to pay back the money that we’d bought the new equipment with, so the less time it took, the cheaper it was. We got this done for sixty-five hundred dollars, which was cheap even then.

  It slowed down when it came time for Joey to do the vocals. He recorded them once, then he did them all over again. He said he had a cold the first time. I think we wasted some money there, but he may have really been sick. It was winter.

  They put the guitar in one channel, which I thought was weird. I didn’t like it, but others were OK with it, so I let it go. The mix for the first album has the guitar in one channel and the bass in the other. So, if you listen to the album and mute your left speaker, you’ll just hear guitar without bass. If you mute the right, you’ll just hear the bass without guitar.

  I had these brand-new Marshall amps that had been bought for us after we’d signed the contract, but I got into the studio and didn’t know what to do. I had the amps and some brand-new guitars and a new playing field. This album was vastly different from the fourteen-song demo we had recorded at some studio on Long Island, where we just plugged in and played the set. They put me in a different room to record the guitar, which I thought was strange but found out later was normal. The songs had all been written fairly quickly when we’d gotten together to rehearse from the beginning.

  “Blitzkrieg Bop” was our “Saturday Night,” you know, that song by the Bay City Rollers. We had to have some kind of chant just like they did. Dee Dee’s work there. We’d heard the Bay City Rollers doing “Saturday Night.” And we thought that was our competition. So we had to come up with a song that had a chant because they had one too. It’s funny, I originally wanted to be a ballplayer, and now they play “Blitzkrieg Bop” at a lot of the parks. They play it at Yankee Stadium all the time.

  To date, the Ramones’ 1976 self-titled debut remains the best-selling album in the band’s entire catalog, worldwide, surpassed in sales only by the greatest hits compilation RamonesMania.

  RAMONES

  RELEASED: April 23, 1976, Sire Records

  REISSUED: June 19, 2001, Warner

  Archives / Rhino

  Produced by Craig Leon; recorded at Plaza Sound, Radio City Music Hall, New York City. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.

  Blitzkrieg Bop • Beat on the Brat • Judy Is a Punk • I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend • Chain Saw • Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue • I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement • Loudmouth • Havana Aff air • Listen to My Heart • 53rd & 3rd • Let’s Dance • I Don’t Wanna Walk Around with You • Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World

  Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (demo) • Judy Is a Punk (demo) • I Don’t Care (demo) • I Can’t Be (demo) • Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (demo) • I Don’t Wanna Be Learned/ I Don’t Wanna Be Tamed (demo) • You Should Never Have Opened That Door (demo) • Blitzkrieg Bop (single version)

  LEAVE HOME | Grade: A

  We recorded the first two albums in the order we wrote them. All of those songs were already written by the time we signed to Sire. We wanted the second album to be a little different from the first, which is why we didn’t really mix up the songs between the two. If we had, our first two albums would have sounded very similar. By recording and releasing them this way, there was a slight progression in the songs, and our ability, from one album to the next. You could hear our development. Some of these we couldn’t have done on the first album. But we were better players, faster and more skilled at this point. We used the normal stereo mix, with the guitar and bass in both channels this time, rather than the split-channel mix that our first album had.

  We wrote a lot of the music for this album in my apartment in Forest Hills, all four of us sitting around and me with an unplugged electric guitar, playing into a cassette deck. We kept playing a lot of these songs in our live show right to the end.

  A lot of people listen to music and, though they may not be conscious of it, its influence comes out when they write their own songs. Well, when I listened to songs, I couldn’t play them back even if I wanted to, so they always came out different. I wrote the song “Carbona Not Glue” after listening to an Eddie Cochran album. But I don’t think you can hear that in there. The Carbona company made us pull the song from the album. They didn’t want us singing about sniffing the stuff, but I thought the song was funny. I sniffed Carbona a couple of times. It was worse than glue. We replaced the song with “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” on the American repressings and “Babysitter” on the others. So because of this, there were three different vinyl versions of Leave Home in print between the United States and Europe.

  LEAVE HOME

  RELEASED: February 1977, Sire Records

  REISSUED: June 19, 2001, Warner Archives / Rhino

  Produced by Tony Bongiovi and Tommy Erdelyi; recorded at Sundragon, New York. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.

  Glad to See You Go • Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment • I Remember You • Oh Oh I Love Her So �
� Carbona Not Glue • Suzy Is a Headbanger • Pinhead • Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy • Swallow My Pride • What’s Your Game • California Sun • Commando • You’re Gonna Kill That Girl • You Should Never Have Opened That Door

  Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: Babysitter • Recorded live at the Roxy, Hollywood, CA, 8/12/76): Loudmouth • Beat on the Brat • Blitzkrieg Bop • I Remember You • Glad to See You Go • Chain Saw • 53rd & 3rd • I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend • Havana Affair • Listen to My Heart • California Sun • Judy Is a Punk • I Don’t Wanna Walk Around with You • Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World • Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue • Let’s Dance

  ROCKET TO RUSSIA | Grade: A+

  This was the best Ramones album, with the classics on it. The band had reached its peak both in the studio and live. This one has one great song after another, most of them written between our first and second albums. It has just the right balance of slow songs, ballads, and rockers. I loved “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow.” “I Don’t Care” was actually one of our first songs, and we played that before we ever recorded anything. From here on, we played pretty much this whole album live. The band was getting along great. I loved the back cover. John Holmstrom did the artwork and I worked with him on some of the ideas, doing the drawing with a military theme and playing into my strong anti-Communist stance in a cartoonish manner.

  I wanted drawings to represent all of the songs on the inside sleeve, and I had the concept for the back cover too. I asked for a pinhead riding a rocket over a cartoon map of the world. There were specific details I wanted on the map too, like the Empire State Building for New York, and the Capitol building for Washington, D.C.

  As of the time of this writing, the original artwork is on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

  ROCKET TO RUSSIA

  RELEASED: October 28, 1977, Sire Records

  REISSUED: June 19, 2001, Warner Archives / Rhino

  Produced by Tony Bongiovi and Tommy Erdelyi; recorded at Media Sound, New York. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.

  Cretin Hop • Rockaway Beach • Here Today, Gone Tomorrow • Locket Love • I Don’t Care • Sheena Is a Punk Rocker • We’re a Happy Family • Teenage Lobotomy • Do You Wanna Dance? • I Wanna Be Well • I Can’t Give You Anything • Ramona • Surfin’ Bird • Why Is It Always This Way?

  Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: Needles & Pins (early version) • Slug (demo) • It’s a Long Way Back to Germany (U.K. B-side) • I Don’t Care (single version) • Sheena Is a Punk Rocker (single version)

  ROAD TO RUIN | Grade: A

  The production on this is the best of all of them, and there are so many good songs on it. “I Wanted Everything,” “Bad Brain,” “Go Mental”—they’re all great songs, so great that I can’t narrow it down to my favorite. Joey came to rehearsal with “I Wanna Be Sedated” and played it for us on his one-string guitar. He had it all together, the verse, the chorus, the arrangement.

  By this time, I didn’t have a guitar at home, so I would show up fifteen minutes early to rehearsal and start working on something, and sometimes I’d work on new material in a dressing room somewhere. I’d come up with a rhythm and then find a chord combination I liked. It’s possible that I wrote the same song a few times, which, when it was pointed out, I would concede. I played acoustic guitar on a few songs here. Ed Stasium did the fills on some of those more country-sounding songs, like “Questioningly,” a song I didn’t like. Ed was into the Eagles and stuff, so that worked. The recording process got a little longer, and the price went up, from the sixty-five hundred dollars on our first one to about thirty thousand dollars at this point. This was the last of the great Ramones albums until Too Tough to Die.

  ROAD TO RUIN

  RELEASED: September 22, 1978, Sire Records

  REISSUED: June 19, 2001, Warner Archives / Rhino

  Produced by T. Erdelyi and Ed Stasium; recorded at Media Sound, New York. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.

  I Just Want to Have Something to Do • I Wanted Everything • Don’t Come Close • I Don’t Want You • Needles and Pins • I’m Against It • I Wanna Be Sedated • Go Mental • Questioningly • She’s the One • Bad Brain • It’s a Long Way Back

  Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: I Want You Around (Ed Stasium version) • Rock ’n’ Roll High School (Ed Stasium version) • Blitzkrieg Bop-Teenage Lobotomy-California Sun-Pinhead-She’s the One (live) • Come Back, She Cried A.K.A. I Walk Out (demo) • Yea, Yea (demo)

  END OF THE CENTURY | Grade: B

  These were really good songs that were marred by the production of Phil Spector, who, ironically, was supposed to deliver the Ramones’ first hit record. It’s interesting that the songs were this strong, because it was really the first time we had to write an entire album from scratch. We had the luxury of having songs already written on the first few records. Some of the songs here came out muddy, like on “Rock ’n’ Roll Radio,” which Joey wrote and is a great song. I can’t hear my guitar on it. Same with “I’m Affected.” The record took four to six weeks to do, and I left just as it started because my father died.

  Nothing is bad on this record, and I’d like to hear it with different production. There are other high points, like “Chinese Rock,” which I didn’t want to do at first because it was about dope. Then I realized that it was just a good song after the Heartbreakers did it on L.A.M.F.“Let’s Go” is a song that Dee Dee and I wrote about the Vietnam War, another song about war. I enjoyed handling that subject in a heroic way, rather than a protest way.

  The low point was “Baby, I Love You,” which the band didn’t even play on. It was the band’s worst moment ever. The only extra guitar stuff is some of the overdubs done by Ed Stasium, and I didn’t have much input on that this time.

  END OF THE CENTURY

  RELEASED: January 30, 1980, Sire Records

  REISSUED: August 20, 2002, Warner Archives / Rhino

  Produced by Phil Spector. Recorded at Gold Star Studios, Los Angeles; Devonshire Sound Studios, Salty Dog Studios, and Original Sound Studios. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.

  Do You Remember Rock ’n’ Roll Radio? • I’m Affected • Danny Says • Chinese Rock • The Return of Jackie and Judy • Let’s Go • Baby, I Love You • I Can’t Make It on Time • This Ain’t Havana • Rock ’n’ Roll High School • All the Way • High Risk Insurance

  Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: I Want You Around (soundtrack version) • Danny Says (demo) • I’m Affected (demo) • Please Don’t Leave (demo) • All the Way (demo) • Do You Remember Rock ’n’ Roll Radio? (demo)

  Alternate shot—with leather jackets on—from End of the Century album cover photo shoot. Photo © Mick Rock, used under license to JRA, LLC. All rights reserved.

  PLEASANT DREAMS | Grade: B-

  One of the first things that happened when we got to the studio was that the producer, Graham Gouldman, said, “What’s that humming noise?” Well, it was my guitar, just like it always sounded. He told me to fix that, and so I knew that things weren’t going to go well. I mean, he was from 10cc. On top of that, nobody in the band was speaking, and I didn’t write any songs with Dee Dee, so it has no real punk songs on it; it’s too light. There are keyboards in there, and I don’t have a problem with that when they’re called for. The single was “We Want the Airwaves,” and I didn’t like that song. My favorite on here is “The KKK Took My Baby Away,” which we did live for a long time. The Linda issue was big by this time too, and when Gouldman wanted to go to England to mix it, Joey went with him for whatever reason. He took Linda too, which I wasn’t pleased about. Also, on this record we all went into the studio at the same time. It was awkward, since we weren’t talking to each other. This is not one of my favorites, to say the least.

  PLEASANT DREAMS

  RELEASED: July 15, 1981, Sire Records

  REISSUED: August 20, 2002, Warner Archives / Rhino

  Produced
by Graham Gouldman; recorded at Media Sound, New York City. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.

  We Want the Airwaves • All’s Quiet on the Eastern Front • The KKK Took My Baby Away • Don’t Go • You Sound Like You’re Sick • It’s Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World) • She’s a Sensation • 7-11 • You Didn’t Mean Anything to Me • Come On Now • This Business Is Killing Me • Sitting in My Room

  Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: Touring (1981 version) • I Can’t Get You out of My Mind • Chop Suey (alternate version) • Sleeping Troubles (demo) • Kicks to Try (demo) • I’m Not an Answer (demo) • Stares in This Town (demo)

  Photo by Danny Fields. Under exclusive license to JRA LLC. All rights reserved.

  SUBTERRANEAN JUNGLE | Grade: B

  It was kind of a good time. Dee Dee and I were working together. Linda had just moved out of Joey’s place on Ninth Street and Third Avenue, and we had gotten an apartment together on Twenty-second Street. My personal life was starting to come together. We were having trouble with Mark because his drinking problem was really bad. So we did “Time Has Come Today” with a different drummer, Billy Rogers, from Walter Lure’s band. We did three covers, and we shouldn’t have, but I was happy with the guitar sound on it. We were going in the right direction with this record. We did a cover of “Indian Giver,” and the producers didn’t like it, which I think was because they had worked on the original, by the 1910 Fruitgum Company. I was watching the Brewers-Cardinals World Series when we were recording it.