0:00

Hey, disco is Jake Brennan here. DISGRACELAND

0:02

is officially back and episodes can

0:04

now be heard everywhere podcasts

0:06

are available. Spotify, Apple

0:09

Podcasts, Amazon, Stitcher, Google

0:11

Podcasts,

0:11

wherever. To say thank you for listening,

0:14

we are releasing content that was previously only

0:16

available exclusively. Content,

0:18

many of you may have not heard before. You can

0:21

now listen to season seven of DISGRACELAND

0:23

in its entirety. With episodes on

0:25

David Bowie, the Ramones, Lou

0:27

Wayne, The New York Dolls, Little Peep Grant

0:29

Parsons, a previously on her two

0:31

part episode on Tupac, a two parter

0:33

on Biggie, a two parter on Oasis, and a

0:35

two parter on the Beatles. That's fourteen

0:38

total episodes that you could listen to right now

0:40

wherever you get your podcast. Golisen

0:43

right now. DISGRACELAND is

0:45

a production of double Elvis.

1:00

The stories about the Ramones are insane.

1:03

They sniffed glue, bombed on suspecting

1:05

queen's residence with heavy television sets,

1:08

attempted to brain the Beatles with rocks.

1:11

One Ramones locked up in the psych ward,

1:13

another forced to turn tricks for heroin.

1:16

And despite it all as a band, The Ramones

1:18

managed to survive and inspire an entire

1:20

new generation of rock and rollers at

1:23

a time when the genre seemed near dead.

1:26

And man on man did the Ramones make

1:28

great music. Some of the greatest

1:30

music ever made. Unlike that music

1:32

I played for you at the top of the show, That

1:34

wasn't great music. That was a preset

1:37

loop for my melatonin called florescent

1:39

function hall MK2.

1:42

I've played you that loop because I can afford

1:44

the rights to love is alive by Gary

1:46

Wright. And why would I play you

1:48

that specific slice of DreamWeaver

1:51

cheese, could afford it? Because

1:53

that was the number one song in America

1:55

on July fourth nineteen seventy

1:57

six. And that was the day the Ramon's

2:00

first play in London, an act that

2:02

marked the band's first major step

2:04

towards saving rock and roll. On

2:07

this episode, sniffing glue,

2:09

TV box, psych wards, heroin,

2:11

and saving rock and roll with the remotes.

2:14

I'm Jake running, and this

2:17

is this gray land. Nineteen

2:40

sixty seven, summer of love.

2:43

How to sculptor in the coming nihilism

2:45

of the seventies was impossible to imagine,

2:47

yet there was just around the bend.

2:50

Rock and Roll was the most culturally relevant

2:53

it would ever be. Few knew it,

2:55

but Rock and Roll was also taking its first

2:57

steps toward death, toward corporate rock.

2:59

Toward disco. Rock

3:02

music wasn't dead, but it would be soon.

3:04

And so too, would some unlucky hitchhikers

3:06

out on interstate deny between Flint,

3:08

Michigan and South Bend, Indiana. The

3:11

van was an old ship box with a big

3:13

v in a dark cargo area in the back.

3:17

Killing the recent hitchhiker they picked up

3:19

was never the plan. They needed

3:21

one more, a force to help them dispose

3:23

of the body, so he was a recruit,

3:26

not a victim. Plus, they liked him

3:28

straightaway. He had that dumb charm

3:30

about him. His name even sounded

3:32

dumb. Duck. Douglas

3:34

Colvin of Queen's New York.

3:37

The next hitchhiker they encountered though wouldn't

3:39

be so lucky. He or she would be decapitated,

3:42

garided with a thin wire and two hoops,

3:45

fuck them whoever they were they deserved it. Society

3:48

didn't so its children would not be spared.

3:53

But first, some smokes were needed. Doug

3:55

Colvin breathed the sigh of relief. Wasn't

3:58

going in for all this crazy murder talk.

4:00

He just needed a ride out west

4:02

away from his mom and queens who had

4:04

caught the fifteen year old using heroin freaked

4:06

out and provoked this teenage runaway

4:08

act. The van

4:10

rolled into an abandoned roadside gas station

4:12

parking lot. The plan was armed robbery.

4:15

It went nowhere. The would be killers were

4:17

stoned, bumbling marauders who were rounded

4:19

up by local cops almost as soon as they

4:21

made off from the gas station with the stolen

4:23

goods. Doug was thrown into

4:25

jail with his accomplices for armed robbery.

4:28

Instinctively, the cops knew he was

4:30

not like the others and showed mercy.

4:32

They gave him as many as ten phone calls to

4:34

try and contact an adult or guardian

4:36

who arranged his release. They weren't

4:38

even gonna try him. They just didn't want to release him

4:40

back into the wild on his own. Which

4:42

is exactly what they ended up doing after his

4:44

father when reached by a phone, told Doug,

4:46

fuck you. Rot there. You deserve

4:49

it. He was on his own

4:51

and that was clear. The small town

4:53

cops weren't about to get into the headache of Karen

4:55

for this clearly too dumb to do any harm

4:57

juvenile delinquency. So they just

4:59

let them go after three weeks. Dog

5:01

hitched back to queens. There

5:06

he quickly took up with another local cast off.

5:08

John Cummings. He too was

5:10

fascinated by murder. Charlie

5:12

Starkweather, the nineteen year old Dave's

5:14

team looking psychopath who went on a one

5:16

week midwestern murder spree with his

5:18

fourteen year old girlfriend at the side, killing

5:21

ten people in the process, including

5:23

her family, for no other reason than

5:25

the fact that didn't like him or his teenage

5:27

attitude. John Cummings

5:29

felt that Doug Colvin did too.

5:32

Doug thought it hysterical when the Beatles

5:34

played a Shea Stadium in Queens. John

5:36

Cummings' went and instead of losing his

5:38

mind to the highly contagious beetle mania

5:40

running rampant, focused intently on

5:42

the four lads on stage and try

5:44

to knock any one of them a conscious city

5:46

code with the rocks he was beaming at them from

5:48

the stands. The most celebrated

5:51

band on the planet, in the history of the

5:53

world, in person, the band who would

5:55

inspire the name of his own band less than a decade

5:57

later, and he was throwing stones at them.

5:59

There was no real reason, just

6:01

anger. Jeff Hyman,

6:03

another teenage cast off from Queen's felt

6:05

something else. It was an anger so

6:07

much as it was alienation and heartache.

6:10

Whatever was, that drove them to the margins.

6:12

Forest Hill's queens back in the sixties

6:14

anyway was conservative working in

6:16

middle class. Young boys went to

6:18

school up their hair short, went to college or got

6:20

a job, found a girl, eventually started

6:23

families and kept their mouths shut. All the

6:25

shouting about the warlord, inequality, about

6:27

peace, and about love. That was for the city. That

6:29

was a subway ride in a world away.

6:31

Queens was for working, for raising

6:33

your family. Jeff didn't

6:35

want a family. Even if he did, he

6:37

wouldn't know how to start one. Talking to

6:39

girls was it easy unless they were the girls

6:41

he met in the mental hospital. St.

6:44

Vince where he'd been sent as a teenager

6:46

when his obsessive compulsive kicks, like

6:48

repeatedly getting in and out of bed before

6:50

going to sleep, escalated into

6:52

an undiagnosed case of paranoid

6:54

schizophrenia, a mild

6:56

case quote unquote minimal brain

6:58

damage as a doctor said. Small

7:00

comfort to Jeff's mother who Jeff had pulled

7:02

a knife on during one of his episodes.

7:04

Once he was old enough, she kicked him out of the

7:06

house and he began living in her art gallery.

7:09

Sleeping on the floor alone. For

7:12

Jeff, normal life wasn't even an option.

7:14

So when he brought a girl around to his new

7:16

friends and told him that he matter in the

7:18

bin as in the looney bin. No one was

7:20

that surprised. Cyclotherapy

7:22

had its perks with the thinking, but the

7:24

looney bin was no joke. Jeff

7:26

knew this. Teenage of the bottom is hoisted

7:28

upon teenagers for what they perceived as just

7:30

being misunderstood though. That was

7:32

fucking mess stop. None

7:35

of it made any sense, not to Jeff and

7:37

not to his new friends, John and Doug.

7:39

They rebelled and bonded over music.

7:42

John was in sappath the Ramones, music

7:44

that was as tough and as hard as the

7:46

construction jobs he worked, but

7:48

none of the music it seemed was going

7:50

anywhere. It all felt like part of

7:52

the same thing, the same hippie to be doomed

7:54

to fail experiment. Increasingly,

7:57

it was clear, rock and roll's energy

7:59

was fading. Their

8:01

new friend, Tommy, agreed. He

8:03

would know he was at least in the music

8:06

business. Sort of. He engineered

8:08

some records, even worked on Jimmy Hendrix's band

8:10

of Gypsy Sessions at the record plant in

8:12

Manhattan, which were a kid from Forest

8:14

Hills, was saying something. Far

8:16

as Doug, John and Jeff knew, their new friend Tommy

8:18

might as well have been Phil Spector. They

8:24

love Phil Spector's records. The girl

8:26

group though. They were right now all

8:28

four of them half assing an ocapella

8:30

version of the crystals to do run run.

8:32

Oh, they struggled up the stairway in

8:34

the fifth floor walk up with the twenty five

8:36

inch Filco television set.

8:38

It wasn't a console TV set, but

8:40

it was still heavy as fuck. The

8:42

picture tubes inside these old TVs

8:44

were big, and then the film goes

8:46

problematic. Not like the reliable

8:48

RCAs, the filcos went bust and

8:50

confounded even the best of Forest Hills

8:52

television repairmen. So many of

8:54

the lemons ended up on the bubblegum

8:56

freckled sidewalks of Queens. Waiting

8:59

for some unlucky trash men to haul them

9:01

away. But not as

9:03

Doug, John, Jeff, and Tommy had anything

9:05

to do with The TVs were

9:07

great delinquent father, so up the

9:09

stairwells to the roofs they went.

9:11

After finally squeezing the set up the

9:13

stairs, they held the TV on onto

9:15

the roof. They all knew what they were there

9:17

to do. This is ritual. They'd done it

9:19

before so many times. It was old

9:21

hat. They discussed music,

9:23

noshalad. Rock is dead.

9:25

Tommy said to now on while Jeff continued to

9:27

mobilize the Chorus to the doo run

9:29

run. Yeah, that parroted. And

9:31

he didn't seem too convinced. More

9:33

agreeable, more wanting than the others to

9:35

just be a part of whatever was in the

9:37

air, part of the game. The opposite of

9:39

John who was seen didn't care

9:41

who liked or what people thought of him, not

9:43

even his new friends. They

9:45

pulled the TV over to the edge of the roof,

9:47

John spoke up in transit. Is

9:49

this new band downtown supposed to

9:51

be good? Oh, yeah, as good as

9:53

Del Shannon, Jeff Spada, as good

9:55

as the stooges from Detroit, Douglas.

9:57

Didn't really know how good the studios were. They were

9:59

just something he'd heard some kids downtown talk

10:02

about. If you were being honest, he'd have

10:04

asked if they were as good as the base city

10:06

rollers. He knew about the rollers. He

10:08

loved the rollers, but he wasn't sure if John

10:10

did. It didn't matter. John in Northam

10:12

anyway. They're called the dolls, the

10:14

New York dolls. Before

10:16

the men reached the edge of the roof with the

10:18

TV, they peered over down a

10:20

sidewalk. It was a long

10:22

way down. We should go see them

10:24

play. Oh, yeah. What if these girls there

10:26

Jeff wanted to know as if that would be

10:28

unimaginable? They

10:30

all been down and use them, grip the

10:32

fill cup from the bottom, bent with their knees,

10:34

like only now working men know how

10:36

and heave the heavy television set up

10:38

into the edge of the roof. They

10:41

steadied it and waited for the perfect

10:43

target on the sidewalk below.

10:45

Little old ladies were the best they scared

10:47

easy, dropped their groceries, sometimes

10:49

fell over, most has just stood back

10:51

touching their chest, and catching their breaths and

10:53

looking to bewilder. It was

10:55

hysterical, but new moms were

10:57

even better. They were so tight,

10:59

their little brats wearing them ragged.

11:02

Here came one now, and they

11:04

waited. The show is just supposed to be

11:06

wild, Johnson. I mean, we should really go see

11:08

this band. We should start our

11:10

own band, Tommy. They

11:12

all looked at each other. And then they looked

11:14

out at the bitchy mom and their bratty

11:16

little kid. Tommy's

11:18

suggestion was a good one, and John

11:20

Scowled an agreement. Doug's eyes

11:22

went, why? Jeff nodded. All of them

11:24

looked down onto the sidewalk. Just as the

11:26

mom and the brat walked directly below them

11:28

and then they pushed the

11:30

television set over the of the roof. It

11:33

exploded out of the sidewalk in just over

11:35

a second's time, landing about two

11:37

feet behind the mom. She

11:39

screamed and so did the breath. Doug,

11:41

John, Jeff, and Tommy beat

11:43

it. Jeff

12:01

was fidgeting with a cheap turntable and

12:04

locked in his staying at. His new

12:06

friend, Arturo, was letting him crash.

12:08

Indefinitely. And Jeff who is now

12:10

calling himself Joey was trying to get

12:12

the turntable to play a new prized possession.

12:15

Charles Manson's album, lied.

12:17

The love and terrorical. Look at your

12:19

game girls cease to exist. Heavy

12:21

ship by one of the heaviest and shittiest dudes

12:23

to ever hit the scene. Music

12:25

that seemed dangerous as rock and

12:28

roll was supposed to sound. But

12:30

increasingly, in the early seventies,

12:32

sounded watered down and safe.

12:35

Manson was locked up now, but his music was

12:37

out in the wild, hard to find,

12:39

but Joey managed to snag a copy

12:41

for his collection, which he kept

12:43

meticulously in his OCD way.

12:45

Manson understood girls on a whole

12:47

other level, a level Joey would

12:49

never understand. Girls were a

12:51

mystery. But

12:55

glue was not. And Joey's friend,

12:57

Doug, wanted to sniff some more of it. More and

12:59

more and more for Doug. When he wasn't getting

13:01

high sniffing glue, he was doing

13:03

heroin. Joey heard from a friend that Doug

13:05

was seen out of fifty third and third over

13:07

in the West village standing on the

13:09

corner trying to turn a trick for

13:11

dope. It was a well known pickup

13:13

spot for old money dudes, cruising for

13:15

young men who would trade sex for

13:17

quick cash. Doug did it because he had

13:19

to, because he needed to hit the fountain in

13:21

central park to score dope or the east

13:23

village to score blow. Joey

13:25

didn't judge. Neither did their other

13:27

friends. It was York in the seventies,

13:30

hard as nails, and you had to do what you had to do

13:32

to get by. Doug was seen

13:34

in a way as a badass for being

13:36

able to go through with it. Before

13:38

settling in Forest Hills, Doug was raised

13:40

military brat and post World War two

13:42

Germany by two drunk, disinterested

13:45

parents. Doug had

13:47

toughness brought into him. He learned

13:49

about drugs from the older GIs and he

13:51

learned about rock and roll from radio

13:53

Luxembourg. It's where he first heard

13:55

the Beatles. He was obsessed. His obsession

13:57

uncovered a little nugget about Paul McCartney.

14:00

Paul used the alias Paul Ramones.

14:02

To check-in to hotels and conspicuously.

14:04

Doug thought it was so cool.

14:06

So when he started calling himself Didi,

14:08

he changed last name from Colvin

14:11

to Ramon. And also

14:13

like Paul, Doug started playing

14:15

bass too. That abandoned

14:17

and their after all. So Joey, once Jeff

14:19

Himans, started calling himself Joey

14:21

Ramon. And so too, did their other

14:23

Bandmates John and Tommy. But John

14:26

stacked up next to Tommy Joey, did

14:28

he didn't sound right. So Johnny

14:30

Ramon, it was. It would

14:32

be one of the last compromises Johnny Ramon

14:34

would ever make. He assumed the

14:36

role of band leader immediately. He

14:38

commandeered what would be the Ramon sound

14:40

and image there was a war going on

14:42

after all. Rock and Roll was about to be

14:44

overrun by bloated corporate hacks and

14:46

disco attacks, and their band would have to be

14:48

different if it was gonna save Rock and

14:50

Roll. Have to strip out all the frills, cut

14:52

any and all the fat. Their sound would

14:54

match the physicality, lean, rock

14:56

star skinny, no guitar

14:58

solos, no drum solos, no lose

15:01

influence, no balance. No

15:03

metaphors, no sexual double entendres,

15:05

no dynamics. They would strip all

15:07

the way and break rock and roll down to its

15:10

basic essence, power,

15:12

speed, energy, and volume, and

15:14

blast it back at the audience. When

15:17

at war, you pick a side, join up,

15:19

and in order to distinguish yourself from your

15:21

enemy, you wear a uniform. Joy

15:23

commanded is true deedy, Joey, and

15:25

Tommy to do the sea to dress

15:27

like him, all of them. In

15:29

black leather biker jackets, skin type

15:31

jeans, skin type t shirts, and cheap

15:33

tennis shoes. Keds, not chuck

15:35

Taylor's. They would rely on

15:37

simplicity for their attack, hitting their

15:39

audience head on with a weapon they knew music

15:41

lovers would fall victim to. Something they

15:43

weren't even aware they were missing, pure

15:45

rock and roll, sixties girl group

15:47

in Dell Shannon Melody's, spirited

15:49

beach boys teenage fawn in directness

15:51

in the lyrics not deployed as effectively

15:53

since Didi's Beatles burst on the

15:55

scene with, I wanna hold your hand.

15:57

Didi Johnny and Company would powder

15:59

eleven years later. At their dad's first

16:02

show with songs entitled, I don't wanna

16:04

walk around with you. I don't wanna go down to the

16:06

basement. And of course, now, I

16:08

want us to some glue. They

16:10

call themselves the remote.

16:12

Of course, they get it.

16:16

And their theater

16:18

of war was a little dive on the bower

16:20

he called CPG b's. It was

16:23

tiny, completely ramshackle smelled

16:25

of pissed cheap to get into and cheaper to

16:27

drink in. Other like minded musicians

16:29

had dug into the club as well,

16:31

television, the Patty Smith group, and

16:33

blondie among them. Claiming it as their

16:35

own, separate and apart from whatever was

16:37

happening elsewhere in Manhattan's fast

16:39

declining live music scene. The

16:42

Ramon's first CB said on August

16:44

sixteenth nineteen seventy four was

16:46

welcomed by all in attendance. They

16:48

were as blondies lead singer, Debbie Harry,

16:50

would later remark historical. But

16:52

Johnny didn't see what was so funny.

16:54

He was dead serious and so were

16:56

his bandmates despite the fact that they

16:59

struggled through their set, which took all

17:01

twelve minutes, blasting through their

17:03

songs with manic 1234 count

17:05

offs by Didi and failing equipment in the

17:07

band yelling at one another on

17:09

stage. They looked and sounded

17:11

unlike anything anyone had ever seen

17:13

and were immediately welcomed onto the scene.

17:15

They were clearly onto something.

17:17

They set up shop

17:20

at their friend, Arturo Vega's loft

17:22

around the corner from CPGVs on East

17:25

second Street. In addition to letting Joey

17:27

and Didi squatted his place since SNF

17:29

grew and listened to weird Charles Manson

17:31

records, Arturo designed the

17:33

band's now iconic logo. A

17:35

send up of the presidential see of which

17:37

in August of nineteen seventy

17:39

four, the month of president Richard Nixon's

17:41

resignation was not exactly

17:43

an aspirational association. Deanie,

17:45

if he was grateful for the logo,

17:47

didn't show him. He had other things on his

17:49

mind, like how to get enough money to comp

17:51

dope and stave off his heroin junk.

17:54

Arto's loft

17:56

was on the first floor. The action

17:58

from the street just outside his windows

18:01

was constant. Sirens, violent

18:03

shouting, and the more than occasional brick thrown

18:05

through the window from dealers pissed off

18:07

at Didier's notorious street

18:09

walking force of nature girlfriend. The

18:11

highly destructive cottie. E

18:14

second was loud. It was gonna be one

18:16

of those nights when the street never grossed to

18:18

sea. Did he knew it? He was preparing

18:21

for a long evening. He had no money,

18:23

no dope, no protection, and no one to help.

18:25

Connie was gone, Joey was useless

18:27

Ease second was alive and in his

18:29

head coming for him. And there was nothing he could

18:31

do about it. Couldn't hit the street. Her own

18:34

withdrawals were on their way and they would be

18:36

able to off of severe experiences. Indeedy,

18:38

all one hundred and thirty pounds and

18:40

was ill equipped to deal with the pain.

18:42

The nausea, the sweating, the aching, the

18:45

vomiting. He was helpless. Nothing he

18:47

could do but wait it out.

18:49

Make like his bandmate Johnny and power

18:51

through That gave

18:53

Didi an idea. If he couldn't

18:55

protect himself against the withdrawals,

18:57

he could protect himself against the threat

18:59

of violence outside his window on the

19:01

East Second, at least for a little while.

19:04

He needed a weapon His own

19:06

bricks to fire back out onto the street

19:08

as things got heavy while he swept out as

19:11

Jones. Didi dragged himself to his

19:13

feet and headed out behind Arturo's

19:15

building. And there were loose bricks in the

19:17

backyard. The city had recently done

19:19

some excavating for whatever reason,

19:21

Didi didn't know. He heard there was an

19:23

old graveyard back there, a long

19:26

forgotten city cemetery that had been developed

19:28

over with tenement and loft buildings.

19:31

Years of Manhattan development had

19:33

disrupted the buried bodies in the

19:35

city in order to say space was forced

19:37

to erect to brick wall above the ground in

19:39

Arturo's backyard and rearrange the

19:41

corpses from their horizontal subterranean

19:44

resting place and to upright space

19:46

saving positions inside the brick wall.

19:49

Did he didn't know about all that? Or if he

19:51

did, he didn't care. What he knew

19:53

about was that he needed a

19:55

few bricks. They were none scattered about,

19:57

but the brick wall looked a bit worse for

19:59

wear, like the rest of the

20:01

neighborhood. Didi was starting to

20:03

feel it. The nudge was coming

20:05

on, and so too was a tinge of

20:07

paranoia. Each second was shouting out

20:09

to him like it was coming from, to chew

20:11

him up, to spit him out. One more violent vein

20:13

of this unforgiven godforsaken

20:15

city that in the seventies at least seemed hell

20:17

bent on cannibalizing its

20:19

own. The street sounds were intensifying,

20:22

swirling around Didi. He was

20:24

starting to sweat, to shake,

20:26

these seconds screamed, and

20:28

Didi noticed a loose brick in the wall,

20:30

he started to pull it, shook it a

20:32

bit, wiggled it looser, looser,

20:34

pulling it all the way out of the wall.

20:36

Or the brick finally of loose

20:38

from the wall. So too did the skeletal hand of

20:41

a very old corpse from within the

20:43

wall. The side of the dead hand

20:45

set Didi reeling backward onto

20:47

his ass. He started to shake again,

20:49

but the shakes were more from fear than from

20:51

his heroin challenge. Indeed, he

20:53

was about to sprint to his feet and sprint back loft

20:55

where we noticed on the dead hand hanging out

20:57

of the wall, something shiny,

20:59

two rings, one gold,

21:01

and one diamond. New

21:04

York City, a city that never sleeps, was also

21:06

the unofficial capital of the land

21:08

of opportunity. An opportunity for

21:11

Didi just came

21:13

knocking out of a brick wall. He

21:15

quickly pulled the rings of the dead

21:17

manhattanite's fingers and headed out onto each

21:19

second to pawn them off. Score some dope and

21:21

take care of his Jones. But

21:24

it was clear

21:28

to Didi just as it was to Joey and Johnny and

21:30

Tommy, that in order for the Ramones to

21:32

survive, in order for the Ramones to

21:34

make sure Rock and Roll survived, they'd

21:37

need to survive the squalor of their city.

21:39

And for now, that meant

21:42

retreating. Getting the fuck out of dodge, so

21:44

to speak. And to bring their war to another

21:46

shore. London was

21:48

calling. We'll be

21:51

right back after

21:53

this word, word, word.

21:55

Hey, DISGRACELAND is

21:57

available everywhere you get podcasts

21:59

on every single platform Spotify

22:01

stitcher Amazon

22:02

Music, the iHeartRadio app, Google

22:05

Podcasts. Over the last two years, we've

22:07

made a lot of content. Content

22:09

that a lot of you have not yet heard, and we're

22:11

gonna be releasing most of it over the coming

22:13

days, weeks, and months. Right now, you

22:15

can go listen to season seven in its

22:18

entirety. With episodes on David Bowie, the Ramones, Ramones,

22:20

The New York Dolls, Little Peep, Grand Parsons,

22:22

and we have deep dives on two

22:24

poth and Biggie

22:24

Smalls, plus a two part episode

22:27

on Oasis, and their inspiration, the

22:29

Beatles. These are some of my favorite

22:31

episodes and you can listen to them right now

22:33

wherever you get your podcasts. Ramones

22:36

were nervous. Playing outside of

22:38

New York City was no easy task. The

22:41

sting of being booed off stage in

22:43

Wattenberg, Connecticut on their first

22:45

venture town opening for Johnny Winter of all

22:47

people. It never left. This

22:49

was supposed to be different though. The

22:51

remodels weren't opening for some tired

22:53

bloated rock and roll dinosaur. They're opening for

22:55

the flaming grooves, a West Coast

22:58

American rock band with jumped up

23:00

teenage energy in style. Plus,

23:02

the flaming grooves were of somebody's. Ramones

23:05

to their estimation anyway were

23:08

nobody's. Their self titled debut album had

23:10

the release that spring in

23:12

April of nineteen seventy six on

23:14

Sire records. Their friends liked it

23:16

as well as a few critics, but out of

23:18

the gate, Despite being a shotgun

23:20

blast of pure rock and roll for a new

23:22

era and hardening a newfound

23:24

energy and directness and image

23:26

sorely missing in rock and roll at

23:28

the time. Despite saying rock and roll is here to stay

23:30

with songs that barely made it past

23:32

the two minutes and thirty second mark and

23:34

said everything they needed to say in that

23:36

time despite all of that.

23:38

Album that listed fourteen tracks and clocked

23:40

in at just twenty nine minutes and four seconds,

23:43

despite that, despite the

23:45

no frills, the no fat, the fucking

23:47

around no one cared or

23:49

so the Ramones thought.

23:54

When they arrived in London at the

23:56

roundhouse where they were performing that night, they

23:58

headed to the back of the venue to enter through

24:00

the backstage door and they're waiting

24:02

for them at the end of the dark alley

24:04

were four menacing looking

24:06

figures, blocking their entrance, standing

24:08

their ground, and they were in

24:10

leather looking or trying at

24:12

least to look every bit as tough as the New York Street

24:14

gangs that they believe spawn the Ramones

24:17

they were there to confront.

24:20

Hey, one of them yelled before remodels got too

24:22

close. Tommy Ramones stared at shake.

24:24

He popped into the value.

24:26

Didi was amused guys kinda looked like

24:28

they did. Joey seemed non

24:31

plus. Johnny was ready to

24:33

pummel them and any other dumb Brit Fox who got

24:35

in the way of him doing his job that

24:37

night. And before he could, one of

24:39

them spoke up again. Or the

24:41

clash, man, and we're gonna be bigger than

24:44

anybody. It was a weird comment. A weird

24:46

way to start a fight and also a weird way to

24:48

introduce yourself. Ramones ignored

24:50

it once they realized there was no real threat

24:52

and skirted around the minute of the club.

24:55

Clash were clearly confused. All

24:57

that leather, the iconic presidential looking

25:00

logo. The Ramon's must have been a

25:02

game. No? And their modes didn't know or

25:04

really care what the clash were thinking. They

25:06

had a show to him. Once

25:08

safely ensconced in their dressing room, where

25:10

it started traveling back to the band from

25:13

their room, knowing about the venue in the back alley, loading

25:15

in gear, and getting set up for the

25:17

gig. People were saying that all these local

25:19

kids, cool looking kids, clearly

25:21

seen Stares. They were showing up early and

25:23

wanting to get backstage to meet the band, to meet

25:25

the remote. One of them,

25:27

John Madden, asked their tour of Vegas if

25:29

he could get back to meet the remote.

25:31

Arturo said sure. John wanted to know if the

25:33

ruins are gonna beat him up when he went back

25:35

there. What the fuck was going on?

25:38

The Ramon's reputation or rather their image

25:40

in their sound preceded them.

25:42

Tough, street, hard,

25:44

fast, violent, even, no fucking

25:47

around. They brought all that on to the stage room

25:49

that night in front of two thousand people

25:51

and crushed. The crowd loved

25:53

them. The band encored three times and

25:55

they weren't even the headliner. It

25:57

was July fourth nineteen seventy six,

26:00

America's two hundredth birthday, and the Ramones

26:02

had made sure that American rock and roll

26:04

had conquered London would never be the

26:06

same. Hell the world would never be the

26:08

same. In the audience

26:10

side, right? In addition to the clash in

26:12

John Leiden, who would go on the

26:14

front sex pistols as Jotti Rotten when his band made

26:16

so vicious. There are also members of the

26:18

band, the pretenders, the Adverts, and

26:21

generation x. Later

26:26

during their stint in London, as members of

26:28

the clash and the sex pistols cozied up

26:30

to their new American rock and roll saviors in the

26:33

Ramones. Johnny Ramon played the role

26:35

of Mentor. Mick Jones and Paul

26:37

Simnan of the Clash told Johnny that

26:39

Now that we've seen you, we're gonna be a

26:42

band. And Joe's strummer word allowed

26:44

to Johnny that the clash would lousy and that

26:46

they couldn't play. Johnny told him that if wait

26:48

until you can play, you'll be too old

26:50

to get up there. The clash

26:52

took Johnny Ramon's advice and became one

26:54

of the most consequential rock and roll

26:57

of all time and the only ban that mattered.

26:59

And the sex pistols took note

27:02

too, bases said vicious followed

27:04

DD around everywhere a month. He

27:06

was obsessed with Didi's look, his playing, his

27:08

attitude, his entire vibe, and Sid was

27:10

eager to impress. To show Didi

27:12

that he was as rock and roll as

27:15

he was, At a party, Sid

27:17

was set on shooting some speed with

27:19

Didi. They hit the bathroom.

27:21

It was disgusting. It was feces

27:23

and puke everywhere. Never

27:25

mind the piss. The toilets were completely overflowing

27:28

with all three. The sinks were broken

27:30

and Sid needed liquid to mix the

27:32

speed to shoot it from the syringe into

27:34

their arms. He looked

27:36

around, thought about it, said fuck it, dip the

27:38

syringe into the shit and puke

27:40

filled toilet. Vac end up whatever liquid

27:42

he could into the syringe, shook it to

27:44

mix the speed, pointed the syringe

27:46

into the crease of his arm and

27:48

injected it contents. Didi

27:50

Ramon, who wasn't shocked easily,

27:52

was speechless. The Ramon's

27:54

with their high octane rock and roll, their

27:56

old school rock and attitude. They're

27:58

completely over the top and outrageously straight ahead rock

28:01

and roll intensity, had inspired

28:03

something beyond their wildest dreams.

28:05

In London at least, rock

28:08

and roll it seemed was very

28:10

much alive. Travelling

28:36

from show to show on a van, four guys,

28:38

maybe a road manager and or a roadie

28:40

plus a random group of your girlfriend.

28:43

It may sound glamorous, but it gets

28:45

old quick, especially because

28:47

you and your bandmates, despite your

28:49

best intentions, are getting old

28:52

quick. There is no way to stave off

28:54

father time, but success helps.

28:56

And for Rock Band, success usually

28:58

means a graduation from the van to a

29:00

bus or maybe even a jet. But not

29:02

for the Ramones. Back in the

29:05

states, Johnny sat in the passenger seat.

29:07

It was so he could control the radio

29:09

among other things. Whenever

29:11

Paul possible they listened to the baseball game.

29:13

Johnny's beloved Yankee's. Aside

29:15

from his bandmates by his estimation, Johnny

29:18

didn't truck with no forest hills losers

29:20

like the Mats. And that's just what the remodels Ramones,

29:23

losers. They'd saved rock

29:25

and roll inspired millions including

29:27

it seemed all of London, motivating scores

29:29

of young talented musicians to pick up

29:31

arms in the fight to bring rock back from

29:34

the brink. The clash, sex

29:36

pistols generation x, and they did the

29:38

same back home in the states with the

29:40

runaways among others. They

29:42

were beyond the tri state area

29:44

now, the yankee game had long since

29:46

fitted. Johnny futz with the radio

29:48

dial. He stopped when he came upon

29:50

the clash his rock the He

29:52

left the song play even though it annoyed the

29:54

hell out of him. The fact that the clash, a

29:56

band he himself encouraged to get up

29:58

on stage was being played on mainstream

30:01

radio even more in something on MTV,

30:03

while the remodels were forced to tool around New

30:05

England in a dirty van

30:07

effectively singing for their supper, drove

30:09

him nuts. Nonetheless,

30:11

you let the song play out.

30:13

The next tune to break through the speakers was

30:15

eyes without a face by Billy Idol, formerly

30:17

of generation x, another UK punk

30:20

musician who owed his career to the Ramones

30:22

by Johnny's thinking anyway. His

30:24

blood boiled. He went to

30:26

changed the channel. And Didi protested, Johnny told

30:28

Nicole fuck himself and changed it anyway.

30:31

Up the dial, he went. Soon, the

30:33

caveman beat for Joan Jed

30:35

I love rock and roll blasted back at them. It

30:37

was too much. Another one, Johnny

30:39

shut the radio off.

30:42

In the back seat, Linda, Johnny's

30:44

new girlfriend looked out the window triumphantly.

30:47

Johnny didn't notice.

30:49

Joey did. He noticed most everything

30:52

Linda did. It wasn't too long ago they were together.

30:54

But then Johnny swept in and stole

30:56

her away. It broke Joey's

30:58

heart. Even Didi thought that one

31:00

was fucked up. Joey

31:02

still didn't understand women. And with his chronic obsessive

31:05

compulsive text, he feared no woman

31:07

would ever really understand him.

31:10

Tommy was gone he'd quit long ago.

31:12

His replacement, Marquis was

31:14

oblivious, drunk most of the time, happy to be

31:16

part of the ride for now.

31:19

Didi wasn't. It wasn't farming anymore. He

31:21

wanted out. It was no joy in

31:23

playing in the remodels. So in the beginning

31:25

of nineteen eighty nine, he quit one of the

31:27

greatest, most influenced actual

31:29

bands on the planet that everyone fellow

31:31

musicians and critics all seem to

31:33

acknowledge. Everyone that is except for the

31:35

record buying public en masse.

31:38

Ramones weren't obscured by any measure,

31:40

but they weren't a household name like

31:42

Joan Jed or Billy Idol. They were

31:44

a club band, a damn good

31:46

one too, one of the best. But

31:49

despite countless efforts, different producers,

31:51

including the famed in psychotic film

31:53

Spectre, despite appearing in the film Rock

31:55

and Roll High School, despite writing and

31:57

recording the title track to

31:59

Steven things pet cemetery film of the same name. And

32:01

despite covering past hits by their rock and

32:03

roll heroes in current songwriting

32:05

gold, like Tom wait since I don't want to

32:07

grow up? None of it helped the

32:10

breakthrough to a mainstream audience and

32:12

to enjoy the level of success they

32:15

deserved. The Saikawa of it all was enough to

32:17

drive you insane. You're regarded

32:19

in your day as living icons

32:21

as one of the most important original and

32:23

influential bands of all time.

32:25

You're out there slinging hundreds of shows

32:27

a year. Your name rings out worldwide,

32:30

yet you're not actually successful.

32:32

You saved rock and roll, but it refused

32:34

to save you. Breakup was

32:38

inevitable. In nineteen ninety six,

32:40

after their album, Adidas Amigos

32:42

failed to sell. The band performed their last

32:44

show with the palladium in Hollywood,

32:46

and they were joined on stage at different

32:48

times by any veteran of

32:50

Pearl Chris Cornell a Sound Garden and Tim

32:52

Armstrong of Ransom. Platinum

32:54

selling recording artists, all of whom were

32:56

enjoying high positions on the Billboard charts

32:58

and regular rotation on m V.

33:00

They're to help celebrate the legacy of

33:02

one of their favorite bands, but whose success

33:04

helped drive the Ramones off the road to

33:06

ruin and into an early grave. Five

33:09

years later in two thousand one,

33:11

Johnny now living in LA at

33:13

the call. Joey was

33:16

dead. The lymphoma did him in at the

33:18

age of forty nine. If

33:20

Jolly was hoping for reunion

33:22

that wasn't happening, either was

33:24

a cross country trip to New York City to

33:26

his Bandmates funeral. Even before the

33:28

band broke up, the two hadn't really

33:31

spoken in years. Joey's

33:33

dysfunction in his drinking was a

33:35

constant annoyance to Johnny. And

33:37

Joey for his part, never got over

33:39

Johnny stealing his girl. There

33:41

was no love lost between the two.

33:43

A few years after Joey's death, Johnny

33:45

was asked by a journalist for Rolling Stone

33:47

if he attended Joey's funeral. Johnny

33:51

replied, but in

33:53

California. I wasn't going to travel all

33:55

the way to New York, but I wouldn't

33:57

gone anyway. I wouldn't want him coming to

33:59

my funeral and I wouldn't want to hear from him if

34:01

I were dying. Only want to see my

34:03

friends. Let me die, leave me

34:05

alone. Johnny wasn't alone

34:07

on the night of March

34:09

nineteenth two thousand two. He

34:11

stood at podium of the Waldorf Astoria

34:14

alongside Benmates, Didi, Tommy, and

34:16

Ramones, and accepted his

34:18

award for being inducted on the

34:21

first ballot into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Finally,

34:24

the recognition Ramones deserved.

34:26

It was the least the power as it be

34:28

in the music in we could

34:31

do. The Ramones had after all brought rock and roll

34:33

back from the brink, injected a new

34:35

energy into the genre and

34:38

an era that desperately needed it, retracted rock from disco's

34:40

death clutch and bridged the gap between

34:42

rock and roll's golden and modern eras.

34:45

It was only fitting that the band who saved Rock and

34:47

Roll take their rightful place in the Rock and

34:50

Roll Hall of Fame.

34:53

Johnny spoke first as expected. He leaned into the

34:55

mic and in a head scratcher,

34:57

thanked Republican President George W. Bush

34:59

for his award.

35:02

Ever the contrarian. Punk is fucking till the end.

35:04

Tommy then spoke. He played

35:06

on the emotion of the moment. Believe

35:09

it or not. We really loved each other even when

35:11

we weren't acting civil to each other. We were truly

35:14

brothers. Didi

35:17

took his turn at the podium and in typical DiDi

35:19

fashion set. I'd like to congratulate

35:22

myself and thank myself and give

35:24

myself a big pat on the back. Thank

35:26

you DiDi. You're very

35:28

wonderful. I love you.

35:31

With that, they

35:34

left the stage to genuine applause

35:36

and gratitude. Joey rewards

35:39

award, however, remained on

35:41

the podium. Unclaimed.

35:44

What a

35:46

disgrace. Jake Brennan, and this

35:50

is disgraceful. Disgrace

36:05

land was created by yours truly and is

36:08

produced in partnership with double

36:10

Elvis. Credit for this episode can

36:12

be found on the show notes page DISGRACELAND

36:14

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