For immediate release: Following the lead of our rock n roll brothers in Wilco, Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? will also not be performing any shows in the state of Indiana this year. The rest of the tour remains unchanged.
For further details and ticket info please click here.
Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? is a band in addition to a damn good question.
A RAMONES PRIMER: BY THE BOOK
by Nick Taggart
Hey, ho, have you seen Marky Ramone recently? He’s been turning up in all kinds of interesting places, including NPR’s radio program, “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” where he successfully answered trivia questions about another famous Marky (Marky Mark) and was generally amusing and entertaining. Not only is he peddling his own brand of pasta sauce (Marky Ramone’s Brooklyn’s Own Marinara Pasta Sauce. At $88 for a case of 12 jars, it’s a steal! But by whom?) but he’s also keeping alive the memory of the Ramones with his new autobiography, Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone.
I’ve always been a fan of Ramones songs. What’s not to love about hard and fast, short and catchy tunes containing juvenile lyrics about sniffing glue and abductions by white supremacist groups? I was never disappointed when I saw them in concert, but I knew little of the band’s background beyond the most sweeping of summaries. You know, stuff like: “American punk rock band formed in New York City in 1974”; and “…often cited as the first band to define the punk rock sound.” (Thank you, Wikipedia.) I figured Marky’s book would fill in some factual holes as well as provide some colorful commentary.
I’ve always had trouble keeping track of who’s who in the band. I knew the names, but would have been hard pressed to attach the name to the correct face. While I waited for my reserved copy of Punk Rock Blitzkrieg to come in at the library, I went back and read a couple of other Ramones autobiographies. These helped with my identification problem.
Back in 2000, the bass player, Dee Dee Ramone, published Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones. Dee Dee always reminded me of the actor Larry Storch, best known for his role as Capt. Agarn on TV’s F-Troop. I learned that Dee Dee was responsible for writing many of the band’s songs as well as taking the most drugs. As his book indicated, he did indeed survive the Ramones, but just barely. Less than three months after joining his bandmates for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dee Dee was found dead from a heroin overdose.
In 2012, the posthumous Commando: the Autobiography of Johnny Ramone was released. Johnny was the one with the haircut resembling the knit cap pulled down over the face of Dumb Donald on Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He was the focused one in the group who kept the Ramones train running on time. His military schooling may have been partially responsible. His goal was to accumulate $1 million in savings before kissing the Ramones gravy train goodbye. He succeeded, but didn’t live long to enjoy it, dying in 2004 after a battle with prostate cancer. Johnny was also the politically conservative one of the foursome who admired Ronald Reagan and who preferred to listen to Rush Limbaugh on the tour van radio; sometimes just to piss off Joey, the liberal singer.
Even if he wasn’t the de facto front man, Joey would have stood out for his looks: 6’ 6” tall, lanky, bespectacled, and holding onto the microphone for dear life. His autobiography might have been the most interesting had it ever been written, but Joey was the first Ramone to die, succumbing to lymphoma in 2001. He suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which manifested itself in so many frustrating ways, as detailed in his bandmates' books. For example, tour departures were delayed while Joey exited and reentered his apartment multiple times; or he would return dozens of times to the bathroom on a trans-Atlantic flight to tap the soap or touch the seat. The closest thing we have to a Joey autobiography is the 2009 book, I Slept With Joey Ramone: a Family Memoir, written by Joey’s brother, Mickey Leigh.
There have been other members of the Ramones, including the original drummer, Tommy, who traded in his sticks after two albums to concentrate on producing the band. There were also Richie, Elvis, C.J., Sneezy, and Tito (I may be wrong about a couple of those. Elvis doesn’t sound right.), but they came and went and rarely appear in photos, so no need to commit them to memory.
By the time I got my hands on Punk Rock Blitzkrieg, I felt a little more grounded in Ramones lore. I still liked and appreciated the music, even if I had learned the band members weren’t the kind of folks I’d lend money to or want to watch a presidential debate with. With Marky’s book, though, I discovered a band member who was, dare I say, somewhat normal. Oh, he had his problems with alcoholism and the like, but he comes across as likeable.
The book caused a bit of a kerfuffle on Amazon concerning the accuracy of Marky’s stories. The only time the Ramones had to cancel a show was in Virginia Beach in 1981 when Marky was a no-show. According to his book, the band had a couple days off after playing Cleveland and he planned on getting a ride to Virginia with a fan, but the ride was a bust. According to an online reviewer from Columbus, the show was actually in the capital city (confirmed in Johnny’s book) and Marky had planned on flying to Virginia all along, but missed his flight after two days of drinking and partying at Crazy Mama’s and a local “punk house” (which still exists, according to another reviewer).
Reading the Ramones autobiography canon prompted me to go back and watch the 1979 movie, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. Wow, is that film dated! But the viewing was worth it purely for the appearance of the Ramones and their spectacularly amateurish “acting” and brief memorable lines. (“We’re not students, we’re the Ramones,” and “Things sure have changed since we got kicked out of high school.”)
A much better DVD option is the excellent 2005 documentary, End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones. Most of the key players were still alive at the time of its production, so were available for informative, revealing, and funny interviews. Two thumbs up!
More importantly, the books encouraged me to go back to my CD collection and listen once again to all those fun, rocking Ramones songs. I tend to forget just how many great ones there are. The debut self-titled album alone contains “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Beat on the Brat,” “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,” “53rd and 3rd,” and “I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You,” among others, all clocking in at 2:35 or under. Gabba Gabba Hey, indeed!
So, can we believe the stories Marky tells in his book? Can we believe Dee Dee or Johnny or Mickey Leigh? I’m sure they all had their own agendas, but they’re all like the sightless guys in the parable of “The Elephant and the Blind Men.” The individual perspectives might not capture the entire animal, but together they bring into focus the pachyderm in torn jeans and leather jackets that is the Ramones.
Learn more about Nick Taggart and other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here.
The heading of my year-long Pencilstorm series has changed this month, as I read in my daily newspaper (a newspaper, how quaint) that the demolition of Vet’s Memorial is complete.
JUDY COLLINS / March 20th, 1970
I would guess the first question longtime readers of Pencilstorm would have about this month’s entry is: “What the hell was Ricki C. doing at a Judy Collins concert?” There are a variety of answers to that question: I’ve always had a soft spot (no pun intended) for acoustic music, even in my most rockin’ times. In 1969 I loved The MC5 and Joni Mitchell with equal and opposing fervor. The Mekons and Shawn Colvin probably shared roughly equal time on my cassette deck back in 1989, and right now Jack White and Dar Williams CD’s are both stacked next to my player.
Also, I probably wanted to see Judy Collins in early 1970 because I still LOVED Crosby, Stills & Nash in those days, and Stephen Stills had penned all those tunes about Collins: “Suite: Judy Blues Eyes” and the like. (By 1973, only three years later, when the New York Dolls released their first record, I was ready to ship CS&N and all of their hippie brethren ilk out on the Japanese current.)
Probably the biggest reason I attended Judy Collins, though, was that I was dating a girl named Linda Finneran at the time and Linda liked Judy Collins. (There’s an entire blog about Linda and my schizoid senior year of high school – Linda Finneran & Scoring Heroin – in my former blog, Growing Old With Rock & Roll. Check it out if you get twenty free minutes.)
I don’t really remember a whole lot about the show: I can’t even recall who the opening act was, and that’s very unusual for me, they must have been a genuine folkie snooze. I do remember that Collins opened the show with a song called “Hello Hooray” by Canadian singer/songwriter Rolf Kempf, which, roughly three months later - June 13th, 1970 - Alice Cooper opened THEIR set with at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. That has to be the ONLY song ever shared by Judy Collins AND Alice Cooper.
I further remember that Ms. Collins displayed an absolute MANIA for being in tune. She spent literally minutes at a time between songs tuning the six-string she started with and what seemed like HOURS fooling with the tuning pegs of her twelve-string acoustic. Collins sang great, but the bouts of tuning REALLY began taking a toll on the show; people started yelling for her to just sing, to just get on with it. (And those were the days before guitar tuners were invented: Collins just muddled along, tuning & re-tuning every string interminably. It was maddening.)
Finally, after about 40 minutes in which I think Collins had managed to perform only five songs between tuning, she put down her 12-string and walked over to the Vet’s Memorial grand piano positioned stage right. She sat down, played a couple of notes, put on a sour face and stood up to actually LOOK INSIDE THE PIANO. At that point a hippie guy seated right behind Linda and I said – in a voice loud enough to carry to the stage – “Oh man, if she starts tuning that goddamn piano I’m LEAVING.”
The entire audience cracked up laughing at that, Collins looked pissed, and was perfunctory the rest of the show. It was the best, and most memorable moment of the concert. Nameless hippie heckler, I salute you. – Ricki C. / March 17th, 2015.
SHOWS I SAW AT VET’S MEMORIAL MARCH HONORABLE MENTIONS
March 3rd, 1968 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (full account at Growing Old With Rock & Roll, 11/13/13)
March 26th, 1969 – Steppenwolf
The Goal: Raise $1,200 to purchase a full page advertisement in Cleveland Scene Magazine asking "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?" It will run for a week starting April 15th. The actual rock Hall of Fame ceremony is being held in Cleveland Saturday April 18th.
The Means: All we need is to sell 60 "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?" T-shirts and the ad will be bought along with 10 website banners. We only need SIXTY Cheap Trick fans in the entire world to make this happen. And the shirt is limited edition and very cool. You have probably seen a few around.
The Result: Everybody visiting Cleveland for the rock hall ceremony will thumb through the local magazine only to notice a giant "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?" staring back at them in the newspaper and on the internet.
Look, I don't want to call out my fellow Cheap Trick fans but not only have I ranked every single Cheap Trick song for your enjoyment, I also started a band called "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame?" that will again be playing TWO FREE SHOWS this year of all Cheap Trick covers that will surely make you long for the real Cheap Trick. Between missing work to practice, filling up the van with gas and pricy marriage counseling, being in this band is a big sacrifice. But it is our way of kicking in to support this most worthy of all worthy causes.
We only need 60 fellow Cheap Trick fans to purchase a shirt or one really rich Cheap Trick fan to purchase all sixty (you save on shipping). We don't care how the numbers add up. We are pleading with you to help us find the answer to the question, "Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?" Won't you please help us?
"Why Isn't Cheap Trick in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?" shirts are $29.99 + shipping with $20 of each sale going directly to purchasing the advertisement. Wear the slogan on your chest and help us put it in the paper. What is NOT to like. Do it. Do it. Do it. This is the year. Thanking you in advance, Colin Gawel
Why Isn't Cheap Trick In the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? will be performing April 17th @ Ace of Cups in Columbus. OH and Saturday April 18th at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. (Afternoon show!) Teenage Fanclub Fanclub opens both shows and both are FREE. Details below.
Click here to sign an online petition supporting the cause.
Click here to sign another petition supporting the cause.
Hola, fellow rock n roll/movie fans. Brian Phillips and myself would like to thank all of you for supporting the Reelin' and Rockin' @ the Gateway Film Center film series, which is still going strong three years after we hatched this crazy plan in a bar somewhere.
To get you up to speed, a rock n roll movie is shown the 3rd Wednesday of every month at the fabulous Gateway Film Center. Drinks at 7 pm, movie starts at 8pm. Tickets are only $5, and all profits benefit CD1025 for the kids.
Check out these upcoming movies:
March 18th : Turn it Up! A Celebration of the Electric Guitar.
April 15: Revenge Of The Mekons.
May 20: Heaven Adores You (New Elliot Smith doc).
June 17th: Devo Hardcore Live.
Hope you can join Brian and myself for one of these great flicks - Colin G.
Click here for a story of the first twenty two Reelin and Rockin movies.
(from Ricki C. - It seemed like we were getting a little too serious and devotional in our Willie coverage, so I thought I’d throw in a coupla mildly scabrous, “when-we-was-young” rock & roll stories from back in the day. Apologies to everybody involved, not many names were changed. Click here to hear two FREE songs from the Willie Phoenix Tribute Machine and links to all things Willie Phoenix)
I
When I first met Willie in 1978, when he was leading Romantic Noise, the band (Willie, Greg Glasgow on bass & vocals, John Ballor on lead guitar & vocals, and Dee Hunt – the pride of Beckley, West Virginia – on drums) all lived together in a house on 4th Street, right around the corner from that little strip-shopping center on Summit, near Oakland, where Café Bourbon Street and The Summit are located. (I’m not sure Willie lived there all the time. As always, his living arrangements were and are a mystery to me, but he was consistently there whenever I dropped by to visit.)
Frequent visitors to the 4th Street house were The CookieBakers: three teenage girls – Erin, Kim & Cindy, by name – who came to all the bands’ gigs and, true to their name, baked cookies for the boys. It was all really quite innocent & charming; the girls really did bake cookies and bring them to the house. They weren’t groupies exactly, but Kim and Willie “dated” for quite some time and Erin later married and still later was divorced from Greg, so more than chocolate chips got exchanged, if you get my drift.
Anyway, one day in early spring ’78 we were all at the house and Erin was telling an elaborate story about something that had happened at high school that day. She was wearing a longish skirt, but the skirt was also really sheer and once the setting sun starting pouring in the picture window in the front of the house, she might as well NOT HAVE BEEN WEARING A SKIRT AT ALL. So Erin’s jumping around, acting out the story and the guys and I are all stifling laughs, just staring at her essentially naked from the waist down form, when Kim walks back in from the kitchen and yells, “ERIN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!!?”
She pulls a confused Erin out of the sunlight while the rest of us just fall over laughing. Erin turns beet-red and flees the room, pulling her skirt tighter well after the fact and Kim soundly reads us the riot act: “That wasn’t funny, you guys, that was just mean.” I think she might have actually cuffed Willie on the head, and then she spun on me, saying, “I would have expected this from these guys, Ricki, but I really expected better behavior from you.” What the hell? Was my twelve-years-of-Catholic-school-upbringing really that apparent, even at that late a date?
“I’m just one of the boys,” I said to a livid Kim, “you’d best not expect that much of me.” That became only truer & truer as the year went on.
II
It’s after a gig at Bernie’s Bagels. I’m packing up gear and Willie initiates a conversation with my lead singer & girlfriend Nicole, whom I’ve brought along to the show that night:
Willie – “Hey Nicole, why don’t we go out to my car?”
Nicole (feigning naivete, she’s seen this Willie show before) – “What would we do in your car, Wilie?”
Willie – “Oh, we’d just talk and stuff. It’d be no big deal.”
Nicole – “Well, we could talk right here, Willie, we’re talking right now.”
Willie – “Yeah, but in my car, we could listen to music, or we could talk more private. Or do more private things.”
Nicole (in a tone like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth) – “Oh, I’m not sure Ricki would like it if we did more private things, Willie.”
Willie – “Oh no, Ricki would be cool with that. Ricki’s a cool guy.”
Ricki – “WILLIE, I’M STANDING RIGHT HERE.”
Willie (glancing briefly in my direction, and then totally ignoring the outburst) – “So, whattya say, should we go outside?”
Nicole – “We’re not going out to your car, Willie.”
Willie – “Okay, just give it some thought,” patting Nicole’s hand and walking over to a random girl standing by the bar, “Hey, why don’t we got out to my car?”
III
Drummer Dee Hunt, Willie & I are having a bite to eat at that Wendy’s across from campus by Schoolkid’s (now Used Kid’s) Records and Willie starts telling us – apropos of not much – that he scored the night before with a Hare Krishna girl he picked up at the airport. Dee & I exchange a glance, and then Dee says, “You made it with a Hare Krishna girl?” “Yeah,” Willie says, nonchalantly, like this is an everyday occurrence in the little rock & roll circles in which we move.
“Didn’t it creep you out that she was bald?” Dee asked, in those long-ago pre-Sinead O’Connor days of the late 70’s.
“Well, I made her wear a hat,” Willie deadpans, and I laugh so hard that some of my Frosty comes out my nose.
Willie was my hero.
I miss the 1970’s. – Ricki C. / March 4th, 2015.
Willie Phoenix & Dee Hunt / May, 1978
