Tag - New York Rock Band

The Ramones: Rock and Roll Radio

October 9, 2011

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As I got into my Ramones vibe here, I remembered yet another story I had that involved them, and it’s actually a “Six Degrees of Separation” sort of story as well!

You would think that I was one degree of separation from The Ramones, via my New York boyfriend, Randy Gun. That would have been the most obvious link to them (and I bet they knew Debbie Harry and David Johansen too!) But no, I didn’t have the connection to The Ramones through Randy, but rather through another boyfriend of mine from Indiana.

I haven’t written about Mark Backer yet, and I would write about him now except I can’t find the photo I had scanned of him! So until I find that photo, the story will have to wait.

How he relates to this story about the Ramones is, Mark went to Stanford in Northern California and he worked in that area after he graduated. When rock videos first came out, I got a call from Mark telling me that he had been in The Ramones video for Rock and Roll Radio! I don’t remember how they got to be in it, but throughout the song there are cutaway shots to different people dancing, (like Mary Tyler Moore.) Then it cuts to current day and Mark and a couple other people come running onto the set to dance.

Out of all the girlfriends I had that were into bands, none of them were ever in a music video (that I know of.) How odd that an old boyfriend of mine ended up dancing in a Ramones video!

The Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop (Live)

October 8, 2011

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Todd and I were talking about the Ramones one day, and I asked if we had ever gone to see them play. He remembered us going to their show in LA, but said we stood outside in the lobby, rather than watching their show. While I don’t remember seeing them play that night, I do remember that Todd had a shirt on made out of a green garbage bag and he was really hot (as in heated) in it! Why we weren’t inside, watching the band play, is beyond me.

I actually found my ticket stub to The Ramones, August 1981, Los Angeles show, in my pile of stuff to scan. It is amazing to unearth these things as they actually prove we were at that show.

My diary also says that I saw the Ramones in Boston in 1979 or 1980. The diary mentions I had tickets for their show yet it doesn’t say anything about the show itself. Again, I wasn’t a big fan of their music back then, so I might have been outside the club as well during that show! Why I had no photos, from any of these shows, is very shameful indeed.

As an “homage” to The Ramones and their contribution to the Punk Rock music scene, here is the video for Blitzkrieg Bop from It’s Alive (1977) at the Rainbow Theatre in London.