Remembering Joey

Wormtown rockers eulogize Joey Ramone

By Brian Goslow

If there's ever been an event which truly displays the gap in musical tastes of the past 25 years, it's the passing of Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman), lead singer of the Ramones, who died on Sunday afternoon of lymphatic cancer in a New York City hospital. Since MTV flashed the news of his death across its screen soon afterwards, thousands of fans have taken on the challenge of explaining to the uninitiated, especially their parents, why he was one of the all-time greats.

"What songs did he sing?," mothers ask. "Well, mom, ever heard of `Blitzkreig Bop,' `Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,' `Beat on the Brat,' `Teenage Lobotomy,' `Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment,' or `Cretin Hop'?"

Mothers respond with a blank look.

"No? How about `The KKK Took My Baby Away,' `Pinhead,' or `I Wanna Be Sedated'?"

"That's a good one," dads everywhere reply sarcastically.

Precisely, pop. Despite skeptics who claimed all their songs sounded the same (think of it as the same way wrestling fans tease non-wrestling fans about how the sport is fake), the Ramones created dozens of the catchiest songs ever written, just like Herman's Hermits, the Beach Boys, and the Bay City Rollers (who they originally wanted to emulate) and in the process, inspired more bands to form than almost any other group in history.

Without the Ramones, progenitors of punk rock, the original spirit of rock and roll would be closer to death than it already seems. Back in the mid-'70s, when disco and soft rock ruled the airwaves, the band was at the forefront of the punk revolution, influencing such bands as the Sex Pistols, the Damned, and the Clash, and subsequently, bands like Nirvana, Green Day, and Blink 182. Columbine may have occurred decades earlier if high school and college outcasts didn't have punk as an outlet for their alienated views. And it's probably fair to say the Worcester music scene wouldn't be the same without the Ramones.

"It's a tragedy," says Wormtown Mayor L.B. Worm of

Joey's death. "If it wasn't for the Ramones, there would be no Wormtown because it's all from the Ramones. I was at a party and had just bought the new Bob Welch album and was about to put it on when Crazy Jack [the original Wormtown rocker best known for the regional hit, "You Ain't My Momma"] came in with his friend Charlie the Greek who said, `If you want to hear good music, come to my house

and listen to the Ramones.' That was the spark that started me."

I first heard the Ramones after reading about them via Lester Bangs's reviews in the pages of Creem Magazine and Rock Scene. Soon after hearing "Blitzkreig Bop" on community broadcaster WCUW, I found myself in their basement studios in Sanford Hall on the campus of Clark University asking for my own radio show. In March, 1977, It's Rock (And It's Local), which soon became the more worldly My Generation PSV and Radio Ethiopia, was on the air. Much of the material was culled from first generation Wormtown rockers Hooker and the first two albums by the Ramones.

Later that year, in the van owned by Bob and Cathy Peters of the Blue Moon Band (who were already covering "Blitzkreig Bop" and "I Don't Want to Walk Around With You"), about a dozen or so Worcester rockers, including Johnny Boxspring (who would eventually find fame as Worm, who gave our beloved cesspool its unauthorized-by-the-Chamber-of-Commerce moniker, en route to becoming its mayor emeritus), traveled down to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel and the Blue Wall at UMass-Amherst to see the opening dates of the Rocket to Russia tour. Despite the fact "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" didn't become the summer hit of 1977, there was still the belief punk rock was about to take over the country. A few days later, a boiling kettle exploded in Joey's face, prematurely ending the tour and cutting off whatever momentum was underway.

The following summer, the Ramones returned to play two dates at the Paradise in Boston. Inspired by "Rockaway Beach," we loaded ourselves into a car after the first show and drove down in 90-plus degree heat to spend the day at the Long Island landmark before returning for the second show. In true Ramones fashion, the now-famous beach was covered with oil and trash, but we were able to annoy the local bar patrons by playing the tune on the jukebox, then visited the now-demolished Rockaway Playland, where I ordered a Coke and got chocolate milk instead.

Later that fall, WCUW received an envelope containing a Radio Shack tape containing two songs which would go a long way in determining the city's musical future. The Commandos' calling card had the attitude of their heroes down pat, and the leather jacketed "Biggest Band in West Boylston" would soon be seen performing with a machete on Cable Channel 13, hosting their own club (the NME) in the basement of lead vocalist Brian Hopper, and creating a "Suburb Rock" scene which gave us the likes of the Electric Guiloteens and Drew Dread and the Psicotic Unknowns. While the Commandos never got the chance to perform with their heroes, they did get to meet them before a performance at the Hampton Beach Casino, where the group caused a minor ruckus with club security members who wanted to keep the young punks out of the building.

Dozens of fans were thrown through the metal doors by overzealous bouncers at the E.M. Loew's Theater (now the Palladium) during a late-'80s Ramones appearance. Afterwards, walking past the group's truck, I overheard Joey and Johnny Ramone, who was upset that so many fans had invaded the stage area, discuss ways to combat the growing number of stage invasions (Johnny had recently been attacked and had his skull crushed on a New York street and was weary about being knocked down). Joey's simple response? "Well, you could put chains on your wrists and take then out." Few have looked at the world the way Joey looked at it from behind his rose-tinted glasses, and for those of us with a warped view of the world thanks to a childhood diet of Saturday morning cartoons, Roller Derby, pro wrestling, and the Ed Sullivan Show, few espoused that view as well as Joey and the Ramones.

My final time seeing the Ramones was at, quite appropriately, Riverside Park in Agawam, where the band played on a stage set in the midst of the amusement park's racing track, giving anyone who attempted to stage dive one in 10 odds at making it to the end of the show if other members of the audience chose not to catch them before they hit the tar floor head on (and it seemed plenty members of the crowd had that crazed looking in their face). Never has a band had better use of a stage backdrop of roller coasters, Ferris wheels, bumper cars, and medics carrying fans away in ambulances then the Ramones. You can bet Joey called it a great show.

This Friday night, April 20, former Odds frontman J.J. Rassler brings his new group, the Downbeat 5, back to Worcester this weekend for Saturday night show at Ralph's along with the Decals and a double shot of Artie Sneiderman with the Belmondos and Crybabies. He reminisced about the days when he frequently crossed path with the Ramones as a member of the ultimate Boston garage punk band DMZ, fronted by Joey soundalike Jeff "Monoman" Conolly.

"Whenever we [DMZ] played with them, Joey was always interested in what we were jamming on. If it was in the dressing room or whatever, he picked up on what you were riffing on. One night in New Jersey, we were taping a TV show and there were lots of bands in the back. I remember jamming on `Walk in the Room' and `C'mon Lets Go' with him and Andy Paley. That sticks out. We were courted by their manager, Danny Fields for some time and they were at our shows a lot. He [Joey] was always genuine.

"[My] Thoughts are heavy on Joey at this time," Rassler continues. "His and the Ramones contributions to rock and roll? Well they, especially Joey, seemed to emphasize the importance of early Beach Boys music and the early `60's Girl Group/Brill Building sound. They added it's sweet simplicity to an aggressive rhythm and comic book mentality and came up with a formula all their own. Their homage to those early '60s sounds canonized them for me."

That simplicity, which inspired the hundreds of bands that followed in the Ramones' sneaker-clad footsteps, is alive and well. "That formula is elaborated on in the Downbeat 5 sets," Rassler promises.

While there weren't too many stations playing round-the-clock tributes to Joey (except for Howard Stern, who played a collection of Joey's appearances on his show on Monday), you can hear a tribute to the Ramones vocalist at www.wdoa.com, where Mike and Heidi Malone reminisce about their favorite Ramones shows, play their favorite Ramones songs, and explain how the boys from Queens made it possible for a boy from Wormtown and girl from Germany to sing "We're a Happy Family."

"I can't imagine what modern rock would have turned into without the Ramones," says Michele Paulhus, who plays bass and sings with the Decals. "They were the quintessential punk band that made people -- like me anyhow -- realize you didn't have to be as good as Bill Wyman or Keith Richards to play kick ass rock and roll."

Which is what the Decals promise to do when they visit Ralph's on Friday. Paulhus is joined by guitarists Nicole Johnson and Craig Adams (who played with seminal Boston, Not LA-era hardcore heroes the Freeze) and drummer Gino Zanetti (previously a member of Crazy Alice). And, as if you couldn't guess by the titles of the two songs featured on their recent Fan Attic Records 45 -- "You (That's All We Ever Talk About" and "I Don't Buy Your Lines (`Cause I Use Them All the Time)" -- they use their music as a release.

"Yeah, a lot of them are about crappy relationships that Nicole [guitar player in the Decals] and myself were involved in," Paulhus says. "I guess when you mix that with a lot of beer and rock you get the Decals sound and song style."

The group formed two years ago when Johnson and Paulhus began writing songs together. "We were both sick of being in pop bands and wanted to go in the angry/punk rock type of direction," says Paulhus. "I think what makes the Decals songs standout from other regular rock or punk bands is the catchy choruses and harmonies." Or, as their bio states, "It's what you expect from a couple of girls who picked up their guitars after being burned by relationships gone sour while listening to their Ramones, X, Johnny Thunders and Joan Jett records."

The Decals are looking forward to May, when they'll be playing in the WBCN Rumble on May 10 at the Middle East and a show with punk purveyors the Dictators at Lilli's Place on May 25, after which they'll be heading to the studio to record their second full-length CD, due out in November.

Brian Goslow can be reached at bgoslow[a]phx.com.