Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone (Abrams Image)
Written by Jamie Richards
Sunday, 20 May 2012 04:30
Recently released after being edited from his own memoirs by friend John Cafiero, and his widow Linda, eight years after his untimely passing, this is the most intimate and in-depth view of the workings of self-proclaimed ‘legend’ Johnny Ramone yet.
Legend he is indeed, in fact there are countless superlatives and adjectives you could use to describe the man, one that you definitely couldn’t though is ‘politically correct’. Unflinching and unapologetically Johnny tells the story of his life before, during, and after The Ramones; blunt and to the point…much like any Ramones song really.
From the innocence of his childhood where he recounts the fixation with rock ‘n’ roll music he developed from seeing Elvis Presley on TV, his violent adolescence – “I was like a really bad Fonzie,” – his continued love of music that would see him encounter so many of the most legendary rock acts live as they came through the venues of New York in the late sixties and early seventies, that would eventually inspire him to form his own band.
Different from the kick off, The Ramones though, as Johnny tells that he was very happy working in the construction industry through his late teens and early twenties with no real desire to play music, and only formed a band because he could find no other work after his company made redundancies. A new union law had declared that the company should employ a percentage of minorities, and thus left Johnny with no job….and more than likely helped to galvanise his undying nationalistic beliefs.
I’m sure Johnny Ramone’s unforgiving, occasionally brutal manner is of no surprise to anyone, but that’s not to say it doesn’t cause the reader to recoil once or twice – “we toured with The Runaways, a band of dykes.” Likewise, it also brings some unintentionally hilarious moments, like his account of the band’s first European tour; he hated touring partners Talking Heads because they were so intellectual and “always insisting we stop and look at stuff,” you can see the scenario as he describes them stopping at Stonehenge and he refused to get out of the car; “I was upset that we were stopping to look at a bunch of rocks, I wouldn’t let my girlfriend get out either.” He hated France too, “the most miserable place imaginable.”
What is unmistakable though is that when Johnny Ramone bought his first guitar, at age 24, and decided to form a band with his friend Dee Dee, he was going to make it successful or he would die trying, and also, maybe most importantly, he was going to be in charge. He ran a tight ship in The Ramones, a strict leader, but he saw it as his job-his business, he wanted to make enough money to retire someday and he knew it was no job for slackers. Some of the most exciting and lauded moments in rock history are recounted first hand; NY in those early years was a steaming flesh pot of rock history in the making, and Johnny did his business in that exotic world where characters like Johnny Thunders, Lux Interior, and Debbie Harry also worked, arguing over billing, fighting over door money, no one would take advantage of The Ramones…and Johnny made sure of it. The famous Rainbow New Year 1977 shows in London are counted as the band’s peak and, again, a tremendous throwaway quotation from the man himself “we got there early and saw the Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten asked what I thought, I told him I thought they stunk.”
Most precious of all things in this glorious punk rock ‘n’ roll memoir though, is how the ‘other side’ of Johnny comes out, the friendly side you could call it. He may have grown to hate Joey and whole a host of others, but the friends and loved ones (mostly rock stars or actors) that surrounded him right up to his final breath became so enamoured by the man they almost seem under a trance-like influence, such is the admiration and connection they felt for him. A determined and sometimes full-on character, but also a very frugal and humble man, who some might say changed the face of rock music almost single handed, an accidental visionary perhaps? His confidence and self belief was steadfast to the end, “If the Ramones had never existed and came out right now, we would still blow everyone away. Maybe I’m a little less connected now because I’m sick, but when we got up on a stage we were the best out there. Nobody came close.”
Johnny Ramone was a legend, he knew it, he like being one, and he reminded everyone of that fact in case they forgot…after all, he’d worked damn hard for that status!
The most enjoyable rock biography I’ve read for years.
To pick up your copy of Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone – ‘CLICK HERE’
