HELLO GOODBYE
Their drummer was leaving, but who’d step in? Marky Ramone remembers good times and bad with the Ramones.
HELLO LATE MARCH 1978
Me and Richard Hell had just finished a Clash tour, in England in ’77. I came back to New York and there were rumours going around that Tommy [Ramone, drummer] didn’t want to play anymore in the band. I knew them from hanging out in CBGB’s and from when they used to come and see my band Dust. Dee Dee [Ramone, bass] approached me, he always wanted me to be in the group. I’d seen them live and it was a sound I’d always wanted, something continuously fast, counts in between each song, no talking, no bullshit. And the look was street – jeans, leather jacket and a T-shirt. It was what I wore in Brooklyn, New York, the Bronx. So they got in touch and we got together in the backroom at Max’s Kansas City. John [AKA Johnny Ramone, guitar] said we have to start rehearsing for the live set and for [1978 LP] Road To Ruin. We went to a studio on West 27th Street, Tommy ran it, and did three songs. They were already set up. We did I Don’t Care, Rockaway Beach and Sheena Is A Punk Rocker. There were other drummers there but when I walked in, the way I looked at them, the way they looked at me… I knew I got it. Tommy was there just in case I needed some advice. Later he gave me his white Rogers Drums set – he wasn’t going to play any more, so he said, “Here!” They wanted a name that would match, so we threw some around. The Rocky movies were big at that time, so we thought, Rocky Ramone? Then there was Bobby Ramone? Timmy Ramone? I said, “Well, my grandmother used to call me Marky”, and there was also a cartoon character called Marky Maypo that was used to push cereal, so… I said, “I’ll drop the ‘c’, ’cos Marcy is like, a girl’s name!” [His real name is Marc Bell.] I got a tape of Road To Ruin, a demo with Tommy playing, and I learned it on a practice pad at my apartment. After we recorded it, the first gig was June 29, 1978. We drove to Poughkeepsie in our trusty Ford Econoline van. The show went good.
GOODBYE AUGUST 6 1996
After I combatted my drinking problem [Marky was absent from 1983 to 1987], they asked me back, and it was still the same. The problem was that Joey and Johnny did not like each other, at all. Joey was a liberal Democrat, as I am. Johnny was a right-wing conservative. They had to talk through an intermediary – I’d be there with Joey saying, “Tell John da-da-da”, and then I’d have to tell Joey what John said. In the same room. In 1994, me, Johnny and Joey were in a Holiday Inn in the Midwest, and we looked at each other and realised
we’d had a great run and it was time to deal with it. There was no emotion, it was just business. We decided to do a farewell tour, which took a while, going to the different countries where people appreciate you. We were lucky we chose that year because in early ’96, I was seeing, physically in Joey’s skin, that he was ill and getting sicker. We’d finished the Lollapalooza tour with Metallica and Soundgarden, and then there it was, the last show, at The Palace in Los Angeles. It was great because Lemmy and Dee Dee were there. I think the people who’d come backstage were a little more upset than we were. So we got on-stage, did two encores, went back to the dressing room. There were no goodbyes, no pats on the back, no see you laters. I guess that was the time to project the emotions of how we felt about each other. I was sick and tired of the arguing between Johnny and Joey, who were pissed off with Dee Dee because he’d left the band [in 1989]. All this obnoxious animosity. I went back to the hotel and met up with Lemmy and Dee Dee, had some ice cream and we went out to eat. The next morning, I flew back to New York with Joey and that was it. There was nothing, you know. I guess it was a refreshing ending, to the all the insanity. I remained friends with them on an individual basis, but I was the only Ramone to visit Joey in the hospital [Joey died in 2001]. That’s how weird things were in the end. I wish they were alive [Dee Dee, Johnny and Tommy also passed away in, respectively, 2002, 2004 and 2014]. I did 1,700 shows with the band, they did, what, 2,200. Today I play 60 shows a year, with a 40 Ramones-song setlist, done right. I don’t think we would have done a reunion though. You can never be as good as you were. Ian Harrison
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“We threw names around – Rocky Ramone? Bobby Ramone? Timmy Ramone?” MARKY RAMONE