The Ramones contribute a rockin,’ but sweet and sincere Christmas classic. From their pretty decent 1989 album “Brain Drain.” The video is a little corny, but worth a look mainly because, sweet lord, the clothes and hair on the actors (especially the female lead) is sooooo 1989!
The Ramones had their last hit in 1996 with a garage punk cover of Tom Waits’s “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.” Tom Waits returned the favor with a smokin’ cover of “The Return of Jackie and Judy” released on a Ramones tribute album. I’ve never heard Waits having this much fun and it’s great to hear him cut loose like this.
What was it about Joey Ramone that inspires the most loving tributes from fans and fellow musicians? Probably because in most of the tributes I’ve read and heard, he was universally talked about as being a sweetheart and a gentleman. This is a lovely song by Amy Rigby that I heard over the weekend on the Sirius satellite radio channel Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Joey’s brother Mickey Leigh paints a far darker picture of the man in his memoir “I Slept with Joey Ramone.” I don’t doubt Mickey’s account, but I also don’t doubt everyone else’s accounts either. I interviewed Joey for my college newspaper in 1990 and got a chance to meet him (and the rest of the Ramones) backstage after the gig he played near my local college. The show started 2 hours late due to (from what I was told) some issues with their road crew at the previous gig, but the Ramones gave it their all and still performed a great show. A friend of the club owner invited me backstage, and as soon as I got there, I immediately felt that I needed to leave. Not because I didn’t feel worthy, but because the band looked really tired and I felt they needed their space. However, Joey and the rest of the band received me graciously and were very cool. I told them they played a great gig, that I appreciated their music, and then left after a minute or two of minor chitchat. Again, they had no reason in the world to be cool to me, but they were. I’ll always be thankful for that and it’s an example I’ve always tried to keep in mind on how to treat people, even when you don’t feel like being your best.
Number 5 on Dave’s Strange World’s all-time favorite films is the hysterically funny and beyond politically incorrect hockey film “Slap Shot.” This was considered a ballsy movie in its day, but nowadays, forget about it. No studio executive would dare greenlight a project this nasty, violent, and crude. It’s too bad, because Oscar-winning director George Roy Hill and Hollywood legend Paul Newman saw a lot of merit in Nancy Dowd’s foul-mouthed script about the down-and-dirty world of minor-league hockey. And yes, “Slap Shot” (like “Scarface” and “Pulp Fiction”) is considered a classic PRECISELY because it’s so over-the-top and rude.
The attached scene is Newman’s hilarious introduction to the infamous “Hanson Brothers.” I used to think the Hansons were based on the Ramones (especially based on Dowd’s interest in punk rock), until I read that the Hansons are totally REAL! Key line: “They’re too dumb to play with themselves!” Yes, my friends, NOT safe for work or little ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PzhPIU-RU4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The Ramones cover the bubblegum rock classic by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. I dare you not to sing along by the end of this.
The so-called Irish Ramones most famous song. Legendary British DJ John Peel called this his all-time favorite song and requested that the opening line of the song engraved on his tombstone when he died. Irresistible power pop with really grungy guitars.
Dave's Strange World 