In my 2002 interview with Johnny Ramone, we talked about touring.
Did he always really know that the road and constant touring was going to be essential to their economic success?
“Of course! We were recycling everything. The drumsticks would come off the kits, everything, and sell ‘em out there for a profit. Sticks get used, we get the sticks for $2 a pair, and then we’d sell the used drumsticks for $5 apiece – used drumsticks. Everything was to turn a profit, yet to still keep it at a reasonable price, so that if the kid got an item, he’d go. ‘Hey, I got a good deal; here’s a good used drum stick for $5,’ and it’s still a good deal, ya know…So that gets back to the constructing gig and the collecting mentality…
“I learned by just watching Cream come out on stage, and I watched what they did just by presenting themselves. I saw how important it was – perception – how the group was perceived from the moment the band walked on stage – how important to walk on the stage properly. You know, the stage is dark and there’s no lights – ‘This is the most exciting moment…now, how long is it gonna take for the band to blow it, ya know, with boredom’? I learned so much from doing that.
“Walk on, don’t start fumbling around; if something breaks, don’t make it obvious to the audience – they don’t know. I’d tell Dee Dee, ‘If your microphone doesn’t work, just throw it down, scream out the count. Don’t have any vulnerability, where you go on, ‘Testing, testing….’ Don’t show any vulnerable moment. Perception is everything…
“Well, I bought the guitar in January of ‘74, and we started playing CBGB’s in August of ‘74. So that’s when I started playing guitar. I started down-strumming to keep time, ya know. I also liked the way Jimmy Page played on ‘Communication Breakdown’ (sings ‘da-da-da-da-da/da-dum-dum’) I liked the way it drives…
I also asked about the current re-appraisal of the Ramones and their catalog popularity and merchandise sales.
“Well, I told my wife the year before I retired, ‘Well, maybe no one will wanna talk to me, and we’ll just be forgotten, and that’s how it’s gonna be, and I’m prepared for that…’ That’s what I told her, all the time, just in case that was gonna happen. I can’t believe it – I hear about the Ramones every day. I see stuff about the Ramones, I hear people talking about the Ramones…I just thought I’d be forgotten,” admitted Johnny.
“I got in my car two days ago, and Paul Stanley pulls alongside of me – I’ve never spoken to the guy before – and he says, ‘I’ve seen you around before, but I’ve never met you, but I just wanted to say hello…’
“This is nice, Paul Stanley saying hello. Don Henley comes up to me one day, outside of The Ivy (restaurant) and says – and I have no idea who Don Henley is, but I’m thinking he must me somebody important – ‘I hear you’re retiring ya’ know, and you shouldn’t retire…’
“I didn’t sell any records, and I’m retired with a nice home!
“I tell him, ‘It’s been a great 22 years of my life, but it’s time to move on…great, thanks for saying hi to me…’ I’m thinking, ‘Who the hell is he?. I get home and say, ‘This guy Don Henley said hello to me…’ and (my wife) goes, ‘Don Henley! He’s in The Eagles!’
“But as far as the compliments from the people like Eddie Vedder, it’s great, it’s tremendous. I didn’t think I was appreciated throughout the 1980’s. It wasn’t until the 1990’s – around ‘93/’94 that people started coming up to me and saying these things, and asking me to go on tour with them. And I started thinking, ‘Hey, this is nice…’
“See, we stayed in our own world so much that we didn’t think anyone cared; we thought were totally unappreciated.
“What’s good is that I have these friends like say Lisa Marie Presley, she didn’t listen to the Ramones. She’s my friend, she heard they were good; and now we’re in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. ‘Wow! I guess you guys were better than I thought.’ So that’s good, that a friend like her will say ‘You’re good.’”
I told Johnny that the Ramones are now looked upon as a legacy group!
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…I never thought this! (laughter). I thought we’d do one album, and I’d go back to construction work, ya know.”
“I’m amazed by the whole thing and feel I’m a lucky person, ya know,” summarized Dee Dee Ramone in our 2002 conversation.
“Like I was really blessed to be in that band and everything that came along with it. The longevity of it is shocking. All of a sudden the Ramones have this new life.
“It wasn’t like a cruel twist of faith instead it had a happy ending except for Joey, ya know. We always used to say horrible things to Joey. ‘We could have made it if we had Billy Idol.’ (laughs). We were nasty.
“And a lot of times Joey’s death really affected me. Because he wasn’t friendly to me and I felt shortchanged, and the last year I gave up on him and couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t really get to go through his death with him, ya know. It’s painful for me. I miss him. I think ‘what did he get out of life? What do you get out of being in the Ramones?’ He came back after all those tours and sat around the East Village.
“I feel bad for him that he was sick and didn’t have his freedom. And all I can think of is it’s inspiring not to not take life for granted.”
David Kessel, Linda Ramone, Dan Kessel
While we wait for the 2019 expanded configuration of End of the Century and hear Rick Rubin’s participation and results, I conducted a 2009 interview with Rick for my book Canyon of Dreams The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon about his bio-regional link to the magical music created in the region and at the Gold Star facility.
“It’s not lost on me that I was in rooms where Brian Wilson cut. Some of my favorite music that played a part in bringing me here… Then I began to realize the people and musicians who went to Fairfax High School: Herb Alpert, Phil Spector, Mo Ostin of Warner Bros, Anthony and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
“For example, on the last Chili Pepper’s album we used all of these tube microphones with the engineer Mark Linett, who did the recent Brian Wilson Smile and he did the basic tracks. And he used all of that ‘60s, vintage Beach Boys’ type gear, equipment that had been in Gold Star, Western. So there are elements that travel from Sunset and Santa Monica Blvd. into Laurel Canyon.
“Buffalo Springfield, Byrds and Hollies are things I listen to all of the time anyway. I pretty much exclusively listen to music from the ‘60s.”
In 2003, Rubin produced a cover of Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” that was first birthed at Gold Star in 1968 where it was mixed with engineers Jim Hilton and “Doc” Siegel, who was a resident Gold Star engineer 1964-1970 and did the Buffalo Springfield debut LP.
“That Iron Butterfly song is one of the great heavy songs and it just seemed appropriate for Slayer. “It’s interesting, because Slayer is such an extreme band that people who are not into that kind of music, because it’s different now, because there’s a lot of varied fast, hard music.
“But at the time they came along, like the first time you heard the Ramones, you don’t really know what to make of it. That was the case with Slayer. People didn’t even know if it was music. So that was a song that fit Slayer and told a story that this is the lineage that they come from.”
“I love seeing people of all ages wearing Ramones’ t-Shirts,” enthuses deejay and music industry veteran David Kessel owner of cavehollywood.com, “from little kids to oldsters. They’re letting their punk flag fly. The Ramones cross all generations because their music and lyrics reflect a parody of reality.
“I’m amazed and delighted that after all these years since the Ramones showed up on the scene, and became the scene, they are more popular globally in 2019 than ever. What they created is entrenched in our modern musical DNA.”
Harvey Kubernik is an author of 16 books. Kubernik’s The Doors Summer’s Gone was published by Other World Cottage Industries in February 2018 and nominated for the 2019 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.
His literary and music anthology Inside Cave Hollywood: The Harvey Kubernik Music InnerViews and InterViews Collection Vol. 1, was published in December 2017, by Cave Hollywood.
During December 2018, Sterling/Barnes and Noble published Kubernik’s The Story of The Band From Big Pink to the Last Waltz.
Harvey Kubernik penned the liner note booklets to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s Tapestry, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback Special, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, and the Ramones’ End of the Century.
Read his literary work on Cavehollywood.com.
From 1975-1980 Kubernik was an occasional food runner and provided percussion instruments and hand clapped on a handful of Phil Spector-produced recording sessions at Gold Star. His album credits include The Ramones’ End Of The Century and The Paley Brothers’ Baby, Let’s Stick Together. Harvey also participated on Leonard Cohen’s Death of a Ladies’ Man. In 1982 Kubernik produced a recording session at Gold Star under his own name.
