Fin De Siecle

The End of the Century.

I saw this movie last night. It's a documentary about the Ramones. I really, really miss them. and it was kind of a stab in the gut to realise how much.

I guess I'd have to say that they're the band that inspired me to be in a band. That I could do it, too. They gave me my still present aversion to guitar solos, any song lasting longer than 3 minutes and ever having more than 1 guitar player in my band.

I saw them many times when I was in my mid teens to early 20's...and I'm so glad I did, like I'm glad I saw Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. The first time I saw The Ramones was about 28 years ago(!) at the Aragon Ballroom with Leslie West and Iggy Pop. I think Leslie West opened, it was his birthday and they brought him out a huge cake..which I hope he didn't eat any of, because at the time, he was a huge guy. It takes a big man to make a Les Paul look tiny. It was also my friend Diane's 16th birthday. I saw The Ramones several times after that. I always used to work my way up front and stand by the PA columns. Their gift to me besides some great memories and my love of aggressive music is a permanent ringing in my ears. The last time I saw them was in the lunchroom at College of Dupage in Glen Ellyn. This was right before they hung it up for good, I think(Edit:the last time I saw them was circa 1985, they hung it up in '96). My friend was working backstage security, so I was able to go right up to the stage and get pictures while they played. I have those pictures around somewhere, I hope. They were still so great..and fun. The best thing about them is that they sounded very threatening..but they were fun to listen to, and there was this innocence there, and who has NOT known this feeling:

Hey, daddy-o
I don't wanna go down to the basement
There's somethin' down there
I don't wanna go
Hey, Romeo
There's somethin' down there
I don't wanna go down to the basement

I always kind of tutted to myself about the fact that I was too old to really relate to the grunge movement, though I thought I did. It did that thing for my insides that the music that I love does, but Eddie Vedder told me I didn't really get it(This Is Not For You). I was all ears and open heart, you silly twat, the year punk broke. I was 17 years old in 1976. All YOU can do is watch the videos, and listen to the records. I was THERE. I was all ears in 1988, too, you weird-eyed fucker, when Nirvana released Bleach. HA!

The Ramones were the soundtrack of my emergence from dorky bookworm to....a pot smoking dork who actually had friends. Up until that time I had only and solely been my much more popular and cute sister's fat and unattractive older sister. Mike and Nick and Jim and Jeff and Gina and Kim and Shelley. ...we'd all sit around in Mike's basement talking, playing "power hitter in the dark" and listening to the Ramones, or the Talking Heads or the Jam or Iggy...I found who I was, somewhat, in Mike's basement. Funny what a little acceptance will do for a girl.

Then my mom bought me my first guitar..an epiphone 6 string acoustic, and my first bass, a green sunburst Rickenbacher copy. While I was in high school(hell on earth)I bought the first Sex Pistol's singles. In 1977. And I played them on the school radio station. And got in trouble for not going with the Eagles/Black Sabbath/Led Zep/Who/Jimi Hendrix/Pink Floyd fomula. I had a punk rock hair cut and wore a scarf that I had gotten from Steven Tyler at an Aerosmith concert. I figured I was already funny looking, why not be even more so? Punk Rock gave me my first tiny taste of some self esteem, and the realisation that if the pretty and popular kids think you're a loser..you're probably on the right track. I dropped out of high school soon after, a decision that to this day I do not regret. Got into a band with some girls from the Berkley/Hillside area, and in 1978 moved to LA to seek my fortune. All credit to the Ramones, Punk rock, and my friends, they all saved me from becoming something I was not.

On my computer desk, in front of me, sits a framed 8x10 photo of Johnny Ramone, taken at a show in NYC, in Central Park, in 1979. How fierce he was.

The movie made me sad. My world, at least, is a little bit less shiny because there will not ever be one more show.

Gabba Gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us.