Pulsating To The Backbeat
It's the birthday of John William Cummings, aka Johnny Ramone. When the Ramones were a going concern, he was their guitarist, and also the one who whipped them into shape. As much as anything, his neverending downstroke chords were the Ramones sound.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:10 AM
3 Comments:
Clint Howard has always been my hero (anyway since LAGuy pointed out our uncanny resemblance), but who is that handsome dancing stud in the white t-shirt? That guy has some moves.
ColumbusGuy, SWMB
code word: chumpt
Verb, or noun?
Johnny was the pageboy haircut, right? Sorry but let me use this as an excuse for the wayback machine.
I saw the Ramones in summer 1983 at "Heaven" a then brand new nightclub in downtown Pittsburgh (an old ornate downtown theater). The Ramones were still fairly edgy in Pgh then ("Howling At The Moon" had just come out) and the club was trying to be contraversial and hadn't quite settled on a coherent theme- the week before, I think it had run a full page ad with a bunch of naked better looking folks and seventies-type fat lettering that made you think it was a jet set hippy sex club.
So the Ramones played their set on the dancefloor- a couple hundred people stood around and some danced- a fair segment of the crowd was doing the nightclub thing (hitting on each other at the bars). Anyway, the Ramones finished their set (it was great- "Psychotherapy" was a hit and they showed videos- a still new idea -on the wall as they sang) and then the guys broke down their instruments and just hung out.
Johnny held a beer outside the men's room (it was on a balcony-weird set up) stairing down on the dancefloor looking incredibly out of place as the club morphed into a disco. I think he ignored anyone who tried to talk to him.
ColumbusGuy, that's Paul Bartel, in his classic role as music appreciation teacher Mr. McGree, who ultimately goes native.
Bartel appeared in and directed quite a few indie films. (He died about ten years ago.) He often appeared with Mary Woronov, who in this film plays evil principal Miss Togar. Years ago I was in New at an off-Broadway play and I met them in the lobby.
BTW, why don't you email me, ColumbusGuy. I need to ask you something.
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