Sunday, February 16, 2014

Paragraphs from Julan Cope's 'Head-On' # 2 The Ramones

 
'The Ramones were God of course. Without them we'd have all been stuck in flares still. In April1977 they played Eric's with Talking Heads supporting. 'Love Goes To A Building on Fire' was Talking Head's debut single. Everyone dug it and the club was packed. Talking Heads just kind of shambled on and did their thing. Then came The Ramones. The lights went down and they were there. I was standing to the right in front of Dee Dee. 1-2-3-4. VVV-rowwwmmmm, into 'Blitzkrieg Bop', 1-2-3-4 into 'Beat on the Brat' 1-2-3-4 ' Surfin' Bird' 1-2-3-4 ' Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue' : it was incessant. On record The Ramones were cartoons. They had a kind of weak sub-metal Spector vibe. But on stage? Dee Dee just kept coming with those 1-2-3-4s - he held the show together. The Ramones were a paramilitary operation, like funny terrorists. For Pinhead out came a placard with 'Gabba Gabba Hey'. Now only The Ramones could get away with this, and even they were pushing it.
 
After that, I had no real wish to play fast thrash. The Ramones had done it. All you could do was go faster. So what? Musically, it was still fundamentalism. You add one guitar and the whole trip falls down. Of course they never would do - The Ramones were perfect.'
 

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