Record Weirdo: Hey Ho, Let's Go - The Story of the Ramones

By Kevin Hillskemper

This is the first of what I hope to be many columns dedicated to the less serious aspects of record collecting. I used to have a newsletter called “Record Weirdo” but now I don’t. This column will mostly be about odd records that I find so I thought it fitting that I start it off with a book review.

Book Review
“Hey Ho, Let’s Go – The Story of the Ramones”
By Everett True

First of all, let me tell you about Sha-Na-Na. For those of you either too young or too feeble to remember, Sha-Na-Na were a 50's revivalist novelty music group that had a sketch comedy/variety show on TV in the late 70's/ early 80's. As far as content and style, it fell somewhere between "Joannie Loves Chachi" and "Hee-Haw". I liked it. One episode in particular stands out - when the Ramones were guests on the show. They performed the song "Rock n' Roll High School" and then participated in a "Family Feud" parody skit where "The Ramones Family" competed against the "Sha-Na-Na Family". It may have actually been funny, I don't remember. What I do remember is that it was one few, if only times, that anything resembling punk rock was presented at the time on national television without being mocked, exploited, or sensationalized. If you've ever seen the "punk rock" episodes or "CHiPS" or "Quincy" you'll know what I'm talking about. To Sha-Na-Na's credit, they showed the Ramones as what they were: a great rock 'n roll band with a sense of humor.

Anyway, the photograph of The Ramones on back cover of the new book "Hey Ho, Let’s Go" is from that very Sha-Na-Na show. I recognize that street-corner backdrop. However, there's absolutely no mention of Sha-Na-Na in the book and that's the problem that I have with it. In fact, that’s the problem that I have with a lot of things – there’s too much delving for significance and not enough Sha-Na-Na.

Since day one, people have trying to figure out if the Ramones were either calculated and deliberate performance artists or idiot-savant dadaists. This book certainly won’t put that issue to rest but that is not its purpose. What is its purpose then? Just to tell the story of a rock n’ roll band with a sense of humor or, in this case, “h-u-m-o-u-r”. There’s another problem with the book – the author is British and wrote the book in “English” English and not American English as it should be. It’s just not right to read about the Ramones’ “humour”, “neighbourhood”, or of Dee Dee’s “behaviour” (as I type “humour”,“neighbourhood” and “behaviour”, they are automatically underlined in red by Mr. Spellcheck – so there!).
Being English, the author seems to lack a certain cultural viewpoint to understand the All-American origins of the band and the pop-culture references in their songs. Case in point: In an interview with lighting guy/artist/friend of the band Arturo Vega, Vega was talking about sitting in a hotel room with Joey Ramone watching “Get Smart”.

The author asked him what “Get Smart” was. Huh?

Come to think of it, in addition to being ignorant, Mr. True comes off as being somewhat arrogant and condescending towards American pop culture. It may be true that American pop culture is mostly garbage and we Americans are capable of great stupidity, but that’s no reason for not knowing about “Get Smart”.

I’m also tired of hearing about the poor, dispossessed English working class youth of the 70’s. What does that have to do with the Ramones? Nothing. The Ramones were a by-product of the polyester-leisure-suited, earth-shoed, disco, Watergate, American 70’s damn it! Now that I think about it, there really isn’t much, if anything in this book about English working-class youth of the 70’s but that doesn’t mean I’m not sick of hearing about them.
The authour (misspelling intentional) also has a tendency to write too much about himself. I wanted to read more about the Ramones – that’s why I bought the book.
And another thing -- the term “da brudders” is overused. I’m not slamming the book, in fact I liked it very much, but those seeking spiritual fulfillment should look elsewhere. The book is a page-turner and, as fictional Broadway director Roger DeBris would say “It’s drenched with historical goodies.”

Readers will gain some insight into the lifestyles of the Ramones but we won’t find many intimate, private secrets that will make us feel creepy for knowing them. Mr. True is obviously a fan of the band and has enough respect for them as people not to sling any mud other than what they themselves had already thrown on the fence.

If you’re a dedicated Ramones fan, you either already have this book or you’re boycotting it for some obscure political reason. It’s alright. There are some differences of opinion and taste between the author and this, and certainly other, readers but that’s not such a big deal. For example-- he doesn’t like the movie “Rock ‘n Roll High School” and I do. That’s his problem.
There are a couple of funny typos though – one of Joey Ramones’ favored charities was written to be “neutering straight cats” and legendary LA scenester and Screaming Siren Pleasant Gehman is referred to as “Pleasant Gayman”. Okay, so they weren’t THAT funny but they would have been in 7th grade.

Okay, I’ll summarize the whole book for you. The Ramones were great – they should have been as big as the Beatles but they weren’t. Joey was a nice guy. Dee Dee was crazy. Johnny is an uptight Republican. Joey and Johnny didn’t like each other.

If you’re swimming in dough, go ahead and buy it – it will help the economy. If you’re counting change to buy ramen, check it out from the library instead.

The dust jacket on this book proclaims it as "the definitive biography of the Ramones." I don’t know if that’s true but I do know one thing—the definitive biography of Sha-Na-Na has not yet been written.