Jello Biafra talks about Joey Ramone Chords

Meanwhile, I gotta at least say something about somebody we all sort of knew or
felt we knew that passed away recently.
To flash back a bit, used to be that
Colorado was overrun with horrible country rock when I was a teenager. _
_ Firefall lived in Boulder, sharing a town with them was quite nauseating.
Hey, Steven Stills lives here now.
Cool.
Joni Mitchell and Joe Walsh are moving
to town.
Country rock and jazz fusion were just forced on everybody.
No all-ages
venues for the most part and all these different country rock next big things
were all showcased for this place called Ebbets Field in Denver, a place where
there was no room for anybody to dance I might add.
And then one fine day I
noticed second on the bill opening for a record company band called Night City.
God what a great creative name Night City was a band called the Ramones.
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_ I wasn't quite sure what to think of the Ramones yet.
I picked up their first
album in a dollar bin when it came out.
Oh this looks like it might sound like
Iggy or MC5 New York Dolls.
I'll take this home.
Couldn't believe how short the
songs were and how the guy sang and then you look at the lyric sheet
conveniently provided beat on the brat with a baseball bat.
Oh yeah one song.
Now I want to sniff some glue.
Now I want to have something to do.
Another song and
not one goddamn guitar solo man.
Couldn't believe it.
And so I take the Ramones
album around to friends of mine's houses and after doing a bong hit or two or
three when it would normally go space out on psychedelic or progressive rock
music and I don't mean yes or any of that crap.
Put the Ramones on and we
would all kind of laugh at it but then I thought wait a minute something's kind
of up with this too.
So we all went down to see the Ramones and lining the front
row of Ebbets Field people who were hip to the Ramones.
Oh who was there Joseph
Pope.
It was in a San Francisco band called Anks later on.
Went to high school
with him.
The people who started the Wax Tracks label later in Chicago.
They were
there.
Al Jorgensen says he was there.
He was living in Colorado at the time but
none of us knew him then.
And then the rest of Ebbets Field was filled with the
country rock glitterati.
The local I am a music executive people which in the
70s meant feather hairdos, Kenny Loggins beards, corduroy suit jackets with
patches on the elbows.
You know music professionals.
And their dates that all
had their hair done 20 style with a flower because Joni Mitchell was looking
like that then.
All ready to have a nice mellow quiet evening.
Then these four
grubby looking guys in leather jackets who we all thought were brothers at the
time and torn jeans walk onto the stage and a few eyes start to raise in _ the
audience.
Then Joni hits the chord on the guitar one chord and I knew it was
gonna be a fuck of a lot louder than any of us ever thought it was gonna be.
And
then one two three four and the whole place blew up.
We weren't allowed to
dance.
Everybody just had to sit there and at first the sound was terrifying.
It
was so loud.
And then he's like oh my god they're really really good.
And then I
had to turn around and see what the rest of Ebbets Field looked like.
And all
these people.
No no no make them stop make them stop.
Yes yes yes.
Not only were
they so fucking intense but they made it look so simple.
It was like God Joey has
the same microphone move over and over and over again.
Just like he did till the
Ramones stopped playing.
It was like anybody could do that.
I could do that.
This is something I would actually like to do.
I don't have to listen to Black
Sabbath and kill myself after all.
This is something to look forward to.
_ _ _ Then
Joseph Pope came back out.
I was just in the dressing room talking to the Ramones.
Talking to a rock musician.
A real live rock musician.
They'll talk to us.
I
couldn't believe it.
They would actually talk to me.
This anonymous teenage
nobody.
Mainly Joey who I shot the shit with for quite a while.
Leave home and
come out that week.
So I went out and got that one and then got him to sign it the
next night.
Which I'd never had anybody do before.
But felt this is the beginning
of something really really important.
And I'm so glad I'm gonna get to fucking be
there.
_ Maximum Rock and Roll has said it's a plot by rock stars to mind fuck
the poor innocent fans.
Well I still sign shit for people because of how much it
meant to me when Joey and the Ramones signed my records back in January of
1977.
_ _ _ I don't know how many of us would be here tonight.
Certainly not me if it
weren't for Joey and the Ramones.
God damn I'll miss that man.
Thank you Joey Ramone.
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