Ramones – "Blitzkreig Bop" (1976)

What they want, I don't know

They're all revved up

And ready to go

Have you ever been “all revved up and ready to go,” wanting something – but you didn’t know exactly what?

God knows I have been.  (Most recently, just a couple of days ago.)

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I recently heard Steven Van Zandt – among other things, he was Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist and a regular on The Sopranos – talking about the birth of punk rock on his “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” show on SiriusXM Radio. 

Van Zandt told how the Ramones – who were largely unknown in the UK at the time – made their British debut at the Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976.  (Also on the bill that night were the Flamin’ Groovies, and the Stranglers – two of my all-time favorite groups.)

I understood Van Zandt to say that the Clash, the Damned, the Sex Pistols, and Chrissie Hynde (who would form the Pretenders in 1978) were present at that concert, and gave credit to the Ramones for inspiring all of them.

But when I sat down at my computer and started researching that legendary show, I found out that the Clash and the Sex Pistols were in Sheffield that night, playing at the Black Swan pub in Sheffield – which is a three-hour drive from London.

I think it’s safe to say that those two bands weren’t in the audience for that legendary Ramones show at the Roundhouse.

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At times, “Little Stevie” Van Zandt is so full of sh*t that his eyes are brown.  But I’m not sure that it’s his fault that he was wrong about where the Clash and Sex Pistols were that night.

In the classic 1996 book, Please Kill Me: the Uncensored History Oral History of Punk, Ramones manager Danny Fields is quoted as saying that Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash were at the Roundhouse concert.  He goes on to say that “Paul and Mick weren’t in the Clash yet” – according to Fields, they were “afraid to play until they saw the Ramones.”  

The Clash were brand new – in fact, the Black Swan gig was their first public appearance – but they had been rehearsing for a few weeks before their July 4 debut.  So Fields got it wrong when he was interviewed by the authors Please Kill Me.

The late Joey Ramone
(né Jeffrey Hyman)

The memory of the Ramones’ late bass player, Dee Dee Ramone, wasn’t any better.  He is quoted in Please Kill Me as saying that Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols came backstage to meet the Ramones at the Roundhouse – but the Sex Pistols were playing in Sheffield that night.

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The Ramones, Flamin’ Groovies, and Stranglers followed up their July 4 Roundhouse appearance with a show at a different London venue the next night.  Presumably that’s the performance attended by the Clash, Sex Pistols, et al.  

Mystery solved, thanks to good ol’ 2 or 3 lines!

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The Please Kill Me interviews of Danny Fields and Dee Dee Ramone included some very interesting stuff.  

Fields – who signed the MC5 and the Stooges to record deals before he discovered and signed the Ramones – was openly gay, and he was immediately attracted to Clash bassist Paul Simonon:

Paul was sitting around with these white socks and they were really dirty and I thought, boy, that’s cool.  I got a big crush on Paul . . . because I loved his socks.  They were really dirty thin white socks.  You could see where they started to get real dirty as soon as they got below the shoe line.

Former Sex Pistol Johnny
Rotten (né John Lydon) today

Dee Dee Ramone told an equally yucky story:

The Ramones always put a few drops of piss in anything they give their guests as a little joke.  When Johnny Rotten came to see the Ramones . . . he asked . . . if he could come backstage and say hello.  Johnny Ramone said it was alright and was very friendly to Johnny Rotten when they met.  He shook his hand, patted him on the back, and asked him if he wanted a beer.  Ha ha ha.

Johnny Rotten took it and drank it down in one gulp.  

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“Blitzkrieg Bop” was the first single the Ramones ever released.  It was also the first track on their eponymous debut album, which was released in April 1976.

Click here to listen to “Blitzkreig Bop.”

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