“I see babies in onsies, people in their sixties, wearing Ramones shirts. I go to the mall and I see teenagers wearing them. And I’m thinking to myself: they couldn’t even get any airplay on the radio in those days. They are not here to see this and to enjoy everything they worked so hard for. It’s such a disappointment, a shame, that it didn’t happen for them like that. I can’t believe it when I see it myself. I really can’t. It’s just amazing to me.”
I’m talking to Vera Ramone King on the eve of the release of her autobiographical book Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone (the Ramones Years) and asked her if she’d ever in her wildest dreams think about the effect the band would have on music in the future. Laugh at me if you must for posing such a question. But Vera lived, and survived to tell the tale, during the most important years of the life of the Ramones.
We’d been talking about one of the pictures in the upcoming book taken in Madrid, Spain, circa 1980. The title of it says that it’s her view from backstage. You can see Dee Dee, Joey and Johnny Ramone at the bottom of the stage in front of a massive audience. Playing rock festivals in Europe would have them performing to up to a half a million people at one time. Yet here in the states they were relegated to playing clubs. Having been witness to both, I figured why not ask her. And I have to agree with her, it’s sad to think they’re more popular now then when they were a live, touring band.
But let’s get back to the book. The pink banner across the dustcover calls it “A Punk Love Story” and it is. The story of how they met, fell in love and married is a modern day fairy tale. But unlike the ones we heard as children, this gives you a crystal clear picture of the reality of the situation. Truthful post-modern love affairs tell of the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in-between — as does Poisoned Heart.
The good includes marrying the man you love and traveling around the world with him. Dee Dee could be a loving and generous man. The bad was spending a good deal of your life together crossing the U.S. in a crowded van with a bunch of other guys. Even in the band’s heyday their lifestyle was not one of private jets and limousines. The ugly? Pledging your life to an addict who in turn could be self-destructive and abusive.
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