Joey Ramone – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Ramones – Sheena Is a Punk Rocker

I so love the Ramones. They cut through the BS and got down to business. No solos, no lengthy anything…just songs that rock and leave you wanting more. This song peaked at #81 on the Billboard 100 and #22 in the UK in 1977. This was supposedly the first punk song in the Billboard 100. This was the sound of punk going pop, and not in the sellout sense. It would become one of their most popular songs.

If you were standing outside CBGB in the summer of 1977, the street noise wasn’t just the usual loud feedback anymore; it had a melody with the Ramones. They had a lot of influences, but one of them was Bubblegum rock, and it shows. Most of their songs are very catchy.

This song was Joey Ramone’s attempt to write a 1960s-style teenage rebellion song for the late 1970s crowd, and he nailed it. The name was borrowed from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, a pulp heroine with a loincloth and a machete. But in the Ramones’ world, she trades her safari clothes for a leather jacket and heads to the rock clubs.

Tommy Ramone helped produce this track. He is credited on the album under his real name, Tommy Erdelyi. They were more popular years after they broke up than they were when they were together. It’s a shame they didn’t get as popular when they were a working band.

Joey Ramone: “‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ first came out as a single. I played it for (Sire Records President) Seymour Stein. He flipped out and said ‘We gotta record that song now.’ It was like back in the ’50s; you’d rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then put it right out. To me ‘Sheena’ was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: ‘But she just couldn’t stay/she had to break away/well New York City really has it all.’ It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that. Everybody was a Sheena.”

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go
They’re ready to go now they got their surfboards
And they’re going to the discotheque Au Go Go
But she just couldn’t stay she had to break away
Well New York City really has is all oh yeah, oh yeah

Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Well she’s a punk punk, a punk rocker
Punk punk a punk rocker
Punk punk a punk rocker
Punk punk a punk rocker

Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker
Sheena is a punk rocker now

Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated

This song and The KKK Took My Baby Away are my two top favorite Ramones saongs.

This song was released in 1978 on The Ramone’s album Road to Ruin. It has no chart history on Billboard but is one of their best-known songs. The Ramones were to the point, with no solos, no frills… just about the song.

I’ve heard them described as punk, bubblegum, rock, heavy rock and everything in between. I always thought they combined the elements of all of them.

When Joey Ramone wrote the lyrics for “I Wanna Be Sedated,” he was not joking. They were on tour in New Jersey in 1977 when the singer badly burned his face and chest with scalding water from a vaporizer he was using to soothe his throat.

He finished the show, then went to the hospital with second and third-degree burns. They pulled a bunch of shows while he recovered, and when they returned to the road in Europe he was still in constant pain. The song was scribbled down in London around Christmas, and the band cut it in 1978. Needless to say, it didn’t impact the charts, but today it’s one of their most-played songs on the radio. Joey Ramone said at one time it was his favorite Ramone track.

Joey Ramone: It’s a road song. I wrote it in 1977, through the 78. Well, Danny Fields was our first manager and he would work us to death. We would be on the road 360 days a year, and we went over to England, and we were there at Christmas time, and in Christmas time, London shuts down. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go. Here we were in London for the first time in our lives, and me and Dee Dee Ramone were sharing a room in the hotel, and we were watching The Guns of Navarone. So there was nothing to do, I mean, here we are in London finally, and this is what we are doing, watching American movies in the hotel room.

I Wanna Be Sedated

Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, nowhere to go o,
I wanna be sedated

Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane
I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, no where to go o,
I wanna be sedated

Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane
I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, no where to go o,
I wanna be sedated

Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco
I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my toes
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Twenty twenty twenty four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, no where to go o,
I wanna be sedated

Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco
I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my toes
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated
Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated
Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated
Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated

Ramones – The KKK Took My Baby Away

This and I Want To Be Sedated are my two favorite songs by the Ramones. I’ve been apprehensive about posting this one because of obvious reasons. UK #1s blog (Stuart) and I were talking a couple of weeks ago about how much we liked this song. It has a couple of really interesting stories that go with it as you might imagine.

There are two stories about how this song came to be. The most popular (but probably not true) is this one. Johnny Ramone, the politically conservative member of the group, stole away liberal Joey Ramone’s girlfriend Linda Daniele, and Joey wrote this song about it. So Joey made the comparison of the KKK to Johnny in the song…not because Johnny was a racist but because of his conservative views and being a tad upset about the Linda thing. Johnny eventually married Linda, causing a huge strain on his relationship with Joey.

More likely it’s this one. Joey’s brother, Mickey Leigh, has said that the song was written before he knew about Johnny and Linda. Leigh said their parents disapproved of interracial relationships. Joey was dating a black woman at the time and one day Leigh noticed they weren’t together anymore. He asked Joey what happened to the girl and Joey responded by saying “the KKK took my baby away.” The KKK was Joey’s parents who broke them up.

I seriously doubt if Johnny would have played on a song with him being referred to as the KKK. That being said…the marriage did cause a huge strain on Joey and Johnny’s personal relationship. Even before this, they were extreme in their political beliefs so they didn’t have an easy relationship anyway.

Monte Melnick the band’s tour manager on Joey and Johnny after the marriage: “They came to an agreement where they kind of tolerated each other, It’s like a business. You’re working with someone you don’t particularly like, but you’re still working there because you like your job.”

Linda Daniele: “So when it came time for Joey and me to break up, we understood. It was time to move on. Johnny was in love with me, I had been falling in love with Johnny. Joey knew that. For the first couple of years, I didn’t speak to Joey and then of all a sudden, this guy was doing a Ramones book. And out of the blue Joey called me. From that moment on, me and Joey always stayed in touch. I know people go, ‘Oh, you broke his heart.’ But Joey got another girlfriend right away after I left!”

The song was on their 1981 album Pleasant Dreams. The album peaked at #58 in the Billboard Album Charts.

Here are the Drive-By Truckers with a cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez4yjw5Y94s

The KKK Took My Baby Away

She went away for the holidays
Said she’s going to L.A.
But she never got there
She never got there
She never got there, they say

The KKK took my baby away
They took her away
Away from me
The KKK took my baby away
They took her away
Away from me

Now I don’t know
Where my baby can be
They took her from me
They took her from me
I don’t know
Where my baby can be
They took her from me
They took her from me

Ring me, ring me ring me
Up the President
And find out
Where my baby went
Ring me, ring me, ring me
Up the FBI
And find out if
My baby’s alive
Yeah, yeah, yeah

She went away for the holidays

The KKK took my baby away

They took my girl
They took my baby away

Ramones – Judy Is A Punk

The Ramones played the most basic form of rock but it never gets old. I’ve heard them described as punk, bubblegum, rock, hard rock, punk/pop/rock, and everything in between. They were greatly underappreciated in their time.

This song was released in 1976 on the Ramones’ debut album. In that year you had disco and slick pop going on everywhere…on the other hand, you had the Ramones. They bucked the trend of radio at the time. They developed a reputation in 1975 for playing rapid sets in and around New York City, often blasting through about 12 songs in 25 minutes. By the time they recorded this, they had honed their songs during many performances and included it on the album.

I first heard this album in the early 80s…and I liked the simplicity of their sound. There was a reason for that. The Ramones had a very sparse budget at the time… The entire album cost just $6,400 to make.

They were no-frills and to the point. No long solos or instrumental breaks. Just 2-minute blasts full of energy.

Like many Ramones songs…it is not your typical song story. This song tells a very vague story of two adventurous girls… Jackie and Judy. We know that Jackie is a punk and Judy is a runt, and they’ve decided to join the SLA – the Symbionese Liberation Army. The SLA was a fringe political group that was in the news for kidnaping the heiress Patty Hearst in 1974.

Lead singer Joey Ramone wrote the song and we think it was purely fictional.

The Ramones recorded a sequel song… “The Return Of Jackie And Judy” on their 1980 album End Of The Century.

Sequel Version

Judy Is A Punk

Jackie is a punk
Judy is a runt
They both went down to Berlin, joined the Ice Capades
And oh, I don’t know why
Oh, I don’t know why
Perhaps they’ll die

Jackie is a punk
Judy is a runt
They both went down to Frisco, joined the SLA
And oh, I don’t know why
Oh, I don’t know why
Perhaps they’ll die