The Ramones and the Talking heads to get rock and roll rocking chairs in Cleveland

March 12, 2002 6:13 PM

The Ramones and the Talking heads to get rock and roll rocking chairs in Cleveland

The sparring, though, is as much a part of the Ramones' history as their baseball-bat-clutching American eagle logo. "They'd play for 40 minutes," recalls CBGB proprietor Hilly Kristal. "And 20 of them would just be the band yelling at each other." Danny Fields says that early on, they'd also come to blows after their sets. "Johnny would be strangling Dee Dee, and there'd be press or fans waiting to see them," he says. "I'd tell folks they were just toweling off, give them a couple of minutes, and by the time people saw them, they'd be sipping a beer."
posted by AsiaInsider (18 comments total)

The brawling, the eagle, the leather jackets, it's all part of what the Ramones one of the greatest of all time. If someone from Mars asked me what rock and roll was, I'd play them Rocket to Russia. They absolutely belong in the Hall as do the Talking Heads.
It's just too bad Skynyrd and Bob Seger didn't get in with 'em.
[grumble]
posted by jonmc at 6:24 PM on March 12, 2002

This would have to happen after Joey died. *sigh*. Congrats to the brats, though.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:57 PM on March 12, 2002

Television, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, The (REAL!!!) Heartbreakers ...

sigh.

I'm glad to see these two bands go in, but as always with the Hall of Fame, its political. Induct the two bands that made the most money for the industry and cut out their worthy peers who didn't fill the coffers. Patti still has a shot ... she's been at the last two or three inductions, performing and introducing and generally licking boots. I love her, but I think that she's sacrificed a bit of dignity in the name of sharing space with her heros. As for the rest of them, yeah right. We can only dream.

Oh yeah -- Mink Deville, The Dead Boys, Pere Ubu (with an honorary induction for Peter Laughner), Suicide ...
posted by hipstertrash at 7:17 PM on March 12, 2002

Talking Heads, yecch. Spoo.

Are the Stooges in? The Dolls? (Not that it matters.)

Just finished reading Please Kill Me, and the roster of the dead in that last few chapters is really staggering. One after another, Nancy Spungen, Sid Vicious, Stiv Bators, Connie Gripp, Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan (this is where I started to cry), Rob Tyner (not to mention Fred Smith, Richard Sohl, Peter Laughner, Dave Alexander, Billy Murcia, Sterling Morrison, Andy Warhol, Lester Bangs, Joey Ramone, and almost, almost, Dee Dee...). Sobering. *raises glass ironically*
posted by rodii at 8:23 PM on March 12, 2002

rodii - amazing book, and yes, the ending was quite dismal. But then again, how many people will leave the kind of legacy that we attach to those names? Not that I wouldn't love for Lester to be around, to at least hold out hope for meeting him at some point, but hell. He died like he lived.

I love those letters to Dave Marsh that they reprint in "Psychotic Reaction." The ones from heaven. Whoever did it must have had a strong sense of how to give him a fitting tribute.

*sigh* I was born way too late ...
posted by hipstertrash at 8:58 PM on March 12, 2002

STOOGES


and the Damned.
posted by Settle at 9:24 PM on March 12, 2002

Are the Talking Heads still around?
posted by Kafei at 12:35 AM on March 13, 2002

Mink Deville. I had forgotten about them. I think it was a tour with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. A memory from the Pleistocene. Or was it Plasticine?
posted by pracowity at 12:45 AM on March 13, 2002

Heh...
Same as it ever was.
posted by KnitWit at 6:05 AM on March 13, 2002

lol....

Is this my beautiful life?
posted by AsiaInsider at 6:32 AM on March 13, 2002

Are the Talking Heads still around?

Try reading the link.
posted by glenwood at 7:03 AM on March 13, 2002

It was written:

Talking Heads, yecch. Spoo.

Rating: -1; Flamebait.
posted by artlung at 7:46 AM on March 13, 2002

It's beyond me why any band would want to be in the H of F. It's like Vegas - it's a place bands go when they're dead.

At least Spinal Tap went to Japan.
posted by jfuller at 9:35 AM on March 13, 2002

What is the point of having the Rock Hall here in Cleveland if all of the cool induction ceremonies are in New York? I heard that the only reason they have the ceremonies there is because none of the rock stars want to travel to Cleveland. Ugh. We need some kind of rock n roll hotel like the one that was shown in "Almost Famous". Does anyone know if that was a real place in Cleveland? I'm happy for The Ramones and The Heads.
posted by linklog at 2:39 PM on March 13, 2002

One of my greatest regrets is not seeing the Stop Making Sense show when I could have. I love Talking Heads. But I love Steely Dan more. And their Hall of Fame saga cracks me up.
posted by Dan Brilliant at 3:02 PM on March 13, 2002

please tell me jewel is not inducting either the talking heads or the ramones. that would be bad.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:28 PM on March 13, 2002

Dan, a great read, thank you.
posted by emf at 4:02 PM on March 13, 2002

"Byrne characterized the Heads' relationship as 'better than Israel and Palestine'."

heh.

So I guess Eugene Chadbourne will get inducted next year.
posted by mrhappy at 5:24 PM on March 13, 2002