{"id":525,"date":"2011-06-02T05:07:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T10:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=525"},"modified":"2011-06-02T05:07:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-02T10:07:40","slug":"book-review-i-slept-with-joey-ramone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/02\/book-review-i-slept-with-joey-ramone\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: I Slept With Joey Ramone"},"content":{"rendered":"

You know those cool Pete Frame<\/strong> rock family trees? One of those could come in handy when dealing with The Ramones<\/strong>. The group started with Johnny, Dee Dee, Joey<\/strong> and Tommy<\/strong>. When Tommy (i.e. the one in possession of what\u2019s most conventionally known as talent) left, Marky<\/strong> took his place. Tommy came back at one point. There were also Richie<\/strong> and C.J. Ramone<\/strong>. Of course none of these guys are related; the Ramones name came from \u2013 of all places \u2013 a briefly-used early pseudonym used by a Liverpool England guitarist\/bassist called McCartney<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A magic decoder ring might help readers early on when reading I Slept With Joey Ramone<\/em>. After awhile, you\u2019ll start to remember that when Mickey Leigh<\/strong> (more on him forthwith) mentions John Cummings, he\u2019s referring to the guy we all knew (if not loved) as Johnny Ramone. And so on.<\/p>\n

To further (at least initially) confuse things, this book, written by Joey Ramone\u2019s brother, switches back and forth between real names and stage names. So let\u2019s sort out the basics: Jeffery Hyman<\/strong>: that\u2019s Joey Ramone. Mickey Leigh: that\u2019s his brother Mitchel. And although Mickey Leigh is a writer \u2013 his monthly column \u201cMy Guitar is Pregnant\u201d runs in New York Waste<\/em> \u2013 I Slept With Joey Ramone<\/em> is cowrtten with noted punk chronicler Legs McNeil<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That last detail gets a little weird when Legs — who figures into the story — is written about in the third-person. But let\u2019s not quibble about the mechanics. This is a well-written book, a personal history of an important corner of rock\u2019n\u2019roll history. It\u2019s a story you won\u2019t get anywhere else.<\/p>\n

I Slept With Joey Ramone<\/em> is neither a worshipful ode to a fallen hero (Joey passed away in 2001) nor a dirt-dishing tell-all screed. Instead it\u2019s a dry-eyed yet sentimental look at Joey\u2019s life from the point of view of someone who was there. To characterize the brothers\u2019 relationship as difficult is to engage in vast understatement. Joey\/Jeffery had some serious medical\/psychological issues from which he suffered his entire life. Sad for him, of course, but those qualities informed his music to a significant degree, as the book illustrates.<\/p>\n

Joey\u2019s relationship with his parents is portrayed as equally dysfunctional. And some of the other characters in the story don\u2019t come off looking too swell. Johnny, in particular, is painted as an especially unsavory character who\u2019d as soon knife you as totally ignore you. It seems that for the most part, nobody in the Ramones much liked anybody else in the band. Tommy (Erdelyi) is pretty much the only character portrayed as having any sense of grounding, or (relative) normalcy.<\/p>\n

Reading I Slept With Joey Ramone<\/em>, I was struck by a few things. One, it\u2019s amazing that the Ramones held together as long as they did. Two, since the book does fold in some music criticism, I was reminded that it\u2019s worth pondering if they should have bothered much after 1985. But finally, I found myself grateful that someone took the time and effort to tell this story. Judging from the words of this 400-page book, loving the boy and then man who became Joey Ramone was often neither easy nor rewarding for Mickey Leigh. But love him he did.<\/p>\n

Making the book even better than it would otherwise be, I Slept With Joey Ramone<\/em> draws upon many interviews with relevant characters; the book\u2019s acknowledgement lists them all, and their names fill a half page.<\/p>\n

Occasionally veering close to too-much-information territory, I Slept With Joey Ramone<\/em> manages to (just) avoid falling into that trap. The result is a must-read, not only for Ramones fans, but for anyone interested in a personal — rather than merely historical \u2013 look at the major characters of the 1970s Noo Yawk punk scene.<\/p>\n

Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on Twitter<\/a> and get notified<\/center>
when new features, reviews and essays are published. <\/center>
\u00a0Disclosure of Material Connection:<\/center>
\"I<\/a> <\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You know those cool Pete Frame rock family trees? One of those could come in handy when dealing with The Ramones. The group started with Johnny, Dee Dee, Joey and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book","category-review","cat-10-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}