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| Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone Review |
Is there any Ramone that is as ripped on by the majority of Ramones based retrospectives as Johnny Ramone? I've heard the terms quiet and abusive used to describe him, and his falling in love with Joey's girlfriend made a rift in the band that didn't even end with the band's split. Whether it's the End of the Century documentary or Vera Ramone's memoir, Johnny comes off as a dick. The descriptions and stories of Johnny are so consistent that it's surprising to see something like Too Tough to Die where the man is getting a tribute. It appears that this was originally thought out as a documentary on the Ramones 30th Anniversary Tribute and Benefit Concert, but Johnny Ramone was too weak to appear and passed away two days later, therefore the project became a tribute to Johnny as well. (I think that's how it happened)
At 76 minutes, you're not getting much here outside of a couple of songs and some interviews. Unfortunately, this documentary mixes the music and the interviews, therefore you'll be watching the Red Hot Chili Peppers play a Ramones song, and the middle of song gets interrupted by someone who's either in the band or a random celebrity fan. There's few uninterrupted tracks, and the quality of the performances is all over the place (X was horrible, RHCP were passable, and the Dickies were shoddy), but the set done by CJ, Marky, and Daniel Ray with rotating guest singers was as close as you'd get to a modern day Ramones set. The set was helped with some great performances by Henry Rollins, Eddie Vedder, and Dicky Barrett, making it the centerpiece of the documentary.
In the interview front, there's no mentions of anything critical or negative. Everyone is in praise mode and even the Joey/Johnny problem is passed off as a band issue that barely affected the band's work. The three dead Ramones are only seen through archival photos and film footage, and Johnny's only heard through an old interview. I wonder why he wasn't even shown planning the concert nor was there any footage of him listening or seeing the concert (as there's ways to do that). All you get is a scene during the concert where Rob Zombie calls him up so everyone can cheer for him. As mentioned earlier, Johnny was weak by this point so I won't go any further with that. You also see the footage of recorded announcements about Johnny's death and some key moments of the unveiling of his cenotaph during his memorial service.
Something that bothers me about this documentary is the continuation of making Richie Ramone an Unperson. The only time Richie was mentioned was by Tommy Ramone in his speech about the band. No archival footage or even an interview was done with him, but Clem Burke, WHO WAS WITH BAND FOR TWO SHOWS ONLY!!!!!, was interviewed and appeared in more than one spot. You can say that it's because he was in Blondie, one of the Ramones' peers at CBGBs, but Chris Stein and Debbie Harry were both interviewed and they're far more important than Clem. It's such a sore spot for me as only a hardcore fan would know that Clem was even a Ramone, but RICHIE WAS IN THE BAND FOR THREE FULL ALBUMS!! At least he got one of those lifetime Grammy awards they gave to the group last year, and they allowed him to talk for a bit. (Fuck, how come he always gets pushed away from Ramones products?) Maybe a notice of "Hey, we couldn't contact him on time" would have been better than the lack of mentions.
There isn't much to this unless you're a fan of the band. I rented this documentary a while ago, and the DVD is bare bones with a promo piece and a lackluster commentary track (still listenable for one part where the punk rocker asks Linda, Johnny's widow, a question about one of Joey's songs that gets close to the Joey/Johnny problem). If you can rent it, find it for a cheap price, or watch it when it's on a Starz-affiliated channel (it's also On Demand sometimes) then watch it, but don't go out of your way to view it.
