Ronnie Spector - She Talks to Rainbows

I originally posted this on my other site, but I decided to include it here as it is Ramones related.

Ronnie Spector - She Talks to Rainbows (1999)

I've reviewed a few live albums recently, therefore I'm turning my attention towards an EP that came out a little over a decade ago. Ronnie Spector, former lead singer of 60s girl group the Ronettes, partnered with longtime admirer and former Ramones frontman Joey Ramone (and longtime Ramones collaborator and producer Daniel Ray) to create a fun, but short cover album of 60s classics and some surprising punk covers. "She Talks To Rainbows" combines some of Ronnie's Sixties charm with modern production values, creating an updated sound that is enjoyable for both older and younger fans.

The Ramones covers and the collaboration with Joey are what first attracted me to She Talks to Rainbows. The choice of Ramones tracks, both originally penned by Joey, are from the Ramones's later, less popular eras. "She Talks To Rainbows" was one of the darker and better tracks off the band's final album ¡Adiós Amigos!, but "Bye Bye Baby" comes from one of the Ramones' darker albums, Halfway to Sanity. I love that album despite its gloom, but even I know that "Bye Bye Baby", a pastiche of 60s love songs, is unfortunately not a highlight. Joey sounded tired and the depressing, bass-heavy, arrangement lessened the song's possible impact.

"Bye Bye Baby" gets the biggest upgrade as it's turned into a successful duet between Joey and Ronnie. Gone is the dull bassline and the pessimistic atmosphere, and in comes an uplifting guitar sound, a piano, and Joey sounds alive evoking feelings of a lover's nostalgia and farewell. Ronnie even gets a bit of a solo in the middle eight! The improvements are what the song needed back in 1987 as it now seems like a finale of sorts for the Ronettes classic "Be My Baby". "She Talks to Rainbows"'s atmosphere is unchanged, but the Johnny Ramone chainsaw guitar is replaced with a cleaner, arpeggio-centric riff. Ronnie's voice is naturally sweeter than Joey's vocals in his recording, but she does a fine job bringing out the inherent sadness of that track.

"You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", Johnny Thunder's ballad, gets an upgrade. I'm not a fan of the studio original as Johnny wasn't a good singer and he makes that song drag on, and even the Guns N' Roses cover sounds just as horrid. Maybe some of you would be angry and say that I'm missing out on the song's sleazy charm, but Ronnie's version adds the beauty and gravitas that Johnny couldn't give. She retains the sadness that was in the original (Sadness is this album's m.o.) and the jump in tempo towards the chorus, but she doesn't speed up the chorus vocally as Johnny did, making this version ten times better in the process. (Plus, Joey returns to sing in the background towards the end!)

The Beach Boys's "Don't Worry Baby" was written by Brian Wilson as a pastiche of his favorite Ronettes track, "Be My Baby", therefore Ronnie is quite at home. Gone are those amazing harmonies and Brian Wilson's lead vocals, but Ronnie does a fine job with her version (and her backup singers aren't bad either). The final cover is a live rendition of the Ronettes's "I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine" and it is an interesting track. Gone is that grandiose "Wall of Sound" that Phil Spector had in the original, now replaced with a lead piano and a less bombastic backing band. Ronnie's performance in the original was fine, and this one isn't that far away from the original. There is a crackle in her voice here and there serving as a reminder of her age, but it's been a graceful aging.


Joey passed away in 2001, thereby making this his only collaboration with Ronnie. He left her with a fine comeback EP and groundwork that she used in her later album, Last of the Rock Stars. Thanks Joey!

Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone

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.

New Site!

First, there's more work to be done in this blog. I still have a long way to go in terms of books and documentaries and that's all coming in slowly.

In the meantime, I've started a new blog: Walk Among Us Music Reviews. It's more of an exercise than major work, but any comments and suggestions are accepted!

Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone

This is the first post in the new Books category for the blog. Ramones books aren't rare, but most are from family, friends, or biographers/scholars. Aside from Monte Melnick's On the Road with the Ramones, and the upcoming book Johnny was writing prior to his death, you know what you'll be getting isn't directly from any of the members of the group.

Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone oozes of the family and friends category to a fault. Vera Ramone, Dee Dee's first wife, writes about her long, troublesome relationship with the the band's most unstable member in a conflicting dichotomy throughout the whole book. In one side, her relationship with Dee Dee is full of lovely anecdotes of Dee Dee being goofy and an amicable husband, but the other side is pure horror. The horror is all based on his barely controlled drug use and his deteriorated mental condition, and how it leads to the brutal stories of domestic (physical and psychological) abuse that trumps some of the stuff that I've read in Pattie Boyd's Wonderful Tonight or John Lennon's biographies. The problem with the two opposing sides and the book in general is that, after writing about those impressionable moments, it all feels as it's swept under the rug with her unabashed love for the man. It's a battered wife story that unfortunately is common in life and in rock, and it never comes off well when it all sounds excused. It's great that this is not a hagiography of one of punk rock's infamous pioneers, but it's off-putting either way.

If you're looking for new bits of non-Dee Dee related Ramones dirt or stories, you won't find much here other than expanded information on older tales (The day when the band realized Johnny and Linda were together, some stuff on Joey's personal life). Her opinions on the band members and those around them coincides with what others have written about (Johnny Ramone is cold and distant, Joey was a romantic, etc..). If there's one story that unfortunately sticks to mind about the band in general, it's the 7-11 incident in Texas where Dee Dee savagely assaults Vera in front of the band, and no one but Monte gets involved.

I recommend the book to Dee Dee fans who want more information on his personal life and stories behind some of his later Ramones work, and I also recommend it to those that want to confirm stories and character portraits as Vera doesn't paint in broad strokes. However, her overall attitude about Dee Dee creeps me out, but...

Her book says enough to make my own opinion.

(On a side note- Is there anything outside of that Too Tough To Die Tribute DVD where Johnny Ramone doesn't come off as an asshole?)