I Know Better Now: My Life Before, During, and After The Ramones (Backbeat Books), by Richie Ramone with Peter Aaron
The Ramones sold relatively few records but in the late 1970s, they were more responsible than any band for scattering the seeds of punk rock from the Bowery to London and back from there to America and the world. Richie Ramone wasn’t there in the glory days, joining the band whose name he took in 1982. His memoir is half-over by the time he gets to his 1980 move from New Jersey to New York. More pages pass before the aspiring drummer found his way into The Ramones after Marky was fired. Many ironies are duly noted: The Ramones opened for U2, a band they inspired. The world tours were a whirlwind of booze and other drugs and unstable chemistry got in everyone’s way. By 1987 Richie was out and Marky was back behind the kit.
Showtime at the Apollo: The Epic Tale of Harlem’s Legendary Theater (Abrams Comic Arts), by Ted Fox and James Otis Smith
If you were an African-American performer in the 20th century, playing Harlem’s Apollo Theater was probably one of the pinnacles of your ambition. After 80 some years, it’s still running. In 1983, Ted Fox chronicled the venue’s story in his book Showtime at the Apollo. With the help of artist James Otis Smith, Fox transformed the new edition of Showtime in graphic style—a series of black, white and gray frames with text boxes that show and tell the story from the Apollo’s birth during the Great Depression through the near present. Highlights include show-stopping performances by James Brown and Sarah Vaughan and the hook given to subpar performers on amateur nights.
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Smash: Green Day, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX + the ’90s Punk Explosion (Da Capo), by Ian Winwood
British rock critic Ian Winwood’s topic is the unexpected rise of arena-size punk acts in the ‘90s. He interviewed many of the leading figures in the circle of Green Day, Bad Religion et al, but many of his most interesting ideas are contextual. Was punk really dormant from 1984 through 1989? Well, yeah, having been there, I see his point. Winwood virtually ignores grunge, mentioning only that Kurt Cobaian never called Nirvana punk. True again, though without punk it’s hard to imagine grunge bands turning into anything distinct from hard rock. Winwood takes well aimed shots at the self-defeating or snobbish mentality of punks who suspected anyone who sold more than a thousand records of selling out. Green Day certainly freed themselves from that dead end. Curious thing: I won’t be alone in puzzlement over Winwood’s assertion that The Damned “had the most influence on American punk rock.” The world still looks quite different from England’s far shore!
Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America (Da Capo), by Jesse Jarnow
Rather than rage against the system, The Weavers sang against it—softly but with plainspoken conviction. And the group from which came Pete Seeger, the gangly guiding figure in the folk-blues revival, put themselves on the line. Because of their ties to the Communist Party, The Weavers were banned from many halls, trailed by FBI agents and menaced by angry members of the American Legion. Although Jesse Jarnow is a bit naïve about Cold War politics and eager to project contemporary attitudes onto the past, he isn’t wrong to seek parallels and to identify an oppositionist strain in American culture dating from the republic’s origins. Wasn’t That a Time relives those dangerous days of blacklists—when everyone of any importance was on file in J. Edgar Hoover’s office—and reminds us of The Weavers role in widening appreciation for the folk music of America and other nations.
