I've previously expressed love for Black Tambourine and
love their five-song tribute to one of my all-time favorite bands (available
at Bandcamp
for name-your-price download). It’s fun hearing different vocal
interpretations of these classics because let’s face it, Jeff Hyman’s voice
(which I loved) was the weak link of the Ramones. Visually he was stunning and
his enunciation was appropriately d-u-m-b, but I would wager his voice—and not
the violent, dysfunctional lyrics—was the main reason the band never achieved
decisive mainstream success.
Now calm down, bratbeaters, headbangers, gluesniffers, pinheads, cretins, animal boys, apepersons, loudmouths, slugs, succubi, commandos, warthogs, psychotherapists, lobotomists, and regular Joeys/Judys/Sheenas/Suzys/Ramonas like myself who just happen to love ‘em and did so from the first second of hearing “Glad to See You Go” in my sister’s living room in the spring of ‘77. (It was a pretty crowded living room.) I also got to see ‘em in Austin on Bastille Day that summer
on the Leave Home tour. Standing in
that giant buzzsaw (front row of the Armadillo, five feet from Johnny
and with a perfect view of the incomparable Erdelyi) was one of the most
glorious experiences of my rock and roll life. Maybe I’ll write more about it
sometime, although probably not. Come to think about it, I did mention it here
and here. I also mentioned seeing them eleven years later in this post about The Buck Pets.