Marky Made His Mark

Twenty-seven years ago today (12/15/78), I saw the Ramones play Montezuma Hall. The band was still breaking in "Marky," fresh from Richard Hell and the Voidoids. That night, they played "Rockaway Beach," "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," and "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," which Joey introduced as "the one that got us banned in Sweden" (true).

My friend Joe and I were collecting autographs after the show when a guy I later deduced to be Ed Stasium (producer and sometime band guitarist) came up and announced the band's van wouldn't start and the equipment trucks had already left for L.A. Joe piped in that he had a pickup truck, and, the next thing we knew, we were driving north with four Ramones and manager Danny Fields in the truck bed. The band was due to shoot scenes the next day for Rock 'n' Roll High School at the abandoned Mount Carmel High in Watts. Unbeknownst to us, the guys had some blue Magic Markers, and they spent the trip doing shaky drawings on a grey tarp that Joe had in the truck bed. After we dropped the band at a roadside motel near Watts, Joe was pissed to see the marked-up tarp, but I offered to buy him a new one if he let me keep it. I still have it...don't bother making offers.