Chords for Ramones! Interview on the Tomorrow Show, with Tom Snyder 1981. (High Quality)

I'm talking to the Ramones right now.
Joey, why are you _ _ _ _ called the best names in the world? _ _ _ _
_ Just what didn't know.
It's a coincidence.
It's a coincidence.
It just all happened.
When we met in the elevator, we all have the [Gb] same last name.
You [F] never give your real names, but you don't want your mother's to be subjected to that.
Disgraced.
Right, right.
_ _ My mother just left the country, you know.
How did you get together, you guys?
We started like summer of 1974, [Bb] and we grew up together, lived in the same block,
we were friends.
Something we always wanted to do.
[Gb] Unnatural.
_ [Bb] Can you see?
Yes.
All _ right, and by the way, you know.
I was mean to get a haircut.
[F] _ _
_ No, it's too many things to do, you know.
What do you do?
What do I do?
What do you guys do all day?
[N] Nothing.
[Bb] _ _ _ No, no, no, no, no.
That was a great number.
We feel cheated that Tommy here.
[N] We don't appreciate, you know, not that, you know.
We [Bbm] want to argue with him.
Right, right.
What do you want to argue with him about?
Everything.
Okay, well, I'll argue with you about something.
I loved your number, but I couldn't understand a word you said.
_ _ [Eb] We [Bb] don't sing words, just sounds.
It's all telepathy, you know.
So they have to get it just by osmosing the whole.
They [Eb] osmosed it in.
_ You started back in the [F] mid-70s.
I want to know.
I was going to type out a lyric sheet for you tonight.
I [Eb] have it.
We want the airways.
This business is killing me.
The Ku Klux Klan [Bb] is stealing my baby away.
_ [Bb] Teenage lobotomy.
Yeah, I got it.
I got it.
And you're doing really well with it.
But you started punk, kind of.
Well.
Well, we consider [Gb] it a genuine rock and roll, you know, from the gut, you know.
Rock and roll was meant for punks, [F] and that's what started in the mid-50s.
I guess Elvis Presley started rock and roll.
Yeah, but punk is an answer to all the glitter and the stuff that costs a lot of money.
No, punk is just a rebellious rock for all kids, all of them.
I mean, real rock and roll is punk.
Not a bunch of old men playing music for your mothers and fathers.
That's what you have now.
That's what they call rock.
For instance. _
_ Sticks.
Yeah, sticks, Kansas, barn, stuff like that.
Your parents should listen to this.
[Bb] Is it mellowing down?
My mother doesn't even listen to that.
Your mother's more hip than that?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just, they just want to clean up music and just push.
Pat Boone.
Push mediocrity on the [Gb] public.
So you're back to your tattered jeans and your sneakers and your leather jackets and nothing fancy.
Well, we just want to be real.
We want to be ourselves and not put on a bunch of phony clothes.
Yeah, but wait a minute now.
Is this real?
[Bb] _ _ _
Well, we wore what we always wore.
Yeah, no, but isn't this a uniform too?
I mean, we all have the same jacket on.
We went over it.
When we started the group, we were talking about what we were going to wear.
You know, when we started thinking about it and we just decided to wear what we had.
This is what we were wearing before we were in the band.
We were thinking of getting dressed up and all that too, you know, and then we decided not to.
All the big rock stars are wearing what we were in now, like Billy Joel.
They're wearing their leather jacks and a queen.
They're trying to be the Ramones too.
Right. _
_ _ _ [F] _ The Sex Pistols, The Clash, those groups in England went beyond really [Bb] what you're doing
as far as becoming very politically [Bbm] violent, safety pins through their cheeks.
They didn't do those things.
Those are the bands that wanted to play rock music too.
It's just a fashion started from clothes stores and the public, the media just picked
up on a few assorted people.
[Ab] You know, how the media is into sensationalism.
And to show them, The [Bbm] Clash and The Sex Pistols don't wear those things.
Hey Joey, can you look [F] up and, I mean, with your hair like this, could you get in a car
accident real bad?
I mean, you could get hit by a bus.
Probably, yeah.
Right, right, right.
Well, I've had a few scrapes there, you know, but I think God's on my side.
_ [Bb]
That's dangerous.
And then you got the glasses besides.
Yes, right, right.
But [F] you guys have to have fun with it.
You have a sense of humor about the whole thing, right?
Well, rock's meant to be fun.
The [Eb] man says without a smile [Bbm] on his face.
Are you laughing?
[Bb] No.
With us or at us?
I don't know, you know.
Well, no, I'm kind of worried about you, Joey.
No, well, I'm pretty happy with myself.
_ I've been waiting two years to be on this show, you know.
_ [F] _ _ _ The bands that you really inspired back in the mid-70s, like Blondie and these people
that have, in a sense, commercially eclipsed you.
Does that make you mad at all?
No, I mean, they took that way to do that and play, you know, disco music and things
like that to make it. _ _ _ _ _
Yeah, [C] yeah.
_ [Bb] We're the only band that's stuck to its original ideals, you know.
Everybody else took the easy route, you know.
Everybody else [Bbm] either went to Santa Bruce Springsteen, like Elvis Costello and people
like that, or whether they went disco or whether they went reggae [Bb] or something like that.
We're the only band that stuck to our original idea, you know.
Which was hard driving rock and roll, huh?
That's what rock and roll is all about, you know.
We're not mad.
We're just doing what we want to do and we're happy doing this.
And you're making some money?
Right.
Obviously.
I mean, there's room for everybody.
There's no reason to shut out one kind of music, you know.
There's room for everybody, you know.
_ What about radio?
Well, you guys have said [F] that you're not thrilled about it.
Do you get a lot of airplay?
No.
Why not?
Because radio is like television and all they want to do is just crap.
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I mean, I'd _ [F] say something bad about this show too, but I just feel that way.
I mean, I'm just talking about situation comedies and things like that.
Well, this show puts everybody on, if that's what you're saying.
I'm talking about situation comedies.
But what about radio?
That must make you mad because you really _ thrive.
I mean, you survive on airplay, don't you?
You need that to sell your records, though.
Yeah.
It helps.
Well, radio just turned into a big business.
It's just pushing mediocrity.
And just like, _ [Bb] all they care about is money now.
Like, Texas 60s was definitely [F] the most innovative time in the history of rock and roll and radio,
where they play everything and they look for new things to play.
And the DJs were the [Eb] hip people.
And they turned us onto the Beatles [Bb] and various people [Eb] like that.
I mean, nowadays, you know, the DJs [Bbm] could care less.
It's just a salary, you know.
And it's just, radio is totally sterile, you know. It's a_
They play their hip-hip.
You don't really need it, though.
Really?
We haven't had it and we're getting along just fine without it.
_ _ _ _ Just because there is no radio doesn't mean the kids have to be stuck with mediocrity and not thinking.
They just have to discover things on their own, whether it's us [F] or anyone else, you know.
Do you write all your own stuff?
Yeah, well, we've done a few covers by some other people, too.
But [Eb] mostly, we write our own songs.
Phil Spector did one of your albums.
Yeah, he produced one.
Yeah.
What have you got in the future?
Well, our new album just came out, Pleasant Dreams.
[Bb] It came out a month ago. _ _
_ [G] _ [D] We're just touring America right now.
We'll be going to the Midwest this coming month.
How do you do in the Midwest?
Oh, very good.
It's a good place.
Do those people understand what you're about?
Oh, yeah.
They have kids [F] the same everywhere.
I mean, basically, if you want to come and have a good time and be entertained,
_ _ It's the kids in the suburbs, like the Midwest, that are really kind of cheated,
because a lot of people don't go over there.
We hit all the nooks and crannies, whereas a lot of the big men just play all [Bb] the 20,000
Civic Auditoriums in the country, and we play for the people, whereas they play for the
money, and they can kill us if the kids come dance or switch, or if the bouncer breaks
their head, they can kill us.
Well, actually, I've seen these big bands come through, and these big groups like, say,
yeah, they come by, and they have 9,000 people following them.
I mean, you don't need all that money anyway.
You don't put it into clothes.
_ But we don't go out to the Midwest and really shock anybody.
We're just the same as they are.
We may be a group based out of New York, but we're all kids from Queens.
We're suburban people.
And we have the same problems that everybody else has in Detroit or in Ohio or anywhere
else, and that's why kids are relating to us.
I'll bet you do.
The Ramones, thanks very much for coming down.
You sure you're okay, Joey?
Yes, yes, I'm fine.
All right, okay.
Thanks very much.
They started out in a paint store, and then_ _ _ _ _