I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

Tommy Ramone (1949–2014)

Slowing it down and making it bluesy was Mark’s idea, and it took me a while to get used to, but I sure did. I had a bad case of the don’t-wannas in the mid-’70s regarding live music and never went to CBGBs to see them, or the Talking Heads, or Blondie. Whatta dummy. I did see Television and wasn’t that knocked out. But I played there a number of times with the Unholy Modal Rounders (1975−77). For the definitive take on punk rock on the Lower East Side, see the Jeffrey Lewis epic musical explanation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCYMFB7UPeY It ends with the Ramones going to the U.K. and people are thinking: Punk is born. But Jeffrey says it was already a quarter-century old, beginning with Harry Smith’s arrival on the Lower East Side in 1950.

My take on punk is that it was a reaction to the often bloated arena rock that arrived in the ’70s and an attempt to get back to the simpler days of rock ‘n’ roll, only with a potty mouth. I felt the Fugs were the first punks—bad attitude, no musical knowledge, let’s write 60 songs, like “Coca-Cola Douche” and the immortal “Bull Tongue Clit.” Lewis predates them in his punk history with the Holy Modal Rounders (1963). I can live with that.