RAMONES-- IT'S ALIVE: FUELED BY ELTON JOHN???!!
IT’S ALIVE by THE RAMONES. My favorite band. My favorite record.
Their best ever performance. Much to my surprise, we might have ELTON
JOHN to thank in part. We’ll let Ramones producer ED STASIUM take it
from here…
“I recorded six or seven gigs but we chose the Rainbow show because
it was a great gig all around….When they did the It’s Alive recording at
the Rainbow Theater in London on New Year’s Eve in ‘77, Elton john came
to the party dressed all crazed out in his gay Nazi biker drag uniform.
He had a German eagle SS pendant and a pound of cocaine in his hip
pocket and was giving everybody bumps of coke from this thing he had
around his neck. He actually held the thing as I snorted it….I thought
‘Holy Toledo, I’m snorting cocaine with Elton John!’”
—-excerpt from MONTE MELNICK’s book ON THE ROAD WITH THE RAMONES. It is wonderful. Go buy ten copies. Photos by DANNY FIELDS.
POSTSCRIPT:
One of the things that made the DVD release of IT'S ALIVE so enthralling was that it was the final culmination of an excruciatingly drawn out tease. Brief clips from the London show had trickled out on various RAMONES video releases over the years, and anticipation built to a fever as work on the IT'S ALIVE dvd commenced and was completed.
Just one problem- IT'S ALIVE omitted the tracks which had previously appeared! I've gathered them up here for convenience. Obviously the quality is not up to the stunning restoration apparent on the dvd, but they are thrilling nonetheless, Enjoy!
ROCKAWAY BEACH
SHEENA IS A PUNK ROCKER
ALSO!
Check out my daily track by track RAMONES career overview blog at
RAMONES--HUMMING A SICKENING TUNE
