I see countless people around the globe wearing Ramones T-shirts. That’s a good thing, but I wonder if it’s like Che Guevara worn by people who don’t know who Che Guevara is. Or if they can name the guy on the shirt. -- Marky Ramone

Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone by Mark Bell is the autobiography of Ramones drummer Marky Ramone. Marky Ramone tells his life story which is more than his life as a Ramone. Bell is the longest playing member of the band still alive. Joey, Johnny, Tommy, and Dee Dee have all died over the last decade and a half. Various cancers took three members, and Dee Dee died from a heroin overdose.

The New York underground of the 1970s was a rough life and forty years later the list of survivors is small and shrinking. Last year Tommy Ramone and Lou Reed became memories. Of the small crowd that remains, it is good to see the history documented by Bell and others like Patti Smith. It was an important time in American rock music. There has been a steady stream of autobiographies out over the last year or two and all of them have proved to show a different side of the music. Keith Richards dove in with the drugs and a bit of self-congratulations. Neil Young wrote as a folksy, marijuana influenced, storyteller. Patti Smith wrote mostly of herself in her biography of Robert Mapplethorpe, and Bell tells his story which is much more than a Ramones story.

Most people can name a song or two Ramones. AT&T/Cingular used “Blitzkrieg Bop” as part of an ad promotion, leaving out the part of “Shoot’em in the back now.” People with a casual knowledge will tell you of glue sniffing and heroin. If you did not catch the Ramones in the 1970s, they seemed a bit odd and out of place. Perhaps what Kiss is to hard rock, the Ramones are to the punk movement -- Innovators that left a mark and still have young fans today.

Bell takes us through is fairly normal early life in a middle class New York and into his early music career in Dust and his time with Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys. Wayne (Jayne) County was a transgender singer well known in the Max’s Kansas City clique. The band did not catch on it was a little too extreme even in the era of David Bowie and The New York Dolls. Bell had quite a start before even joining the Ramones. Once in the Ramones, Bell goes into a great deal of telling who the members were and what it was like being in the band. Johnny the boss and proud Republican. Joey and his OCD and physical ailments. Dee Dee the songwriter and "character" in the band who had more than a mild drug problem. Marky enjoyed drinking to excess. Among all the substance abuse, there is only one mention of the drug mostly closely associated with the band -- airplane glue. That reference, however, was used in its proper context though.

Blitzkrieg Bop takes the reader through a history of famous people of the era. Bell mentions meeting Jim Morrison, and when he mentions names it's not name dropping. He was genuinely thrilled with meeting these people. Aside from the music, tours, and concerts, Bell goes into detail covering the making of Rock and Roll High School and the collaboration with Phil Spector.

Bell writes an amazingly coherent and detailed account of his life and his time in the Ramones. This is probably the most detailed history of the Ramones published and one that honestly details the relationships between the band members. Bell remarks that original members Joey and Johnny played over 2,200 shows together and despite differences managed to hold together for twenty years. This is clearly one of the best rock and roll biographies out there -- honest, personal, and significant.
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It starts off kind of slow, but then it just wraps you up in this completely fascinating snapshot of the 70's and 80's New York scene and beyond. I ended up looking up the music to listen as I read (Richard Hell and the Voidoids rule), which made it all the more interesting. Marky's vignettes were engrossing, though he gets pretty technical with some of the musical bits -- over my head but I'm sure real musicians will enjoy those details. Overall much better than I expected, to be honest. Heartbreaking but riveting stuff...long live Marky Ramone! ( )

Being the memoirs of the longest-serving surviving member of punk rock indispensables The Ramones, drummer Marky Ramone. In addition to the Ramones stories, the author spends significant time describing his battle against alcoholism, his time playing in his most significant other gig, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and his observations as a scenester in seventies New York in the seminal days of punk and new wave. The book is very interesting, albeit in a rather grim way. Despite the author's hopeful and cheerful veneer, it's disillusioning to read about the Ramones' complete inability to get along with each other and the members' severe psychological problems, particularly since the group always seemed to have such a feel-good, us against the world vibe. ( )

The life of the Ramones' second, and fourth, drummer. He tells of his childhood in Brooklyn and his beginnings as a professionals drummer playing in various local bands and having some international success with Dust and the early punk/jazz band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Then came the years with the Ramones, dealing with John's anger, Dee Dee's drugs and Joey's OCD. He remembers the making of each album, including the controversial End of the Century produced by Phil Spector.
This autobiography is great for the Ramones fan because it answers so many questions: how controlling was Johnny (very), how wild was Dee Dee, did Johnny really marry Joey's girlfriend, what was the backstory for so many of their songs and how did they go about replacing members who left. But this is also a great book for anyone interested in the NYC music scene in the 70's/80's, as he was there when punk began. The reader who only knows "I Wanna Be Sedated" might not be interested enough to get through the nearly 400 pages, as he doesn't join the band until more than a hundred pages in, but the fan will be rewarded with Marky's explanations for so many mysteries about the band. ( )