Marty Ramone

Marty Ramone, by “Boris!” Great work, “Boris,” I always wanted to be a Ramone and now I are one!

Speaking of one...”ONECHEWTHREEFOUR!”

Interview With Ida Langsam

Ida Langsam and Joey Ramone

Way back in 1996 I was doing my ‘zine fishwrap and had had some luck with it. It had been named “zine of the month in both Sassy and Spin magazines and I had gotten a distribution deal and it was being sold nationwide (on a small scale, but still it was available in a lot of places.) So I decided to take it from a 12 page black and white fanzine to a 42 page, four color cover magazine. The first issue was going to be a special, “Rock ‘n’ Roll” issue where I asked rock stars about their favorite magazines and such. The only hitch in this was that I didn’t know any rock stars. But that didn’t stop me.

Being a huge Ramones fan, I thought I’d start there. I made a few calls and found out that their publicity was handled through ISL Public Relations, so I got on the phone and called the person who ran the place and was the Ramones publicist, Ida Langsam. She turned out to be super nice and set up an interview for me with Marky Ramone. That itself turned into a funny story.

The Ramones were on tour, so I was instructed to call his hotel room at a certain time and was told he’d be there to take the call. I called and sure enough he was there. I was talking to a Ramone! I just hoped he would give me enough time to ask the questions I wanted to ask, because I was sure he thought this was some two-bit deal to be doing, after all it’s not like it was Rolling Stone or anything. Well I got the questions out and thanked him for his time and then he told me had nothing to do till soundcheck and could continue to talk. And he did, this guy likes to talk, let me tell you, I heard his views on politics, New York, music, journalism and lots more. Finally I had to tell him I had to go to work and he kept talking, so eventually I just said, “Thanks a lot!” and hung up on him!

Anyway, since this is Ramone’s Thursday, I thought this would be a good excuse to hang out with Ida and do an interview. And here it is!

Marty: Hello Ida, how are you?

Ida: Very good, thank - and you?

Marty: Great, so how did you end up being the Ramones publicist and how long were you their publicist?

Ida: I had been approached several times by Andrea Starr, who worked at the Ramones' management company. We discussed publicity for the band numerous times over the course of a fewyears but nothing came of it. The band was just resistant to hiring an independent publicity representative. Finally, the proposal was made to try it out for one month with no commitment. That turned into a nine year campaign! I handled press for The Ramones for the final nine years they were together as a band.

Marty: Did you ever go out on the road with them?

Ida: No! I did ride in the Ramones van once or twice and it was not a pretty sight. Or smell.

Marty: My favorite Ramone was Dee Dee. I always felt a bit sad for him though, because he seemed kind of troubled. What was he like to deal with?

Ida: Dee Dee could be a very sweet, caring, concerned, gentle man. Then there were times when he was difficult to comprehend. Everyone has their moods, especially artistes, and Dee Dee was no exception. I was surprised to find him on the same plane with me going to LA for the Ramones' final concert. He was just sitting by himself towards the rear of the plane, very unassuming, almost shy. I almost walked right by him on my way to the restroom! I invited him to move up and sit where I was, which he did. At that time, he had just begun writing his first book and gave me some of the pages to read.He was unsure about it but I thought it was wonderfully written and told him so, and encouraged him to finish it. Then there were times after that when I tried to speak with him by phone and it was almost impossible to keep up with him. It was as though he picked up the phone and was jumping into the middle of whateverconversation he had last had! You had to expect the unexpected with Dee Dee.

Marty: From what I’ve read, Johnny always came off as a controlling task-master. How was it working with him?

Ida: Difficult. Johnny was not very interested in other people's opinions. He had very little use for women - I think he just had a lot of trouble understanding or relating to women so he just iced them out. He also was not very interested in doing interviews especially at the end of the band's career. I always got a lot of requests to speak with him from writers as well as to Joey. Joey was easy - he would be glad to speak to almost anyone. But those rare times when management could talk Johnny into doing interviews, he would set aside one hour and want to do three interviews in that time period - 20 minutes each, and that was it. Johnny only wanted to do interviews by phone whereas Joey was quite happy to have writers come over to his apartment and spend hours talking with them.

Marty: What are some of your favorite Ramones memories?

Ida: Being at the video shoot for "Pet Sematary" was a standout. It was shot in the Hudson Valley, NY in the area made famous by author Washington Irving who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman, Rip Van Winkle. The shoot was outdoors at night and went on way into the wee hours, it was cold, there were a lot of guest cameos to be shot (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, and lots of Ramones' friends dressed up like ghouls flitting in and out of the scene.The end shot had the band in an open grave, playing their instruments while standing on a platform that was slowly lowered down into the ground and then the top of a giant casket was put on top, closing the band in. Even though they were only in the grave, covered, for a few seconds, the scene had to be shot over several times and it really freaked out the guys because it kind of felt like being buried alive. That was a very strange night.

Marty: Do you have a favorite Ramones song?

Ida: That's really hard to pick.I love "Somebody Put Something In My Drink" and "Poison Heart," and "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Sheena" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"...there are just too many great, great songs to pick one.

Marty: I know you’re involved with the annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash, how did that come to be and how did it go this year?

Ida: This was the 9th year, and it was great as they all have been.After the Ramones ended, I continued working with Joey on his solo projects, and also did some PR work for his brother Mickey Leigh, a talented musician in his own right. When Joey was in the hospital in his final days, his mother Charlotte promised that he would have a big birthday celebration for his 50th birthday.It was a way of planning for the future and looking towards Joey's recovery. Unfortunately, Joey passed away on April 15just a fewweeks before his May 19th birthday.Charlotte decided she was going to keep her promised to Joey and wanted to have a party to celebrate his life. That first Birthday Bash came together in a matter of days - everything from finding a venue to getting the bands to spreading the word to taking care of the details of putting on such a major concert, like insurance, equipment, security. There was never a question but that I would volunteer my services as an homage to Joey.And I've been working ever since with the very dedicated team that put it together every year.It's wonderfully fulfilling to be a part of celebrating Joey's life and love of music and sharing that feeling with all the fans who come out every year. Some fans come from all over the world to be there that one night - they come from Scandinavia and Europe and South America!

Ida and Dee Dee.

Marty: You do publicity for a lot of bands, are they impressed that you worked with the Ramones for so long?

Ida: Some are, some aren't. The Ramones were an important influence on so many bands and musicians and continue to do so.

Marty: Speaking of other bands, who else have you done publicity for through the years?

Ida: Wow - so many great artists: Kiss, Billy Idol, Dee Snyder, Linda Ronstadt, Barry Manilow, Joan Jett, Jayne County, NRBQ, Grateful Dead, Wendy Carlos, Manowar - I also did the press for Dee Dee's solo album, his rap record under the name Dee Dee King. Or rather, TRIED to do the press.At the time, no one wanted to hear anything about one of the Ramone trying anything different. It was a losing battle trying to get journalists to take it seriously. This was way before the Internet where we could have reached the fans directly and found acceptance.

Marty: How long have you had your own company?

Ida: Since 1981.

Marty: How has the Internet affected the way publicity for bands is handled?

Ida: There are so many more outlets that cover music now!The blogs, the online zines, the online editions of paper magazines and newspapers - and it's accessible to anyone with a computer. No need to go out of your house, go into a shop and decide which of the mags in the racks you get to spend your allowance on. Furthermore, the turn around is so much less! An online could conceivably run something within an hour of receiving the copy whereas a national monthly publication generally has a three month lead time from the time the article is handed in, and it comes out in the magazine.

Marty: You’ve met three out of the four Beatles. Can you briefly tell me about all three meetings? If not briefly tell me anyway, I’ve got all night!

Ida: When I was "a kid," I went to London with my mom and my best friend met us there. It was out first time there and all she and I wanted to do was wait outside Paul McCartney's house to "meet" him. There was always a gaggle of fans waiting outside the gates, fans from all over the world all getting along sharing photos and stories and just waiting. He would come out for about 10 minutes, talk to the fans, sign autographs, take photos and then go back inside the house. One day a group of us snuck into his neighbor's driveway and climbed up into the (empty) flower bed to peek over the fence as Paul was hosing down his car. He saw (and probably hear the giggles) us watching him and turned the hose on us!I managed to duck just in time but many of the others got drenched. No one minded. Then when he drove off, we ran to the nearest tube station, went into town to the Apple offices and waited outside the building. Within minutes, Paul came down the street (must have parked the car at a lot or something) and was amused that we had gotten there faster than him! That was the first time I "met" Paul.

One of those days waiting outside Paul's house a bevy of guests came and went - Vivien Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (little did I know that years later I would be doing press for Viv for his solo album!), Paul's brother Mike McGear, and John, Yoko and Kyoko are the ones I remember. Those of us standing outside could hear them rehearsing songs for recording - they were working on the White Album, I believe. It was either "One After Nine Oh Nine" or "Back In The USSR," I actually don't recall, but we stood there listening to what we could hear coming out of the windows. A van pulled up and parked outside and the driver went into Paul's house. There were little windows in the back doors of the van and a couple of fans - and I - stepped up onto the little step and peered into the windows and saw the truck was filled with costumes. Turns out that weekend (the one day my friend and I did not go to Paul's house because, at the insistence of my mother, we did some sightseeing) the band did one of their most famous photo sessions - the one where Paul wore a pink suit and George wore a t-shirt printed to look like a shirt and tie.I guess that's what the costumes in the truck were for.

During the time when the US government was attempting to deport John &Yoko from living in NY and getting green cards I worked for a while for the National Committee for John & Yoko.It was a part time job, after school, and I assisted Helen, the woman who handled the press and John, the committee organizer. Mostly I sent out petitions to Beatles fans so they could get friends to sign it and voice their protest against the attempted deportation which were then sent to some government agency. I also filed the signed petitions when they came in.At first the offices were housed in offices in Allen Klein's company but one afternoon Helen and I returned after going out for lunch and were told we had one hour to clean out the offices and leave the premises. Seems the band had fired Klein just then and we were sent packing, moving downtown to a small house John & Yoko owned on Broome Street in Greenwich Village, where they did their artist business/filmmaking and also kept a large amount of clothes they were no longer interested in keeping. They were living nearby in a brownstone, and one afternoon I was instructed to run an errand by their assistant Nadia Gruen, who was then married to famed photographer Bob Gruen. She called me over to the house and gave me some money to go out and get a suitcase or duffle bag for John & Yoko as they were due to fly to LA the next day. I asked to be introduced to John and Yoko in exchange and she said yes. I didn't know my way around the Village then and wandered around in the general direction Nadia had indicated and didn't know if they would want a suitcase or duffle bag so I got both. It had started raining lightly so I took a cab back, knocked on the door and Nadia answered. She took the bags and change, and started to close the door.I said, "Wait! You said you would introduce me to John & Yoko," and she said, "Oh, sorry, they're taking a nap." I was crestfallen!But a few days later I attended a press conference John and Yoko gave so their lawyer could update the media on the case, and sat in the front row just feet from them.I was a photography student at the time and took several lovely photos of them from an excellent vantage point.

It was also because of being a photographer that I met George. He was in New York recording and one day at the office, The Beatles' promotion man Pete Bennett asked me if I would come to the studio that evening and take some photos for him of George. Well, duh! Yes! I went home to get my camera, called my best friend to come with me, and we headed downtown. We got to the studio, announced ourselves to the receptionist and told to wait while she contacted Pete. A few moments later she said Pete had told her to tell us he no longer needed me, someone else had already taken photos. Without thinking, I said in a very agitated tone that Pete has asked me to do this, I went all the way home to get my camera and came back downtown, and now he was dismissing me??!! Oh no, I wouldn't just slink away quietly. She called Pete, he came out to talk to me and I told him (what chutzpah I had!) that he had promised and it was unfair that he changed his mind. He said OK, wait here, he'll ask George if we could come back and meet him. Within moments Pete came back and motioned us to follow him and lo and behold! there in the hallway was George waiting to meet us. I don't remember what we said or muttered to him, but Pete ended up taking some shots of my friend and I standing next to George who in the photos looks less than thrilled! LOL! So the reason the photos are blurry is because Pete didn't know how to focus the camera!

George Harrison and Ida.

Marty: Who are some of the bands you’re representing now? Feel free to plug away, I'll list their web sites as well.

Ida: I am constantly creating campaigns for excellent up and coming musicians whom we call Emerging Aritsts. My current roster consists of:
Emiko.
South African musician Syd Kitchen and a documentary film being made about him.
Giuseppe Spoletini and Nona Hendryx Presents Hopestock: Music To Bailout Your Soul, a series of concerts this summer.
Rise From Ashes.
Composer/drummer Billy Atwell.
Amazing singer Lorraine Ferro and her hard rock band LoudLife.

Marty: Getting back to the Ramones, did you have a favorite Ramone? Who was the easiest to deal with and who was the worst?

Ida: I had the closest relationship with Joey. I found him the easiest to deal with.He was the most accommodating in terms of doing interviews, the easiest to get in touch with, and the most forthcoming with news, information and anecdotes. Joey is the one who gave me a gold record for their Ramonesmania album, and a Ramones leather jacket as gifts. The most difficult for me to deal with was Johnny for many of the reasons mentioned earlier.

Marty: What are your feelings now that three of the four original Ramones are dead, that all of a sudden it’s hip to like the Ramones? It always amazed me that magazines like Rolling Stone kind of ignored them in the day, in spite of the fact that without them, there probably wouldn't have been bands like the Clash, Sex Pistols and on and on. As a publicist, it had to be frustrating for you. Any thoughts on this?

Ida: It's a shame the band did not get the respect from most journalists during their lifetime. I worked with The Ramones for nine years and in that time, it was almost impossible to get the major national music magazines to cover the band, The group was huge in Europe, Japan and South America where their concerts drew literally hundreds of thousands of fans and their appearance caused near riots in the streets. But in the US, the feeling was "Oh yeah, The Ramones, they've been around forever and they'll be around forever. Call me when they have a hit record." The odd thing was every music fan you'd ask would say they owned at least one Ramones record but sales figures never ever reflected those kinds of numbers. We always wondered if one person bought the album and copied it for all his friends. And without sales figures "in those days" there was basically no radio play. It was extremely frustrating! There were legions of fans in the press corps but like pulling teeth to get anyone to write about the band. At least the band finally has achieved superstar status and gotten the recognition they've always deserved not only for being such a major influence to so many other musicians but also for being the great band they were.

Marty: Thanks for your time, Ida, it’s been fun, but now it’s time to say, “Hey Ho, Let’s Go!”
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IDA S. LANGSAM is a seasoned and lauded music business and publicity expert. She has overseen numerous successful campaigns for artists, record labels, corporations, arts and arts related events. By bringing her years of experience and connections to her projects, she has the kind of rare insights that allows her clients to rise above the pack. Read more about Ida and her company right here: ISL Public Relations.

Surfing Bird

Ramones linkage on the internet:

Ramones World—Site by longtime art director Arturo Vega

Joey Ramone.com

Ramones Wikipedia

Johnny Ramone.com

Ramones lyrics at Metrolyrics

Marky Ramone.com

The Ramones at All Music

Vera Ramone.com

Uncle Monk Tommy Ramone’s accoustic duo site.

Here’s a great Ramones discography plus cool links to the left.

Richie Ramone.com

The Ramones IMDb page

The Ramones at bio.com

A Ramones fan site.

And finally a biography at Rolling Stone, who ignored them until they died.

Ramone’s name generator!

Ever wonder what your Ramone name would be? Check out the Ramone’s Name Generator below and find out! This thing is magical! Click on the link below and share your Ramone name with all of us.

Ramone’s Name Generator.

(Hat tip to “Boris,” for finding this!)

Ramones Thursday!

Welcome to Ramones Thursday! Tons of Ramones shit going on today. I’ll be posting Ramones links, videos, I’ve got an interview with Ida Langsam who was The Ramones’ publicist for the last nine years of their existence, an interview I did with Marky Ramone in my old fishwrap magazine and you’ll get to meet the fifth Ramone, Marty Ramone via “Boris’” Photoshop magic.

And speaking of “Boris,” once again, that’s his great artwork on the Home Page. Gabba, gaaba “Boris!” Thanks! Oh and “Boris” does freelance artwork, so if you need a CD cover designed, a logo or any type of artwork, just send me an email and I’ll pass the information on to “Boris.”

Okay, don’t forget to be checking the red links at the bottom of the Home Page for the newest updates. There’s going to be over a half a dozen just here alone at the Daily Post and that’s not including the Daily Photo, Condensed Gossip and multiple posts throughout the day at fishwrap. So check back often!

Hey ho, LET’S GO!

Beer Frame

Okay, it’s about two in the morning, so it’s officially Theme Show Thursday. Today’s theme is going to be The Ramones, so I thought I’d write a little about them in this morning’s Beer Frame.

The first Ramones album came out when I was a senior in high school in 1976. I remember reading a review of it in Creem magazine and the reviewer said they sounded like the Beach Boys on speed. Well I liked speed and I liked the Beach Boys, so I bought the album and couldn’t believe what I heard when I played it.

You have to realize this was 1976 and the whole music scene really sucked. Here’s some “number one” songs from 1976:

Barry Manilow—I Write the Songs
Bee Gees—You Should Be Dancing
Bellamy Brothers—Let Your Love Flow
Chicago—If You Leave Me Now
Diana Ross—Love Hangover
Elton John & Kiki Dee—Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Johnnie Taylor—Disco Lady

As you can see, pretty fucking lame. From the opening song on the album, “Blitzkrieg Bop,” I was blown away. I had never heard anything like this in my life. I played that album over and over. And the songs were fucking hilarious. Shit like, “Beat on the Brat,” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.”

And they looked bizarre at the time. They all wore black leather motorcycle jackets and T-shirts and their jeans were all ripped up. And they had almost identical soup bowl type haircuts. Nobody looked like this at the time.

I really got into punk rock after that and started reading a magazine published in New York called Punk. The editor and designer was John Holmstrom (and he also did the artwork on Rocket to Russia) and the “reident punk,” was Legs McNeil. These guys hung out with the Ramones, Blondie, Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, David Johansson and the whole C.B.G.B.’s crew. I remember reading Punk magazine in my bedroom wondering what New York was like.

And years later I found out when I moved here in 1993. And through the years I’ve gotten to know John Holmstrom and Legs McNeil, I met all the Ramones at a book signing in 1993, I interviewed Marky Ramone in 1986 for my magazine fishwrap, got to know their publicist, Ida Langsam and a couple weeks ago I met Dee Dee’s ex-wife, Vera at a book signing and got her to sign my book, “Hi Asshole!”

It’s a crazy fucking world! Here’s one of the earliest clips of The Ramones, you’ll be hearing a lot more from them and about them later. As always, the new posts start around noon. Hope to see you then!

Cheers!

Marty

Daily Video

Tomorrow is theme day Thursday, here’s a little preview of tomorrow's theme in today’s Daily Video! Ladies and gentlemen, the Ramones!

Got Any Gum?

My friend, LN Sugarman told me this is her favorite thing on The Marty Wombacher Show and gave me this great quote: “Gum is the Gateway to Friendship!” I’m going to use this as a standing quote for each week’s episode of “Got Any Gum?” Thanks for the great quote LN!

Today’s contestants are Artist Dee D’Caro and his friend, Chelsea Hunter. Dee paints portraits on recycled vinyl albums, check out his website here: Dee’s website: www.reartrecords.com. If the link doesn’t work now, check back this evening, Dee said it was going live tonight.

And now it’s time to play...Got Any Gum?

Dee, Chelsea...have you GOT ANY GUM?

And sadly the answer is no. I need to take LN’s advice and start bringin gum with me

We’ll see you all next week, for another exciting edition of, Got Any Gum?

This Week's Special Guest Star...

...is Gary Pig Gold!

Stop over here: Special Guest Star, and give him a big hand and read his tale of Pat Boonery!

Goddamn Hollywood Scumbuckets!

So this is where they got the idea for that scene in Hannibal! Fucking Hollywood assholes haven’t had an original idea in decades, assholes!