The “entertaining and enlightening” (Stephen King) final word on the genius and mischief of the Ramones, told by the man who created the beat behind their iconic music and lived to tell about it.
When punk rock reared its spiky head in the early seventies, Marc Bell had the best seat in the house. Already a young veteran of the prototype American metal band Dust, Bell took residence in artistic, seedy Lower Manhattan, where he played drums in bands that would shape rock music for decades to come, including Wayne County, who pioneered transsexual rock, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, who directly inspired the entire early British punk scene.
If punk had royalty, in 1978 Marc became part of it when he was knighted “Marky Ramone” by Johnny, Joey, and Dee Dee of the iconoclastic Ramones. The band of tough misfits were a natural fit for Marky, who dressed punk before there was punk, and who brought his “blitzkrieg” style of drumming as well as the studio and stage experience the band needed to solidify its lineup. Together, they changed the world.
But Marky Ramone changed, too. The epic wear and tear of a dysfunctional group (and the Ramones were a step beyond dysfunction) endlessly crisscrossing the country and the world in an Econoline—practically a psychiatric ward on wheels—drove Marky from partying to alcoholism. When his life started to look more out of control then Dee Dee’s, he knew he had a problem. Marky left music in the mid-eighties to enter recovery and eventually returned to help the Ramones finally receive their due as one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time.
Covering in unflinching detail the cult film
Rock ’N’ Roll High School to “I Wanna Be Sedated” to Marky’s own struggles,
Punk Rock Blitzkrieg is an authentic and always honest look at the people who reinvented rock music, and not a moment too soon.
"The inside story behind one of the most revered bands in music history during the early days of punk rock in New York, from legendary drummer Marky Ramone. Rolling Stone ranked the Ramones at #26 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." They received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. And Marky Ramone played a major part in this success--his "blitzkrieg" style of drumming drove the sound the Ramones pioneered. Now, fans can get the inside story. Before he joined the Ramones, Marc Bell was already a name in the New York music scene. But when he joined three other tough misfits, he became Marky Ramone, and the rhythm that came to epitomize punk was born. Having outlived his bandmates, Marky is the only person who can share the secrets and stories of the Ramones' improbable rise from obtuse beginnings to induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it wasn't all good times and hit songs, and Marky doesn't shy away from discussing his own struggles, including the addiction to alcohol that led him to be temporarily kicked out of the band. From the cult film Rock 'n' Roll High School through "I Wanna Be Sedated" through his own struggle with alcoholism, Marky Ramone sets the record straight, painting an unflinching picture of the dysfunction behind the band that changed a generation. With exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, Punk Rock Blitzkrieg is both a cultural history of punk and a stirring story that millions of fans have been waiting for"--
