(448) COMMANDO : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHNNY RAMONE (A MAJOR ELVIS PRESLEY FAN!) BOOK REVIEW and EXCERPTS!

COMMANDO : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHNNY RAMONE
C 2012 Johnny Ramone LLC
Edited by John Cafiero with Steve Miller and Henry Rollins
Abrams is the publisher

What makes an autobiography rather than a memoir?
I think this book is more a music memoir because it focuses on the development  of The Ramones, a punk band that performed some original material and some cover tunes. As a matter of fact they covered some of the tunes that Johnny Rivers also covered, so I would've loved to ask Johnny Ramone about that!

As it goes with the Ramones, not one member was ever born with the surname Ramone and not one member was an actual brother or relative. The Ramones are therefore a construct, but when it comes to the music business there were a number of "brother" duos and groups, such as the Righteous Brothers before them who were also not really brothers.   - Christine


When I was on tour with Buddy Knox people used to ask us if we were brothers!  - Wes

CHAPTER ONE,  pages 15 and 16

"It was the nameless guy who changed the jukebox records at my parent's bar who really turned me on to rock and roll when I was seven years old. Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Fats Domino. He gave me the singles he was talking out as he put in the newest hits. I loved it; I had a great collection of 45's. I still love that era of music. The songs sound so clear and exciting, like Little Richard's "Keep a Knocking."

page 17

"Soon after the jukebox guy started giving me those singles, I saw Elvis Presley on the black and-white television in our Westbury living room, on The Ed Sullivan Show. The first time was September 9, 1956, in a broadcast from Hollywood, then seven weeks later from thirty miles away in New York City, at the CBS studio at Broadway and Fifty-third street. Today that's the Ed Sullivan Theater where David Letterman does his show.

I just knew I would be a big Elvis fan from that moment on. It was the wildness, and it really upset my parents, who thought he was a dope fiend. I didn't know what that was, but I figured it must be a good thing, because if it upset the grownups, it had to be good. I just followed him from them on and became a rock and roll fan forever, and by the next year I was listening to Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, and it was a big Jerry Lee lewis fan. And Little Richard, I mean, he was gay and black, and that made everybody crazy."
- Johnny Ramone


In the back of the book Johnny Ramone lists Elvis Presley as his favorite singer, followed by Bing Crosby, Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Frankie Laine, Dion, and Jim Morrison.  Johnny would have loved this blog! - Christine

LISA MARIE AND ELVIS DUET : FAN VIDEO TO BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC

LISA MARIE AND DAD VIDEO RELEASE : Chris Michaud reports for Rueters

Excerpt:

"Presley’s new video, “I Love You Because,” is an emotional duet with her late father.


Due to premiere on Thursday on country music TV channel CMT and CMT.com, the video was recorded in August for the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death."

"Presley, who died at the age of 42, recorded “I Love You Because” in July 1954 at Sun Studio in Memphis, the same time he recorded “That’s All Right.”


Producer Sam Phillips deemed it unsuitable for Presley’s first single, and it ended up on Presley’s first album, from 1956, never to be performed by Presley again, according to CMT.

Lisa Marie Presley, 44, recorded her vocals to the song in August at the suggestion of producer T-Bone Burnett, as a special song for fans."

LISA MARIE SOLD HER HOUSE and MOVED TO ENGLAND...

This title links to a news article about LISA MARIE PRESLEY selling the Los Angeles home she lived in for years, in order to live in Great Britain. This morning one of the tabloids I saw at the grocer said that Lisa was heading back home to LA. It has some good pictures of the house.

RARE FOOTAGE OF ELVIS' DEATH in 1977

THERE WERE SO MANY VIDEOS TO CHOOSE FROM but we decided on this one... George Klein was friends with Elvis since high-school and very loyal.

(265) ELVIS PRESLEY - MICHAEL JACKSON - PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

The recent death of singer Michael Jackson of course made me think of my friend, Elvis Presley, whose death anniversary we celebrate this month. I watch the morning news and hear what's new in the investigation of Jackson's death. The implications so far have been that he was on prescription drugs and that at least one doctor may be involved in administering injections of other drugs - most likely pain killers - to him. Like Elvis, whose tours were unrelentless, Jackson was up against a big tour schedule of about fifty shows in a row.

As you probably know Jackson was briefly married to Elvis's daughter Lisa Marie Presley, who is now happily married to another man and a little less than a year ago had twin daughters. I'll leave Lisa Marie out of this post, as she was out of the marriage with Jackson.

When I first met Elvis the man wasn't even a drinker. And I believed for most of my friendship with him that any prescription drugs he was given, by doctors, had to be safe. Elvis' death in which a great number of prescription drugs were found in his system - interacting and counteracting each other - seemed to be a WARNING to everyone what could happen when even doctors didn't know when enough was enough.

So sadly, I remember Elvis at his best, in contrast to how debilitated he was in the end.

Ever since Elvis died I've been afraid to ever take sleeping pills or any prescription drug I don't really need, afraid I might become addicted. My writing partner, Christine Trzyna, is the same way, believing that holistic medicine and yoga are the better or first alternative.

We ask our readers to stay away from street drugs and to ask your doctor a lot of questions, be as informed a pharmaceutical consumer as you can be, and not to follow in either Elvis' or Micheal's footsteps in this way.

CHRIS ISSAK performs ONLY THE LONELY ROY ORBISON

Chris Isaak says Roy Orbison sang high but was a manly man...



Christine here: Chris Issak is one of my favorites! And it makes complete sense to me that Lisa Marie toured with him!

ELVIS IS A GRANDPA TWO MORE TIMES !

Congradulations are in order to Elvis and Pricilla's only daughter Lisa Marie Presleyand her husband Michael Lockwood on the recent birth of twin daughters, Finley and Harper, who came into this world on October 7th.

If you'll click on the title above you'll get to the news agency Reuter's report.

Here's to Lisa Marie's own MYSPACE that is linked to her charity to help the homeless in Memphis and New Orleans...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.Channel&ChannelID=42291868

ELVIS RUMORED TO BE ALIVE? (They said that about James Dean too!) & LISA MARIE PRESLEY

Though James Dean died instantly, the rumors that he was really alive, disfigured, but in a sanitarium were more alive than Jimmy. It was reported in the newspapers as fact for a while.

My friend Elvis Presley is another man who is rumored to still be alive, though I know for a fact that he did pass into the next life 30 years ago. It's true Elvis had become a prisoner of his fame, but he would have never gone into hiding or undercover because Elvis loved his daughter Lisa Marie Presley dearly. He was family oriented - always. He would have wanted to be there to see her grow up and to know his grandchildren.

So the rumors that Elvis is still alive I think deny the man Elvis really was.

L I S A M A R I E P R E S L E Y

Give Lisa a Listen! We're linking to her site above.