Alternative Oscar party. I had fun watching the 1979 movie Rock 'N' Roll High School starring the Ramones last night plus some bonus features on the Blu-ray.
Between the bonus content and looking up some things on the internet I learned that
Roger Corman's 1st concept for the movie was "Disco High School"
It changed to a rock and roll theme. Cheap Trick and Todd Rundgren were considered for the band but couldn't make it because of scheduling conflicts. Actor Paul Bartel suggested the Ramones.
"The hottest band this side of the Iron Curtin The Ramones!" Screamin' Steve Stevens
The great DJ Don Steele is Screamin' Steve Stevens.
Here is The Real Don Steele at his day job
Rodney Bingenheimer is the Pink Cadillac Driver with the band in the back seat.
Germs lead singer Darby Crash is in the crowd at the concert scene.
The concert was filmed at The Roxy but the audio was redone in a studio. The Blu-ray I have includes audio of the original gig.
After a San Francisco Ramones show in 1985 (maybe 1984) Joey Ramone and film director Allan Arkush came by my late night show on The Quake KQAK. It was pretty wild and crazy and we played lots of music and ended up talking about the movie.
I asked Allan for a favorite story. He told me about when they were ready to film the scene with all the albums in a pile getting ready to be burned they couldn't find Joey.
He wasn't in his trailer or anywhere in the production area. Allan said he found him on the set in the pile of records looking at each one. When asked what he was doing Joey said "these are great albums you can't burn these!" He left behind the covers but had the vinyl of Dylan, The Kinks, The Who, and more in his arms to save them from the fire!
Joey would often drop by radio stations or call on the request line and drop by after gigs to hang out with radio dj's. He was a pretty cool guy.
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