The following is brought to you by a dodgy phone connection and a crappy day job, both of which get under Richie Ramone’s skin.
“I’ve done three [interviews] this morning, and this [connection] is the worst,” begins Ramone, real name Richard Reinhardt.
In 2013, 26 years after leaving the Ramones, Reinhardt wrote and produced a solo album, also acting as its primary vocalist and drummer. Although echoing the Ramones’ 1984 album Too Tough To Die and 1986’s Animal Boy, for which Reinhardt was the primary composer (the only Ramones drummer to hold such a role), 2013’s Entitled spoke to a new generation of the disenfranchised.
“They go to school and can’t get a job, they can’t get ahead, and end up working something they don’t want to do,” Reinhardt says. “If everybody had a job they were good at, it would be a beautiful world. And that’s the name of the feeling [‘entitled’]. I just think everybody’s entitled to a good life.”
Unfortunately, Reinhardt’s utopia of self-determination doesn’t ring true in the real world. Even after his five-year stint with one of the most famous bands to ever wear skinny jeans and Converse, and maintaining a music career ever since – non-stop touring, recording albums with The Rock N Roll Rats and The Gobshites, and embarking on a solo career – Reinhardt thinks it’s harder than ever for young musicians to make it.
“There’s a terrible economy over here,” he says when asked about the New York scene in particular. “You have a hundred people going for the same job. You can’t live like a musician, there’s no money in it anymore. You gotta work a shitty day job and do shows at night. That’s rock’n’roll. It’s just not what it used to be.”
Aside from the money and lifestyle, shows have changed too. When Reinhardt came onto the scene, New York was the place for punk. Manhattan club CBGB was hosting the likes of Television, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Bad Brains, The Dead Boys and the Ramones.
“When I got onto the scene in late ’79, it was still, uh… anything went,” Reinhardt says. “You could do whatever you wanted. You could jump off the stage. It was crazy. There’s a lot more rules now – that’s just part of the changing times. They don’t want lawsuits for people jumping off the stage and breaking their neck. What are you going to do about it?”
When we speak, Reinhardt has just returned home to Los Angeles from a successful European tour. Although crowds varied from place to place, he was excited to discover pockets of anarchy that still exist, and in areas you wouldn’t expect.
“It’s different everywhere. Some crowds are reserved. You have to work harder for those guys to get involved. But in places like Prague and Italy, they’re crazy from the get-go. Jumping off speakers, smoking inside. You don’t have to do nothin’. In the UK they have curfews at 11 and 12 o’clock. Some places much earlier.”
Although unaware of our own curfews, Reinhardt has a strong appreciation for the opportunity to play Down Under this month.
“It’s a big expense to come to Australia. I really love it over there, but it means I can’t do other places. But if it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t do it anymore. To come out there and have a good time, it makes me smile, and that’s what it’s about.”
[Richie Ramone photo by Mozzchopz]
Saturday April 30 Richie Ramone smashesNewtown Social Club.
