SO THE NEW WAVE HAVE SCRUPLES TOO ...
JOHNNY RAMONE is quite definitely pissed off.
"Hey, lookit they ripped us off I mean, how can they do that? You just don't do dat sorta thing to another group, huh."
Even Dee Dee Ramone, who was democratically mumbling his belief that The Heartbreakers had really ... uh done y'know... a real fine job on his song "Chinese Rocks" just a few minutes before is nodding dutifully in mute agreement with his guitarist brother.
But J. Ramone isn't finished. Not by half.
"'Chinese Rocks' was one of the first songs we ever worked out. It's our song --- lookit, it's a straight cross between '53rd and 3rd' and 'Commando' with Dee Dee's lyrics.
What The Heartbreakers did ... well, it just ain't on is all."
"I'm afraid to see Johnny (Thunders)" adds Dec Dee "I won't be looking him up."
All four of the Ramones however did meet Thunders and the rest of The Heartbreakers when the latter blithely trotted down to reacquaint themselves with their old cronies at a Phonogram reception last Sunday in King's Road.
"I gotta better reception from da Talking Heads" muttered Johnny Thunders dourly. "The Ramones just told me they're gonna sue us."
The bone of contention, if you hadn't already guessed, is The Heartbreakers' use of "Chinese Rocks" a four-way-credited song about the dubious virtues of being addicted to heroin - "I'm living on a Chinese Rock/All my best things are in hock!"
Already a fairly controversial choice for any group's first single (though this sort of publicity never worried Thunders' conglomerate who were even thinking seriously of changing their name to Johnny and The Junkies if Tom Petty's bunch had made their mark before them), things get touchier by the minute as the New York grapevine sent back flashes noting The Ramones' corporate dread of the song being openly recorded and thus blemishing the reputation of bassist Dee Dee who is mentioned by name in the lyrics as being involved in narcotics purchasing.
Dee Dee, a reformed user, is extremely 'tetchy' about it all, particularly now. Thunders' side of the story is that The Heartbreakers picked up on the song when The Ramones dropped it like a hot brick from their repertoire.
"Yeah they were too chicken to play it" he sneers 'Course it's O.K. to sing about glue an' all that shit."
Dee Dee Ramone's name, however, fronts the list of credits alongside Johnny Thunders, drummer Jerry Nolan and ex-Heartbreaker Richard Hell, two of whom, it turns out, added a line each to the second verse.
"Yeah," Thunders continues "mine was 'I still dig this Chinese ditch' and Hell's was (here he smirks perceptibly) 'I should have been rich.'
The actual terms of the pending law-suit have yet to be fully stated but the basically ludicrous slant to this conflict can only be noted too clearly in Johnny Ramone's final impassioned tirade as to the reasons for The Ramones not performing the song "Hey, lookit, we don't wanna do no songs 'bout heroin. I mean, there's too much ugliness going around in the world and it's bad enough us singin' 'bout killin' people and beating 'em up.
"I mean, heroin kills people. You gotta draw the line somewhere."
And just who said there was no morality left in punk rock?
NICK KENT
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