Bobby Ramone
Rocket to Kingston

Initially, it's Joe, Mick, Paul, and Terry who go to see the carnival parade in the London neighborhood of Notting Hill, scuffles break out, the police arrive and the clashes get even worse, they're impressed by it and, given that incidentally, they are the Clash, they write a piece about it which is "White Riot" and especially they develop the awareness that perhaps there is someone who is rebellious before and more than them; and seeing that at the time a reggae track called "Police & Thieves" is all the rage and they are recording their first album, well, redoing "Police & Thieves" in their own way seems significant to them.

A certain Robert, who is a little more than a prophet at home and pretty formidable outside, realizes it can be done and responds with a song that is “Punky Reggae Party.”

One thing leads to another and some great things truly emerge, like the Stiff Little Fingers with "Johnny Was," the Ruts with "Jah War," and some even find a way to make a pile of money off it, like the Police, the police, the one from the Notting Hill clashes, and the circle is closed.

The Clash, the Stiff Little Fingers, the Ruts, cool people who populated the punk '77 scene.

But THEM, and when I write THEM in all caps, I mean those who saved rock'n'roll, well, THEY never even greeted reggae from afar because reggae is all in the upbeat and if you had told Johnny to strum upwards, you wouldn't have lived long enough to brag around about having convinced Johnny to strum in the upbeat.

Sadly, one dark day Johnny dies, before him Joey and Dee Dee die, then Tommy, and so THEY, the real ones, are no longer of this world.

Some might get the whimsical urge to fantasize about what could have been if Robert, the one from "Punky Reggae Party," had frequented CBGB's in the mid-seventies or if THEY had ever landed in Kingston for an incendiary series of performances.

It would certainly have resulted in something great, indeed very great.

But Robert is dead too, besides THEM, people of such ilk no longer exist, so let’s put a good tombstone on it and forget about it.

Let's not think about it anymore.

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But …

What, do we want to think about it?

Sure, after all ...

Let's think about it.

Well, I would say that …

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… it would take a damn genius to invent something.

And thinking and rethinking, the genius finally emerges, and he even has a name, he's not just an undercover genius.

Bobby Ramone, to be exact, because Robert becomes Bobby just like Jeffrey becomes Joey, John Johnny, Douglas Dee Dee, and Thomas Tommy.

Bobby Ramone is Robert who somehow winds up at CBGB's in 1976 while the Ramones are playing and they invite him on stage to perform "Rockaway Beach" and "Them Belly Full" together; it's Robert who returns the invitation to the rediscovered brothers, to Kingston, to his home, there are things simmering and he wants them to be part of it, and maybe it will finally be the time that Johnny will strum in the upbeat.

The four of them really go to Kingston, to visit Bobby, astride the rocket piloted by Pinhead, original destination Russia.

Detour to Kingston, Pinhead.

"Rocket to Kingston" would be a good title for an album split between Bobby and the Ramones, with Bobby singing his words, one-two-three-four, and his brothers launching yet another mission to save rock'n'roll.

And everyone there watches and listens and has a crazed good time to the notes of "I Don’t Wanna Stand Up," "Stirring in my Room," "Three Little Surfin’ Birds," and "Glad to See You Cry."

I understand them, lucky them, because it had been years for me too since I'd had so much fun listening to an album.

And if reading the track titles alone puts me in a wonderful mood, then there are moments that not only give me a dazzling 36-tooth smile – all of them, really, from beginning to end, from the first to the 25th minute of how long this 10-stop journey from New York to Kingston and back is – but also make me exclaim what a wonder, things like "Today One Love, Tomorrow the World," "Jamming Affairs," or that little gem "Bye Bye Redemption."

And maybe it’s the enthusiasm of the moment, but Bobby Ramone is the damn genius who has given me the most exciting album with the Ramone name stamped on it since the Ramones stopped being.

And so I even draw the moral from it, that things like these, small, impromptu and shabby-looking, precisely because of this are the only hope for survival that rock'n'roll has, Bobby Ramone like Amyl, "Rocket to Kingston" like "Giddy Up"; and in 30 years, sitting on the park bench, I will remember the feeling of when I first listened to Bobby.

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Then, if anyone’s interested, every single track on this album is a mashup.

To me, for instance, it doesn’t matter.