EDIT: Embedded music and vid are not working, which is totally killing the intended awesomeness of this blog post... oh well.
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(I'm reposting this from my team's forum cause the Ramrods just got their first music video and I thought it would be nice to share it with everyone). New Music Video
I've mentioned The Ramrods before. Actually, Flip, you listened to them in my car when we drove up on the road trip. I've got a bit of a tie to the band that's kept me up to date with them even when I try to be apathetic. More than just liking their music, I know about them because the lead singer is my step-dad.
That's him 20 or so years ago. Actually, when he was my age he was in this band. When I'm my age I'm running a BW team. He gives me lots of shit for this. I give him shit for being old and it all works out.
I can't really tell you about The Ramrods as well as he can though, so I won't try and will instead share the email I just got from him. Enjoy.
| | I'm certain that Susan Rynski was at every gig we played in the Ramords' long, 6 month + 3 week run. Like the first time, the night Elvis died August 16, 1977. The next two times we played, Marc Bolan died in a car wreck, and the Lynyrd Skinner plane crashed. People started saying to us, "Uhhh, maybe you guys shouldn't play."
The internal politics of The Ramrods was a seething cesspool of twisted emotion. Which created a wonderful stage show, if you're of the ilk who like to watch people suffer. In public. On stage. Every time we'd play, I'd manage to piss lots of people off. To wit: we had a three night stand at the Velvet Hammer - a biker bar on 11 Mile - with Don Was' the Traitors and The Pigs. Now, every time we played fights broke out in the audience. Truly bad vibe onstage. The Pigs opened - remember Steve "Dr. Ching" King played bass, and with Mike Rushlow's witty/bitter/wistful writing (Steve contributed as well) they were my favorite band. So anyway, My Big Mouth got onstage, chose a loving biker couple out of the audience, and sweetly said to them, "Dude, your bitch gave me a blowjob in the parking lot and she raked me!" I'd clearly perverted the biker's sense of decorum, and he was on top of me like a cheetah on meth, beating the living shit out of me, and we hadn't played one note.
Once I was bleeding enough, the biker let up and The Ramrods began to play. Somewhere near the end of the set, I offered up some more of my patently philisophical statements to the audience, and the next thing I knew I was dragged off the stage and into the parking lot by 10 harley-booted bikers, who seemed to delight in this manner of recreation. I tried to fight back, but .. they stomped the snot out of me. Later, like two weeks ago when I had lunch with Don at Musso and Frank's in Hollywood, he recalled the incident and said, "You were great! You were like a fluffer for the Traitors!"
From our gig on Elvis Dies Day August '77, to the Most Bitter End at the Red Carpet on February 8th - Jerry Viles' birthday - 1978, we had managed to just make it all worse, we had lost The Battle for no good reason, far too many times. Plus we were tired of getting our holes worked by our extremely unpleasant guitarist. After 6 months + 3 weeks, we quit. I thank Susan Rynski for her perseverence, her great skill of capturing the days' zeitgeist. I also apologize once again for breaking your collarbone with my mic stand. You're a true friend, and a serious artist. You contributed greatly to the scene, and I'm thankful for it.
The Ramrods: Violence is Job One.
Ugh.
All hail rock'n'roll, baby!
-- Mark J. Norton, November 1st, 2005 |
So that's the story. I suggest checking out their site. They have started a bit of a reunion and done 2 shows in the last year or so, the last one being at new years eve at the royal oak theatre in Detroit, a show we got kicked out of cause an uptight security guard caught me drinking without a wrist band. Hopefully there will be more shows and The Ramrod spirit will live on.
http://www.ramrodsdetroit.com/
I close with a few more shots of the greatness that was, and still is (20 years later and 40 pounds heavier) The Ramrods.
 
and all grown up
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