Greetings all my fellow freaks! To celebrate the release of The Freak Table, for the next year I will be writing 100 Stories about 100 Songs. These posts celebrate the music that has inspired me and helped to shape not only my life’s soundtrack but that of the book. There is no better band to start with then The Ramones! Hope you enjoy and come back for more.
If you like this blog post you can find more 100 Stories about 100 songs by clicking HERE
The Ramones- Beat On The Brat
In high school we weren’t exactly happy. Actually, we were pretty damn miserable. Feeling trapped, feeling oppressed, unable to do much with our situation.
We didn’t fit in. We were constantly under attack. My good buddy Tony had veered really close to the edge and was about to snap.
Who could blame him? As our ninth grade year continued he got more and more angry, reclusive and extreme. In an attempt to escape the constant barrage we were under at our high school, he transferred to another high school. Essentially he escaped one level of hell for another.
But, using the fresh start at this other school, he really truly got in touch with who HE was. A strong personality, and an original one so much so, that the worlds he explored on his own initiative (once removed from the BS of the world we were forced into) had such great influence, that much of it was able to lift me up as well as him. I thank that guy daily for being aggressive and inquisitive at life and introducing me to so many great things and adventures.
One of which is The Ramones.
We were young and angry, pissed fucking angry. Our soundtrack… bands like Ministry. We were the kids that were dealt the bad cards in the deck and by the time we got into high school it was taking its effect. Him with his shaved head, weapons in our sleeves, always ready for another shoe to drop on us. Especially him. But in that time where he was in a new school with a new chance, he started to change. Discovering bands like The Ramones. Guys, who we felt like, were dealt just as bad cards as us, they lived on the fringe, they had to make life one day at a time, but something was different. They were clever, they had commentary, but they weren’t angry. Never angry. Intense, right in your face, but not angry, not being eaten alive by forces unseen.
I remember distinctly bombing down a back highway with Tony in his white Buick late one night near Rocky Flats. The crappy car stereo blaring The Ramones. It was his copy of Ramones Mania, and he specifically told me about them. About New York, the scene they were from and how I needed to get into their music. His once shaved head now totally groan out long, brown bangs hanging over his eye, we passed going 80+ miles over a series of hills. The suspension in the Buick bouncing us, Beat on the Brat blaring, I had discovered a new world.
Soon I had many of their albums and was becoming well versed in the history of The Ramones. I listen to them often even now. I had the great pleasure of meeting them during their final tour. And I long for the days where not only my friend Tony was still around, but The Ramones as well.
When I hear Beat On The Brat, or any of the songs on Ramones Mania I think of that night. We were breaking through. Not only through the mold our community placed us in, but through the mold our rebellion tried to place us in.
HEY HO! LETS GO!
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100 Stories about 100 songs is written by Gavin Hignight, author of The Freak Table, a coming-of-age novel about the kids who didn’t fit in. Available online, in print and for eReaders everywhere. www.thefreaktable.com