That MK II We Ramones Love.

[twango the clown]

My friend and former bandmate Billy Borgioli ( of The Real Kids, Classic Ruins and The Varmints)
took a leave of absence from my band the Classic Ruins in 1979-80. He had gotten an offer to join a Ramones world tour as Johnny's guitar roadie. What could I say? What would you have said? So off he went.
During the course of the year or so that followed, The Ramones came through Boston two or three times, and my wife and I got free seats right up front because Billy put us on The List!
There he would be, over on stage right in the wings down on one knee with his eyes on Johnny every second. Johnny wore these tight little deck sneakers (you couldn't get Converse yet) and as they stretched from his gymnastics, they would come untied. Billy would scuttle out onstage out of the spotlight and tie them and disappear.
So much for thirty years ago.
His band, the Varmints, played at The Cantab on a bill with us at 'the Rat Reunion Show,' and I asked him a question or two about that, knowing it might be of interest here.
I said,"You were Johnny's guitar roadie during that tour, right?"
He said, "Me and no one else."
He had tuned and restrung all three of Johnny's work guitars for a year and a half. He would change the strings, stretch them in, and then play for a few minutes to break them in and make sure they were snug and had no wiring issues. I'm talking about playing them through Johnny's rig of two Marshall stacks, which had their own techie.
Billy raved about those Mosrites. He said that the Mark II neck was the best thing he had ever gotten his hands on. Billy is all about barre chords (box chords he calls them,) and nothing beats a Mosrite for ease of barring. (I did play a Guild solid body once that came 'close, but no cigar!)
Billy says that during his time, Johnny would bring the well-known blue MkII, which was his main guitar, a white one set up the same way, and a third mysterious Mosrite which he describes as having "a natural finish(???)" Billy would set up all three guitars (no time for awkward pauses at a Ramones show) but Johnny always used the blue one in those days, and almost never had to reach for the white one. The 'natural' one never made it to the stage.The blue one never went out of tune, and never broke a string, except maybe once, in a year and a half.
And that my buhrutha, is why Johnny used a MkII.
As a result of Billy's dependability,(He said Der Fuhrer never barked at him) when he came back to the Classic Ruins, we were the Ramones' opening act for five shows over the following year. Some of them were wild...

[CookieMan]

I always love reading your anecdotal posts, Twango. It's like behind Behind the Music!

Incidentally, I lived in Forest Hills, Queens a while back and I often got a little chill strolling around the boys' old stomping grounds (that's also Simon & Garfunkel's old neighborhood, you know).

Thanks again for sharing!

[twango the clown]

Forest Hills was also the site of Bob Dylan's first big show after his electric debut-debacle (try saying that three times fast!) at Newport Folk Festival in 1965. I used to have a photo documentary of that event by a photographer named Daniel Kramer, and there was page-after-page of Dylan backstage with Bloomfield, Kooper et al.
You never saw so many blackface and slab-board Fender classics.. Columbia/CBS had just bought Fender and saw Dylan, who was on their label, as a high profile star to sell guitars. Can't blame 'em, but I doubt that anyone bought a Strat or Dual Showman on the basis of the fact that Bob played 'em. One picture showed Al Kooper and a Fender-Rhoads electric piano, plugged into what appeared to be a blackface Vibroverb with one 15" speaker. (I had one once. Cooler than cool, but too clean for me at the time.)
In 1965, I wasn't even allowed to play Bob Dylan records or sing the songs in the house, let alone go there.
Reviews said that one half of the audience cheered, and the other half booed. How did that sound from your house?

[ImNotJohnnyRamone]

Twango.... Words can not explain you

[eltuce]

My friend and former bandmate Billy Borgioli ( of The Real Kids, Classic Ruins and The Varmints)
took a leave of absence from my band the Classic Ruins in 1979-80. He had gotten an offer to join a Ramones world tour as Johnny's guitar roadie. What could I say? What would you have said? So off he went.
During the course of the year or so that followed, The Ramones came through Boston two or three times, and my wife and I got free seats right up front because Billy put us on The List!
There he would be, over on stage right in the wings down on one knee with his eyes on Johnny every second. Johnny wore these tight little deck sneakers (you couldn't get Converse yet) and as they stretched from his gymnastics, they would come untied. Billy would scuttle out onstage out of the spotlight and tie them and disappear.
So much for thirty years ago.
His band, the Varmints, played at The Cantab on a bill with us at 'the Rat Reunion Show,' and I asked him a question or two about that, knowing it might be of interest here.
I said,"You were Johnny's guitar roadie during that tour, right?"
He said, "Me and no one else."
He had tuned and restrung all three of Johnny's work guitars for a year and a half. He would change the strings, stretch them in, and then play for a few minutes to break them in and make sure they were snug and had no wiring issues. I'm talking about playing them through Johnny's rig of two Marshall stacks, which had their own techie.
Billy raved about those Mosrites. He said that the Mark II neck was the best thing he had ever gotten his hands on. Billy is all about barre chords (box chords he calls them,) and nothing beats a Mosrite for ease of barring. (I did play a Guild solid body once that came 'close, but no cigar!)
Billy says that during his time, Johnny would bring the well-known blue MkII, which was his main guitar, a white one set up the same way, and a third mysterious Mosrite which he describes as having "a natural finish(???)" Billy would set up all three guitars (no time for awkward pauses at a Ramones show) but Johnny always used the blue one in those days, and almost never had to reach for the white one. The 'natural' one never made it to the stage.The blue one never went out of tune, and never broke a string, except maybe once, in a year and a half.
And that my buhrutha, is why Johnny used a MkII.
As a result of Billy's dependability,(He said Der Fuhrer never barked at him) when he came back to the Classic Ruins, we were the Ramones' opening act for five shows over the following year. Some of them were wild...

I believe Billy told me that the job was originally offered to Felice and he offered it to him, correct?

[Sarah93003]

Forest Hills was also the site of Bob Dylan's first big show after his electric debut-debacle (try saying that three times fast!) at Newport Folk Festival in 1965. I used to have a photo documentary of that event by a photographer named Daniel Kramer, and there was page-after-page of Dylan backstage with Bloomfield, Kooper et al.
You never saw so many blackface and slab-board Fender classics.. Columbia/CBS had just bought Fender and saw Dylan, who was on their label, as a high profile star to sell guitars. Can't blame 'em, but I doubt that anyone bought a Strat or Dual Showman on the basis of the fact that Bob played 'em. One picture showed Al Kooper and a Fender-Rhoads electric piano, plugged into what appeared to be a blackface Vibroverb with one 15" speaker. (I had one once. Cooler than cool, but too clean for me at the time.)
In 1965, I wasn't even allowed to play Bob Dylan records or sing the songs in the house, let alone go there.
Reviews said that one half of the audience cheered, and the other half booed. How did that sound from your house?

How about saying "Dylan's disappointing debut debacle" three times really fast!

[twango the clown]

Yeah, I think I heard that about Felice. He wouldn't have taken a roadie job because the Real Kids were just on the verge of getting really big at the time. Felice, who had just dumped Billy Borgioli a few months before, might have thought it would be doing Billy a good turn to hook him up. Billy had no hesitation, took a vacation from Classic Ruins and went on to have the time of his life.
As matters played out, The Real Kids did not in fact get really huge, for reasons best not discussed here. In France and Spain however, The Real Kids are huge.
Our (Classic Ruins) drummer, Kevin Glasheen, also a former Real Kid, took the opportunity of Billy's absence to take a job as the drum roadie for the first version of the Joe Perry Project, and he was also gone for over a year.
Stuck with no band on the week of our first single 45 release, I took a job as guitar player for The Lyres.
We all linked up again a year or so later, and the rest is history. Actually, this is all history.
Oh, and another thing: none of us had Mosrites except JR!

[eltuce]

The Real Kids are still huge with me, one of my all time favorites, seriously, probably in the top 10. Right up there with the MC5, Hank Williams, Ramones, X, etc. One of the bands last night covered Better Be Good and it made my night. Don't say there's nothing to do when you can do the Tooch!

[ElTwang]

Wow Twango! That's some solid info there.

[zarfnober]

Twango, you must know the mighty Fleshtones, my fav active band. Nice guys, seen em 35 times.

Does your buddy have any photos of Johnny with a blue Ventures II from 79-80? Photos of natural finish Ventures II? Timeline doesn't seem right for his original blue guitar. He did also have a later carved body blue Ventures II, which he sold after(?) he retired that turned up on ebay, is this the blue one your talking about? There are photos of him in the studio with this guitar. We'd love to see photos of natural finish as this is the first just about anybody has heard of this guitar. There are also photos of his white Ventures II in the studio(Radio City) during recording of fist record, which is strange as Johnny said he bought it "around 1978, to replace my original(blue) guitar, which was stolen". All photos and video I've seen from 79-80 show a white guitar and occasionally a black(sunburst?) guitar.

Enquiring minds want to know. Thanks,

Rocco