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“It’s obvious where he found the music. Where else do you go?”



I can remember my brother talking about this band that he discovered one day. He told me that they were from New York and they were all brothers. They were called the Ramones and when he put the record on to play me a song, the first chord struck and I felt chainsaw chills in my body. After that my Kiss records found safety in the wooden shelf that housed dirt and dust and the copy of my G.I. Joe book and record. From then on a new kind of music took the airwaves at the Frederiksen manor. Robert, my brother, loved “Glad to See Ya’ Go” off of the Leave Home record. It was definitely his favorite track. Just the lyrics of the song were so crazy. “Gonna take a chance on her / one bullet in the cylinder,” or “In a moment of passion get the glory like Chuck Manson.” What the fuck! I’ve never heard shit like that before. I remember thinking it’s like when you see a plane crash or a car crash; secretly you love it but outside you’re kind of scared. Not scared like of a monster, but scared like, how should I react to this? Should I cheer or should I go and punch someone? Well that’s how I felt listening to the Ramones.

In 1979 we got “Gil” cable in our house. My mom shelled out the seven dollars a month and for the hard earned cash we got 8 channels more and channel 12 was the Movie Channel or the “G-Channel.” For a whole month we watched “Rock N’ Roll High School” every time it came on. By the end of that month Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky were our best friends and I popped a rod every time I thought of Riff Randell. I think the first time I ever had sex was with her. I mean, I was by myself but you get the picture. I hoped when I got to high school there was an Eaglebauer equivalent so I could get a date with the equivalent of Riff Randell. I mean shit! I would’ve hung out with Kate Rambeau too. She was cute. Around this same time my dad was in prison for shooting his girlfriend. Apparently he unloaded the gun, seven shots in total, and one bullet caught her in the stomach. I remember the day it happened when he came to the apartment with a brown paper bag in his hand. It was unusual to begin with because number one: he rarely made visits and two: because of the time of day. He walked in pale as a ghost and called to my brother to get a corkscrew for the bottle of wine under his arm. My mother, in her thick accent, said to my brother, “Robert, we don’t have a corkscrew,” and he replied, “but mom…” and before he could finish, my mom repeated what she had just said seconds before, “We don’t have a corkscrew.” They (mom and dad) went to the bedroom to have a chat. My mom told me later what they had talked about in the bedroom. My father said that he thought he might have hurt someone. She told him better them than me. She was right! Better them than her. My mom was a tough woman and proud to be Danish. The next day he was arrested and it was all over the neighborhood. Everyone knew about it and had an opinion and I think we even lost some friends because they called our dad a psycho. Whatever. If I were in the same circumstance where I found a woman cheating on me I would have done the same fucking thing only I would have finished the job. I mean, no shit.

The Ramones were my brother’s favorite band. Our family was a living Ramones song come to life. I mean punk rock. It’s obvious how he found the music. Where else do you go? Music is the only place where I think we ever found a sense of serenity. When shit went wrong at school or in the house we had punk rock and the Ramones to go to for guidance and acceptance. When my dad got out of prison sometime later, we barely saw him again. I think for me, and I know for my brother, our record collection was like our parents we never had. The one thing I loved the most was coming home and finding it empty, putting on the best record and jumping in to my closet doors. My mom caught me once in mid-flight and I just remember freezing; knowing that what I’m doing is not good. I mean I lost all concentration with how to impact the target because I was so startled. I couldn’t stop right? Crash there I won’t. It was like when that guy in the movies or cartoons walks into the bar and everything stops and the people freeze. Danish Napoleon (mom), being that guy and me being that bar full of people and the lone piano player. Then he (that guy) says something and the people scatter. Well that was the situation and I couldn’t get outta there quick enough. Years later she told me she was more scared than mad because she thought I might have been retarded.

I always wondered why my brother’s favorite track was “Glad to See Ya’ Go.” Was it because dad shot that woman Mildred who was really mean to him? Or did he just like the song for what it is, a Ramones song plain and simple. I wish I would’ve asked that question before he died. My friend Brian came up to me and told me he had a dream a few weeks back. I guess my brother came to him in a dream and told him he’s been waiting nearly a year to get into heaven. Well, Brian asked if he was OK and my brother replied, “Oh yeah, everything’s cool. Joey Ramone is waiting here with me.”


Glad to know you both.
Lars