Ramones Still Doing It on Their Terms

After 18 years and 16 albums, the Ramones--America’s own pop cultural revolutionaries--are still waging a campaign against all the “cretins and pinheads” who make rock ‘n’ roll boring.

The battle plan includes a new album--the just-released “Mondo Bizarro”--and a national tour that includes a date Monday at Santa Barbara’s Anaconda followed by three shows starting Wednesday at the Hollywood Palladium and a concert next Saturday at the Starlight Bowl in San Diego.

The goal: the band’s first Top 40 album.

“We haven’t had our justice yet,” said Joey Ramone, the quartet’s colorful lead singer. “I would like to see this album do really well in a commercial sense. This could do it for us--a big album, but on our own terms.”

The Ramones have been doing it on their own terms since bursting onto the moribund rock scene of the mid-’70s.

The four young men from Queens, N.Y., blitzkrieged a complacent music industry with their buzz-saw guitars, kinetic songs and irreverent lyrics.

With a heartfelt disdain for convention, Ramone would drone such now-classic lyrics as “Beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat” and “Teenage Lobotomy” from the stage of CBGB, the legendary Bowery club that also helped launch the careers of Talking Heads and Blondie.

The band started a fashion trend of torn jeans and black leather jackets and somehow turned such hostile words as cretin and pinhead into affectionate barbs. “Gabba gabba hey” became the group’s rally cry.

In the tame climate of the period, the group outraged and alarmed parents and record company executives alike. But in England, the Ramones became heroes and role models for such legendary punk bands as the Sex Pistols and the Clash--though those bands rarely reflected the Ramones’ good-natured humor.

“We didn’t know that people would really pick up on us like they did,” said Ramone, 40, recalling the group’s early days. “We were doing something totally alien to what was going on at the time in 1974. It was ‘Disco Duck’ and corporate rock--Foreigner, Journey, and Linda Ronstadt. We really started shaking things up.”

Although the group was never more than a cult favorite in the United States, it influenced countless musicians here and won the support of critics. Though somewhat frustrated by the group’s failure to gain a wider following, Ramone (whose real name is Jeffrey Hyman) hasn’t lost his ambition or drive.

In fact, Ramone said, the band ended its long association with Sire Records because the members felt they were being taken for granted at the label. The new album is on the smaller Radioactive Records.

About the new album, he said, “I’m more proud of this album than everything I have done. I just feel like it is the album I’ve always wanted to make. It is very honest and genuine--a sort of spiritual record.”

One thing Ramone and the band have not changed is their attitude toward playing live. Unlike many musicians who dread life on the road, Ramone said it rejuvenates him and his cohorts, who include only one other original Ramone: guitarist Johnny (all members adopt the group surname).

“I feel our fans are total die-hard loyalists, and that keeps you going,” he said. “Right now, we are in our third generation of fans--their average age is 16. They kind of fuel us. Rock ‘n’ roll was meant to play live. It sort of coagulates in my guts and acts like a life source.”

But how long does he see the band continuing?

“As far as the Ramones go, I’ll say five years or less, to be realistic,” the singer said. “It will just be time to move on. But I think (a lot of) people will be real upset. Nobody has the power that we do.”

L.A. POP DATEBOOK

Megadeth will give a New Year’s Eve concert at the Long Beach Arena. Tickets are on sale today. . . . The Beastie Boys, the Rollins Band and Cypress Hill will be at the Universal Amphitheatre on Nov. 24. Tickets go on sale Sunday. . . . Also on sale Sunday for the Universal is Glenn Frey, Nov. 21. . . . On sale today is Sugar at the Hollywood Palladium, Nov. 13. . . . Pantera will be at the Shrine Expo Hall on Nov. 16. Tickets go on sale Wednesday. . . . Coming to the Palace are Shriekback on Nov. 6 and a bill of the House of Love, Catherine Wheel and Ocean Colour Scene on Nov. 13. . . . On sale now is Joan Baez at the Troubadour for two Oct. 20 shows. . . . Also coming to the Troubadour is Young Turk on Nov. 5. . . . Thelonious Monster will be at the Roxy on Nov. 12.

O.C. POP DATEBOOK (Orange County Edition, F8)

Chaka Khan’s Celebrity Theatre show, postponed because of her recent appendectomy, has been rescheduled for Nov. 21. . . . Johnnie Johnson, the St. Louis pianist who gave Chuck Berry his start, plays the Rhythm Cafe in Santa Ana on Nov. 13. . . . Motor head plays the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Oct. 26. The Joe Ely Band plays the club Nov. 14. . . . Sammy Kershaw will appear at the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana on Nov. 9.