THE RAMONES: HOT RODS TO HOLLYWOOD

Joey Ramone and I are standing in the first-floor hallway of a dilapidated, no-longer-being-used high school situated somewhere in one of the less fashionable neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Scarcely had we arrived for the day’s shooting on Rock ’n’ Roll High School—the New World Pictures (that’s Roger “King of the Drive-Ins” Corman’s company) film in which the Ramones make their cinematic debut—when director Allan Arkush walked over to us and shoved cans of spray paint into our hands.