This one stretches back a little ways, but remember this one? Having discovered that photographer George DuBose shot the cover images for the Rameones' 1983 album Subterranean Jungle in an actual subway station (and not via some artful mock-up), I wondered aloud if anyone could pinpoint the actual station platform. No one tried.
Thinking it was a dead issue, I didn't follow it up. But upon finishing Marky Ramone's surprisingly excellent memoir, "Punk Rock Blitzkrieg" (which I also discussed here) this week, I smiled upon reading the below passage:
For the album cover shoot, we visited the real subterranean jungle -- the New York City subway. The photographer, George DuBose, had the idea to use the stop at Fifty-Seventh and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. It was the end of the line for the B train. At night, there was about a twenty-minute layover before the train left on its next run. It was a lot cheaper then renting out a station or building a set.
Mark goes on, of course, to discuss the fateful decision to have him seated, at one point during the shoot, inside the train looking out the window, while Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee stood in the doorway, a telling juxtaposition that presciently spelled out his separation (and eventual dismissal) from the band. Mark was replaced by one Ritchie Ramone, and -- fleetingly -- Clem "Elvis Ramone" Burke of Blondie, before returning to the familial fold several years later. Honestly speaking, if you're a Ramones fan, Marky's book is well worth your time.
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