Listen: Baby Sitter / The Ramones
Baby

Tom became a great pal as the years went by. Either with Monte, or often on his own, we’d meet near my place for an Indian buffet. Originally well under the trendy radar, all types of homestyle Northern and Southern Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Korean and Malaysian restaurants super served a massive but unhip clientele in my neck. Good food cheap basically.

Despite gentrification and Yelp, the choice and quality still holds. And so on the occasions when we’d do an impromptu mid-week lunch together, more often than not, all the air would be gasped out of the room as a nearby newbie or hipster table would suddenly realize Tommy Ramone was in the house. Without fail, a nervous approach would result. And Tom would be Tom: humble, shy, friendly, always accommodating to autographs and pictures alike.

One memorable exchange:

Shocked person, “Wow, what are you doing in Queens?”

Tom, “I live here.”

Above: Jukebox Tab signed by Tommy Ramone

Listen: Babysitter / The Ramones
Babysitter

Historically, there are endless B sides worthy of the preferred A side status. In the 50′s and 60′s, many were played and charted alongside their flip side counterpart. Certainly The Beatles and often The Rolling Stones achieved this.

For instance, ‘Ruby Tuesday’ was originally relegated as the flip to ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’, but due to the resulting lyrical controversy over ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’, combined with the undeniable songwriting strength and band arrangement/performance of ‘Ruby Tuesday’, the latter ascended up to a US #1.

Well, ‘Babysitter’ went to #1 in my world, and that of many Ramones fans as well. Despite being originally designated to the B side of ‘Do You Wanna Dance’, and never included on an album at the time, it’s arguably one of the very best songs from the Tommy Ramone era. I mean, there are so many, without a doubt, but ‘Babysitter’, well it’s hard to believe it’s seldom sighted as important. No explanation for that one.

Despite it’s intended second fiddle status, I thought it a great way to ring in the new year. Have a great 2012.

Above: Jukebox Tab signed by Tommy Ramone