Lisa Marie Presley writes epilogue for Johnny Ramone's Autobiography

Release date - April 1, 2012

The autobiography of legendary punk guitarist and founding member of the Ramones Johnny Ramone will be released this April.

The book will be 176 pages long, according to the publisher, Abrams Images, and will have a foreword by former bandmate Tommy Ramone, who is currently the only member still alive of the original Ramones lineup. Lisa Marie Presley penned the epilogue for the book, and pictures were selected for inclusion by his widow Linda Ramone.

Linda Ramone told the Associated Press that her husband, who died in 2004 and was chosen by Rolling Stone Magazine as the sixteenth best guitarist of all time, began working on “Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone” after he was diagnosed with cancer. The book, Linda Ramone said, includes Ramone’s thoughts on his entire life, beginning with his early days in Queens, New York.

“It was like he knew he was dying, and he wanted to do something,” Linda Ramone said.

Interviews with those close to Johnny Ramone were originally planned for inclusion, said Linda Ramone, but ultimately she decided to leave them out.

Benjamin Franklin: 10 great quotes on his birthday

“It didn’t make Johnny Ramone’s book more powerful by having other people in the book talking about him,” she said of the decision.

The book will also discuss incidents like the tension between Ramone and former bandmate Joey Ramone after Johnny Ramone began dating Linda, an ex-girlfriend of Joey’s.

“It happened, and of course he talks about it and he talks about how he feels about it,” Linda Ramone told the Associated Press. “The three of us all probably have a different story, but this is Johnny’s story.”

Linda Ramone said she could see the autobiography inspiring a movie about the Ramones and their careers.

Tommy Ramone said in a statement that the writing in the book is a straightforward depiction of life that epitomizes Johnny Ramone and how he lived his life.

“His story is written in his own actual words, so the reader gets an insight into what made him the unique, charismatic and exciting individual that he was,” he said. “It also gives a great view of The Ramones from Johnny’s perspective.”

Elvis' Co-Star Suzanna Leigh Sells Sharon Tate's Engagement Ring for $21K

Well, here's a story that caused a lot of controversy. Gotta Have It auction house in NYC had Sharon Tate's engagement ring up for auction last month. It sold for $21,260.  Click here for auction listing & photos

L to R Sharon Tate & sister Debra Tate

The ring was originally listed with the description that Sharon might possibly be wearing this very ring when she was murdered by Charles Manson followers. But her sister, Debra told TMZ the ring featured in a recent auction on GottaHaveRockndRoll.com DID belong to the actress ... but she gave it away to a family friend long before she was killed by the Manson family in 1969.
Debra says the ring was not an "official" engagement ring -- but rather an "unofficial symbol of her relationship" with Roman Polanski. Debra says, "The ring was not Sharon's style and she never wore it."
Debra says Polanski later gave Sharon an "official" engagement ring -- a gold and diamond band "which she treasured."
Despite the auction house's claim, Debra is adamant Sharon was NOT wearing ANY rings on her finger at the time of her death -- adding, "Because Sharon was pregnant, she couldn't fit any rings on her finger." Sharon was two weeks away from her due date when she was murdered.
The auction house did revise their description of the ring. Although, they continued to describe it as Sharon's engagement ring.

Suzanna Leigh & Elvis Presley
Paradise, Hawaiian Style co-stars

Now here's where it gets even more tricky. Apparently, the ring was auctioned off by actress Suzanna Leigh. Best known to Elvis Presley fans, as the king's co-star in Paradise, Hawaiian Style in 1966. But according to a sworn 2006 affidavit, Judy Dreszner said, "Suzanna Leigh stole the ring from me in 1989." Dreszner said she gave it to Leigh to be appraised and never saw it again.
Former fashion model Judy Dreszner who died last year, was given the ring by director Roman Polanski as a treasured memento shortly after Tate's murder.

Adam Bardach, son of model Judy Dreszner

Judy's son Adam Bardach says "It was never intended for sale. This is a private symbol of my mother's friendship with Sharon Tate." He also says, "It's disgusting to me that people are attempting to profit from such a tragedy."

Suzanna Leigh denies stealing the ring and says she's the rightful owner.

The ring sold in December at auction for $21,260 double it's estimate of $10,000. The new owner of the ring has not been identified.

Here's Debra talking about her sister Sharon's horrific murder by the Manson family
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Bruce Springsteen rocks Asbury Park

(Dan Bracaglia/For The Star-Ledger)

It's a show fans lucky to be at the sold-out Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park on Saturday night will not soon forget. Bruce Springsteen played for close to two hours with Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers at part of Light of Day 12 to benefit Parkinson's Disease.

Springsteen also played with two other artists and played a magical acoustic "Incdent on 57th Street" before joining Joe Grushecky and his band. By the time, the show ended at 2:10 a.m., with the crowd singing along on an acoustic "Thunder Road," fans walked away knowing they had just witnessed a great night of music.

It was a fun, loose and determined Springsteen performing a 16-song set. He looked ready and set to begin his world tour with the E Street Band coming up in two months. Bruce's first appearance of the evening was when he joined Garland Jeffreys for "Wild in the Streets." He later joined Willie Nile for a very powerful "One Guitar."

Springsteen began his own set shortly after midnight on acoustic guitar with:  

1. Incident on 57th Street
Crowd was singing along. Very well done. Bruce left the stage and Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers came on to perform "East Carson Street." Bruce then came back on stage to join the band for

2. Darkness on the Edge of Town

Bruce played to the crowd and was right down to the edge of the stage.

3. Never be Enough Time

A Grushecky song. Bruce and Joe traded lead vocals.

4. Adam Raised a Cain

Bruce welcome the crowd to Light of Day and then took some tequila and "blessed the crowd" up front. "I got here early and got to see a lot of good music tonight. Willie Nile, John Eddie they just get better and better," Springsteen said of two of the evening's early performers. "Then to see an acoustic Southside Johnny (Southside Johnny and the Poor Fools had played earlier). It was a shock to the system to see Southside on guitar. There's something wrong with that picture." Springsteen then introduced the next song by saying "this is something I began writing for 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' and I just finished it."

5. Save My Love


6. Talking To the King

After finishing, Bruce talked about Grushecky and the Houserockers being disappointed that their Pittsburgh Steelers were knocked out of the NFL playoffs last week. But he continued "tomorrow, there's going to be a Big Blue train! I got a feeling" referring to the Giants playing the Packers on Sunday. 

 7. Atlantic City

Bruce asked the crowd three times "Are we coming back?" during the song. First time I've ever seen him do that. With his new album reportedly being "angry" with the current state of affairs, I wonder if this is one of the themes we'll see on the upcoming tour. 

8. Johnny 99 

This was a lot of fun. Bruce was all over the stage and playing to the people up front. He jumped up next to the piano and started playing it with his foot and then his butt. He later jumped up on the drum riser and leaned back onto the drum kit. He was having a good time.

9. I'm Not Sleeping

A song he wrote with Grushecky.

10. Because the Night

Bruce brought three of the evenings earlier performers -- John Eddie, Garland Jeffreys and Willie Nile -- up to sing background. Before playing the next song, Bruce said "I'm usually it bed by now. I still got one (child) in the house and I'm making pancakes. I'm a short-order cook. In addition to the guitar, I'm still a chauffeur and a short-order cook. "And when I step off the stage, I have a red-headed woman who reminds me of that!" 

11. Waiting on a Sunny Day

Bruce jumped into the audience. He went back a couple rows and one point dove head first into the crowd and then dove backward. He later played up on the drum riser again.

12. Pumping Iron

Max Weinberg came out to play the drums for the remainder of the show starting with:

13. Light of Day 

The theme of the entire four days of shows in Asbury Park. Many of the night's musicians joined in for this. After the song, Light of Day founder Bob Benjamin of Highland Park joined Bruce onstage. Bruce asked Bob how they met and Bob said it was in Buffalo at the start of the "Darkness' tour in 1978. "I was at the hotel being a stalker," Benjamin said. Bruce said he was selling merchandise for the first time on that tour and asked Bob about what he should sell ("what did I know?"). He also remembered Bob asking him if he saw that "Elvis Costello had said something bad about him in an article." 

14. The Promised Land

Great version. A birthday cake was brought out for Benjamin and Bruce led a singalong of "Happy Birthday." Benjamin then spoke how Light of Day has grown "from a concert to a festival."

15. Twist and Shout

Always fun.

16. Thunder Road (acoustic)

This has been the way Bruce has closed the few shows that he has done the past couple of years. Will be interesting to see if he does it on the upcoming E Street Band tour. This was the ninth time (out of 12 years) that Springsteen has performed at a Light of Day show. 

Source: Stan Goldstein - Star Ledger -
More Photos
 
 

Annie Leibovitz Exhibit @ Smithsonian Museum features Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley shot his television in the 1970s. Leibovitz photographed the perforated set in a storage room at Graceland in 2011. (Annie Leibovitz courtesy of Random House)

Far from the portrait photos that made her famous, a new exhibit by US photographer Annie Leibovitz shows her intimate journey in the footsteps of people or places that inspired her -- such as Niagara Falls or the home of Elvis Presley.

Called "Pilgrimage," Leibovitz put together the exhibition mostly in the United States and a little in England on a "personal journey into her cultural inheritance," said museum curator Andy Grundberg.

Through 64 photographs taken between April 2009 and May 2011, the show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum evokes images of former American president Abraham Lincoln, painter Georgia O'Keefe, British photography pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

"She is known for mostly photographing portraits of celebrities and cultural figures for magazines and most of her museum shows have been about those pictures," Grundberg said.

"This show is a really new stage of her career where she's photographing historical figures."

The photographer, who is scheduled to speak about her work next week in Washington, says in the book associated with the exhibit ("Pilgrimage," Random House New York) how the project started during a visit to Niagara Falls with her three pre-teen daughters.

"From the beginning, when I was watching my children stand mesmerized over Niagara Falls, this project was an exercise in renewal," Leibovitz said. "It taught me to see again."

Examples include a Harley Davidson motorcycle at Graceland in Memphis to recall Elvis Presley or the waters of the River Ouse to hint at the suicide by drowning of English author Virginia Woolfe.


The show mainly steers clear of pop culture icons, although Elvis Presley gets his due. When Leibovitz visited Graceland, she captured one of the musician’s motorcycles, a television that Presley shot and the King’s final, ostentatious resting place. There is no evidence of Elvis’s music career, yet the photos offer insight into his personality. 

The exhibition, which is open until May 20, is scheduled to tour cities throughout the United States before returning to the Smithsonian American Art Museum for its permanent collection.

Fender Unveils Elvis Presley Kingman acoustic

Fender Elvis Presley Kingman acoustic

Fender’s acoustic division proudly hails the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and transports players back in time to 1967 with the introduction of the Elvis® Kingman acoustic guitar—a sharp looking, rich-sounding version of the carefree Fender acoustic that Elvis Presley® wielded with consummate cool in the late ’60s.

In addition to honoring the king, the Elvis® Kingman dreadnought also successfully recreates Fender’s famous mid-’60s “Wildwood” finish, in which living beech trees that provided the backs and sides of the unusual instruments were dyed with several striking colors before being cut down and made into guitars.

Highly distinctive features of the Elvis Kingman include Presley’s signature on the front of the Wildwood-style headstock, solid spruce top with scalloped X-bracing for full, resonant tone and durability, laminated Wildwood-style back and sides, Ivoroid neck and body binding, stylish dual checkerboard rosette, maple neck, 20-fret rosewood fingerboard with block position inlays and bone nut, Fender “Viking” rosewood bridge with cream-colored pins and compensated bone saddle, chrome hardware and gloss neck and body finish.

Dolly Parton & Gaylord to open Nashville Theme park

Dolly Parton is partnering with Gaylord Entertainment to open an entertainment park in Nashville. The park is said to include a water & snow park. The mayor of Nashville & TN state governor are on hand for the press conference underway now. NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Two of the biggest names in Tennessee tourism have announced plans to build an amusement park near Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Dolly Parton and Gaylord Entertainment CEO Colin Reed announced they will partner up to build a first of its kind 114 acre family entertainment zone off Briley Parkway. Its first phase will be a $50 million water and snow theme park. Governor Bill Haslam and Mayor Karl Dean were on hand for the announcement Thursday afternoon at the Grand Ole Opry House. The park will provide high energy water activities for the summer season and designated snow activities for winter play. Once it's open, the first year attendance is projected at 500,000, and they believe a large portion will come from out of state. In a release, Governor Haslam said "Tourism is the second largest industry in Tennessee generating more than $1 billion in tax revenue annually and employing more than 170,000." Dollywood will be the operating partner, and expects to employ 450 full and part-time employees. A groundbreaking is expected in late 2012 or early 2013 with the park opening in summer 2014. Dolly already has a theme park and a water park in Pigeon Forge, about 190 miles away in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. Parton's Dollywood theme park and Splash Country attract approximately four million visitors yearly.