Sometimes dead is better.

This weekend I visited one of the spookiest sites in rock 'n roll history--the graveyard where The Ramones filmed their video for "Pet Sematary"! It's located just an hour north of New York City in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which at this time of year you can tour in the dead of night by lantern. According to our tour guide, Stephen King is a huge Ramones fan and in the early 80s invited them to dinner at his house in Maine. Marky Ramone claimed King gave them a preliminary copy of Pet Sematary, at which point Dee Dee Ramone shut himself up in a room in King's house for a couple hours and wrote the lyrics to the song.

Stephen King later said this story is complete bs, but also told his publisher not to change a word of it. Quoting James Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, he said "When the truth and legend are in opposition, print the legend." Whatever actually happened, the song certainly got written and used in the 1989 film version of King's book, and the video for the song certainly got recorded in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Keep your eyes peeled, a couple of those weirdos hanging out in the graveyard at night are Debbie Harry and Chris Stein from Blondie!

 

I wasn't a big fan of the Pet Sematary remake that got released earlier this year, but the remake of the Ramones' classic title song featured in it is actually pretty decent! It's by the band Starcrawler and brings a 70s Blue Oyster Cult-ish vibe to the song. Check it out!