I Want You Around: The Ramones and the Making of Rock ‘N’ Roll High School

Seeking to cash in on the disco craze and teen-driven success of Grease, schlock impresario Roger Corman greenlit director Allan Arkush’s story pitch for a high school musical starring the Ramones. Film historian Armstrong (writing, Utah Tech Univ.; Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, Vols. 1 & 2) dishes up a delicious triple feature for cinema and punk rock fans. At the heart of this comprehensively researched and detailed book is the fully documented nuts-and-bolts story of the evolution, production, and post-production history of the 1979 cult-classic film Rock ‘N’ Roll High School. Juxtaposed with the narrative arc of the making of the film are the revelatory insights into how the business of filmmaking worked at Corman’s famed, on-the-cheap New World Pictures. Then, of course, there are the godfathers of punk, the Ramones. The pursuit of the band, the hijinks that ensued during their two-week stay at LA’s Tropicana, difficulties experienced throughout filming, and the incessant touring before, during, and after the film provide one classic anecdotal story after another.