The night Bruce Springsteen met The Ramones

ASBURY PARK -- Fresh off the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour, Bruce Springsteen was off the road and on the prowl.

A new club named The Fast Lane -- a former department store warehouse -- was making waves over on Fourth Avenue. Springsteen started dropping by to check out the scene.

And on an early spring night, when Bruce came by to see punk rock pioneers The Ramones, a friendship, and a legend, was born.

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The Ramones were no strangers to Asbury Park. Formed in Queens in 1974, and gaining their first fame at the legendary CBGBs nightclub in the Bowery, the band made an appearance in the city in July 1976, when they performed at Giulio's South, an Ocean Avenue nightclub that had only recently opened its doors.

In a somewhat bemused review of the show published on July 19. 1976, then-Asbury Park Press music writer Marty Packin noted that The Ramones were supposed to go on at 4:30 p.m. But it was midnight before they finally took the stage.

"Great musicians they're not, but they've fallen into something interesting," Packin wrote. "The epitome of a punk band. Music to sniff glue by...Okay so it's punk rock...but punk rock with a smile. They're not kidding anybody. It's a big joke even if they look serious."

Packin noted that The Ramones didn't engage in "any feeble chit-chat between tunes -- just raucuous "One, two, three, four!"

"And if you don't like one song, there's not much of a wait for the next as Ramones seem incapable of writing a song that runs more than two minutes," Packin wrote. He said that a soundman for another band on the bill, Wolfgang, was asked his opinion of the leather-jacket-clad foursome.

"Whatever they're trying to do -- and I haven't got the foggiest -- they're doing pretty well," was the soundman's considered response.

The Ramones were back in town in early August 1978, joining punk rock poet laureate Patti Smith and her band for a show at Convention Hall promoted by John Scher. Smith was touring behind "Easter," her most commercially successful album, which contained the single "Because the Night." It was co-written by Smith and Bruce Springsteen.

Because the Night actually charted on Billboard's Hot 100 that year. The Ramones had their own "hit" that summer, their song "I Wanna Be Sedated" was a staple on college radio stations at the time and would become one of the band's best-known songs.

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Fast forward to March 1979, when The Ramones made the first of several appearances at The Fast Lane. Springsteen was in the house that night, but this time just to watch; he didn't get up on stage.

Those who were there that night at The Fast Lane have one common recollection: The Ramones were LOUD.

"THE loudest show I've been to," Matawan resident Dave Ahlers said.

"That's all I recall..it was loud," Union resident Don Erdman said. "Hightop cons, leather jackets, striped shirts," he added, describing the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars sneakers that were The Ramones' (and many other rockers') shoe of choice.

Although he didn't play that night in 1979, Springsteen did go backstage after the show to hang out with the band. What happened next?

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Some say that Springsteen actually harmonized with Joey Ramone backstage, others that they just chatted. At some point, Joey apparently asked Bruce to write a song for The Ramones.

Perhaps he was inspired by Springsteen's co-writing "Because the Night" with Patti Smith, and giving his song "Fire" to the Pointer Sisters, who had a hit with their version in 1978.

Or he could have just been joking.

Did Springsteen go home that night and pen the song "Hungry Heart?" That's always been the story, along with the fact that Bruce's manager, Jon Landau, upon hearing the upbeat, catchy melody, told Springsteen not to give this one away.

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The song, included on 1980's "The River" album, became Springsteen's first big hit. His recording, featuring Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan -- also known as Flo and Eddie -- from the Turtles, reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the late fall of 1980, and was later voted the best single of the year by Rolling Stone readers.

In Peter Ames Carlin's seminal 2012 biography of Springsteen, "Bruce," Carlin writes that Springsteen brought "Hungry Heart" in to early E Street Band sessions for the River album, but chose to give it to The Ramones after deciding the song was too light, too pop for the darker album he envisioned at the time.

Carlin also writes that Landau would not let Springsteen give the song away.

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When he appeared in December on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Springsteen confirmed that he had written "Hungry Heart" with The Ramones in mind. He said the same in the liner notes to the 1995 "Greatest Hits" album.

"I played it for Jon Landau and, earning his money, he advised me to keep it," Springsteen wrote.

In a 1995 radio interview, the late, great Joey Ramone jokingly berated "that Landau guy" who had deprived his band of the song and added that Bruce "owes us." The Ramones would return to play many more times in Asbury Park over the years, including several more appearances at The Fast Lane and a handful at the nearby Stone Pony.

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The Fast Lane is long gone now, and all four original members of The Ramones have passed. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, it's hard to exaggerate their influence on music.

Perhaps Henry Rollins put it best when he said, "I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm willing to bet one of my arms right now that as long as there's electricity, Ramones music is going to be relevant." Even if Bruce Springsteen never did give them a song.

Jean Mikle: (732) 643-4050, jmikle@gannettnj.com