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SEUSSICAL: In 1937, Theodor Geisel revolutionized children’s books — and immortalized a thoroughfare in sleepy Springfield, Massachusetts — with a slim tome entitled And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Sixty five years later, the town is gearing up for an unveiling of a tribute to the man whose kaleidoscopic creations — Horton the pacifist elephant, Yertle the Turtle, Gertrude McFuzz, the Grinch, and, of course, that top-hatted troublemaker the Cat in the Hat — have become cultural icons. On May 31, the Springfield Library and Museums will open the Dr. Seuss National Memorial, which will comprise a sculpture garden depicting some of Seuss’s most famous creations and related exhibits of art and memorabilia. A three-day festival will kick off on the 31st with a parade down Mulberry Street — finally fulfilling the fanciful display his first protagonist could only dream of — that’ll be led by Theodor’s widow, Audrey Geisel. Call the Springfield Museums at (413) 263-6800 extension 312 for more information, or visit www.catinthehat.org.

TURNING JAPANESE: In their native Japan, Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura are known as Puffy; they’re the country’s hugest pop stars, presiding over a teen-pop empire of image and merchandising even wider than ’N Sync’s, and they got that way performing a brand of subversively recombinant pop that would pass, anywhere else in the world, for avant-garde. Known in the US as Puffy AmiYumi (to avoid confusion with the pre–P. Diddy Sean Combs), they’re embarking on an American tour behind their stateside release An Illustrated History of Puffy AmiYumi (Bar/None) that’ll bring them to the Paradise, 969 Comm Ave, on July 21. Call (617) 423-NEXT.

NEXT WEEKEND:

The Queers

If you were to find a set of unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics and you wanted to turn them into a finished song, you’d seek out Wilco and Billy Bragg. If, on the other hand, you were to come across an unfinished demo by the late Joey Ramone, you’d go see New Hampshire’s Joe King, a/k/a Joe Queer, leader of the brilliant punk-pop group the Queers. Along with a handful of others (Ben Weasel of Screeching Weasel, Dr. Frank of Mr. T Experience), Joe King has been a pre-eminent inheritor of the Ramones’ legacy: a kind of endless summer where the original formulation of punk — a handful of chords, a bratty sense of humor, zero pretension — never gets old. (Back in 1995, the Queers went so far as to release a cover version of the Ramones’ Rocket to Russia in its entirety.) Pleasant Screams, the new Queers album and their best since 1996’s Don’t Back Down (both Lookout!), pursues the band’s obsession with two themes: irresistibly obnoxious juvenilia ("See Ya Later, Fuckface," "Get a Life and Live It, Loser") and hopelessly naive romanticism ("I Never Got the Girl" and covers of obscure ’60s pop gems by the Raspberries-associated Merseybeat group the Choir and the faux surf novelty group the Fantastic Baggys). One of the songs from Pleasant Screams that doesn’t fit easily into either category is "I Wanna Be Happy," a song that Joey Ramone had begun to write for the solo album that was eventually released as Don’t Worry About Me (Sanctuary) after his death from lymphoma on Easter last year.

"I was always one of these guys hanging around backstage staring at the Ramones," says King from Chicago, where the band are rehearsing for a tour that brings them to T.T. the Bear’s Place next Saturday. "But they were always accessible. We kind of got to know them. Joey was always really supportive of the Queers. He told me I wrote good tunes back in ’86, which really validated my existence. Maybe he was just bullshitting me, but he seemed really sincere. And we always kept in touch, we opened up for them a few times. He was really a good guy.

"He’d called me up and asked if we wanted to work on some tunes for his solo album — he said he needed some harder-edged stuff. But he was pretty sick at the time. He had sent this tape to us a long time ago with this little snippet of a song, ‘I Wanna Be Happy,’ which was just two verses, so I talked to him and said, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll finish that song,’ and he was into it. And then, of course, he got sicker. But Ben Weasel and I finished it, and it’s a pretty cool tune. I talked to Joey’s mom and the family was into it, they like it. So it’s kind of a neat thing: I finally did write a song with him."

"I Wanna Be Happy" was clearly on its way to becoming of a piece with the material on Don’t Worry About Me — in fact, it wouldn’t have made a bad title track. The arrangement is classic Ramones, with chords that seem to persist defiantly (as in "Judy Is a Punk") just a few measures longer than anyone else would think to hold them. The descending bridge and chorus written by King and Weasel is an inspired, bittersweet coda; the song could be directed at a lover or an audience, and the added lyrics recall a number of the places where Joey would’ve felt at home: "I wanna see you in Kenmore Square, yeah, and in the Bowery, too."

"It would have been a good one for him to sing," says King. "It would have fit on that album. I remember when I was singing it — it may sound corny, but I was like, ‘All right, dude, you gotta sing this one good for Joey Ramone.’ I told his mom that I think it’s something he would have been proud of."

The Queers play T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square, next Saturday, May 18. Call (617) 492-BEAR.

BY CARLY CARIOLI

 

Issue Date: May 9 - 16, 2002
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