Drinking, drugging, stabbings and frying up some Iams dog food. Trading sneakers with Joe Strummer and mock gun fights with Clash bassist Paul Simonon. His dental plan is an easy one: teeth get fixed with each advance from the record company. He tours the East with a progressive trio called Dust. He drums with the flamboyant, cross dressing Wayne County. He’s a Voidoid on the seminal Blank Generation. Then it’s “HEY! HO! LET’S GO!” and off to 2,262 concerts, punk rock immortality, and . . .

. . . Joey’s life- and morale-sucking OCD. Johnny’s 24/7 pre-Fox News wretchedness. Dee Dee’s “ingest everything” toxic philosophy, Phil Spector’s ego-inanities, altercations at the Berlin Wall and assigned seats in the Ramone’s Econoline van. An earthquake in Japan during a show that no one feels. Candid, fast paced and laid out in that unapologetic “F@#k you, we’re the Ramones!” style, Marc Bell, though not one of the founding four (Tamás Erdélyi was Tommy Ramone for the initial burst of Ramones classics) sat on the riser during the glory, gory days and lived to tell the tale. A tale of rock, reha, and redemption, and a decisively focused and fascinating look at the hotbed of downtown New York and its many creative characters.

—Mike Jurkovic