THE RAMONES’ “PET SEMATARY”: AN ORAL HISTORY

In the introduction to Stephen King’s 1978 short story collection, Night Shift, author John D. Macdonald wrote in praise of King: “Two of the most difficult areas to write in are humor and the occult. In clumsy hands the humor turns to dirge and the occult turns funny. Stephen King is not going to restrict himself to his present field of intense interest.”

Pet Sematary had yet to come out when expert thriller-spinner Macdonald revered King for his ability to weave the dark and the light. That book, which told the tale of a pet cemetery that brought the dead back to life, would become King’s self-proclaimed scariest book. Plus, it would spawn one of the most hilariously creepy punk tracks of all time: the Ramones’ “Pet Sematary.” The punk group wrote that song for the 1989 film by the same name.

Despite its nomination for a 1990 Razzie Award, which honored all the schlock that Hollywood had to offer, the deceptively bleak, Dee Dee Ramone-penned track was a rare top 10 hit for the Ramones at a time when their trajectory was on the downturn — and a certified horror rock classic that gave the Mary Lambert-directed film some much needed levity.

n celebration of the song’s 30th anniversary — and the April 5th release of the horror film remake — TIDAL spoke with everyone associated with the Ramones track: from Mary Lambert to the man who dug the grave in the music video.

Dee Dee Ramone was a dear, dear, dear friend of mine and he was part of a group of people that I still am dear friends with. Stephen King loved the Ramones also; I think he still does. It was something we bonded over when we met for the first time.

So I said, ‘Look, I bet you anything that Dee Dee will write a song for us. I can’t imagine that he won’t write a song [for the movie].’ So I called him up the next day and he said, ‘Yeah!’

Daniel Rey, Ramones Producer

At the time I was working a bit with the Ramones — writing songs and producing. I was working with Dee Dee and we were sort of writing partners. I think that it was a Friday that we got the call that they wanted the Ramones to write ‘Pet Sematary.’ I guess the film was already shot or something. That’s how we got the go-ahead to attempt it.

Dee Dee called me and was like, ‘I’m going to go buy the book.’ He got the book and about five hours later he called me. I was out to dinner. I lived in Manhattan and he lived in Queens. He left the lyrics on my phone machine. He was already done. I don’t know if he speed-read the book or skimmed it. I don’t know what he did, but somehow he got the story down and he got really good imagery from the whole vibe.

Dee Dee was very impulsive; when he had his mind set on something, it had to be done right then. Also, Dee Dee wanted to get the song written before anyone else tried to write it — the other Ramones. I know Joey probably got the call, too. But Joey was much slower in the way he worked. Dee Dee just had a fire under him.

I transcribed the lyrics and wrote the music that evening. The chorus wrote itself; that was very obvious, because the Ramones always sing ‘I don’t wanna,’ ‘I don’t wanna walk around with you,’ all that stuff. So it was obvious: ‘I don’t wanna be buried in a Pet Sematary.’ And then there’s, ‘I don’t wanna live my life again,’ which is kind of funny — because your life is so miserable you don’t want to live it again. But it’s also the premise of the book.

So that night I wrote the music to it and put Dee Dee’s words to the melody and the next day, I played it for him over the phone. Then we made a little demo of it and sent it to the [film team], who I guess approved it!