ROBERT MULROONEY
See Also:● Bootsey X
● Bobby Beyond
Detroit and the surrounding suburbs also had several important punk rock bands and included one of the first hardcore punk scenes in the nation. One of these short-lived but talented punk bands was the Ramrods that was formed in 1977. Bandmembers were Mark Norton (vocals), Peter James (guitar), Dave Hanna (bass), and Robert Mulrooney (drums). According to Wikipedia, the last official Ramrods show was on January 28, 1978. Before the band broke up, Ramones manager Danny Fields and Seymour Stein of Sire Records had been interested in signing them.
Robert Mulrooney and Dave Hanna of the Ramrods were first in a band called Streets that later evolved into the Deviates; Mulrooney says of that period: “We were a bar band playing covers, four nights a week, but we’d throw in stuff like Television’s ‘Venus De Milo’, and as long as [the audience] didn’t know it was ‘punk’, they’d dig it.”
Surprisingly little is available on the Internet about the Ramrods (and also the Lovemasters for that matter); I cannot find so much as a 45 that was released during the band’s brief history. The best information that I have found is in a November 2014 post by John Perye on a website called berlinlovesyou.com; it includes a quote from drummer Robert Mulrooney: “The Ramrods were the first band in Detroit to play in the style of the Ramones.” Perye also writes: “I have heard countless stories from many Detroiter’s who argued that during the 1980’s there was no better soul-funk-party-new-wave band than the Lovemasters.”
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Robert Mulrooney of the Ramrods moved on to play drums for Nikki Corvette’s original band, Nikki and the Corvettes (I have a reissue copy of their wonderful sole album from 1980, Nikki and the Corvettes), plus Coldcock, the Sillies, the Mutants, Rocket 455, and Dark Carnival.
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When he decided to try his hand at being a frontman, and using the moniker Bootsey X, Robert Mulrooney formed the Lovemasters in the mid-1980’s. There have been several line-ups of the band over the years, and Mulrooney believes that one of the later line-ups (around 2010) was among the best: Eddie Baranek of the Sights (guitar), drummer Skip Denomme (drums), and Ricky Rat of the Trash Brats (rhythm guitar).
Robert Mulrooney recalls: “My first thought was, ‘What happened to all the fun rock ’n’ roll bands, like the Flamin’ Groovies or even Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers?’ I used to make up silly nicknames for myself all the time. One was ‘Surfer Bootsey’ as a joke because you’d never see any funky brothers surfin’ . . . and the name just caught on. We were Bootsey and the Banshies at first — we misspelled it that way just to piss off all the serious Goth fans around Detroit at that time. And then one night, I drove by a strip club and saw on the marquee: ‘Featuring Reggie the Love Master!’ I just thought that sounded cool.”
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Preceding “I’m a Ramrod” on both the LP and the CD of Motor City’s Burnin’ is a terrific track by Bootsey X and the Lovemasters called “Pusherman of Love”. Credits given on the Discogs website give Bootsey X as the lead vocalist and also the record producer; Robert Mulrooney is listed as the drummer and also the songwriter – as noted, Bootsey and Mulrooney are the same person. Other players are Mark Kern (bass), Craig Peters (guitar), Gary Adams (guitar), Don Jones (saxophone), and “militant rap” by Valorie Dawn Moore.
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These three songs – “(Annie Got) Hot Pants Power”, “Genius from the Waist Down” and “I’m a Ramrod” – plus “Beat Girl” list Bobby Beyond as lead vocalist (that’s Robert Mulrooney in yet another guise) plus Gerald Shohan (guitars, backing vocals), Ricky Rat (rhythm guitar), Mike Marshall and Steve King (bass on two songs apiece), Jimmy Paluzzi (drums), and Sophie & Irene (backing vocals on “(Annie Got) Hot Pants Power” – mostly minimalist moans, ooh’s and aah’s).
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Robert Mulrooney, a/k/a Bootsey X fell onto hard times when his apartment burned down, and he also developed a lot of health issues. In about 2007, he was offered the chance to tour with soul legend Nathaniel Mayer. Outrageous Cherry guitarist Matthew Smith, who was also along on the tour, recalls of their performance in Berlin in November 2007: “Bootsey X was happy to be in Berlin. We played a great gig with Nate [Nathaniel Mayer] at Bassy, a really nice club, nice vibe. . . . I do remember walking through the streets of Berlin with Bootsey, and noticing that he looked like an integral part of the whole scene. I remember thinking that Bootsey X makes sense on the streets of Berlin. He was a great friend, and a fantastic musician. Nate loved his drumming, and so did all of us.”
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Bootsey X died on Thanksgiving Day 2013. The John Perye post, which was written for the first anniversary of his death, concludes: “So on this day, let us remember the great times and music Bootsey X a.k.a. Bobby Beyond a.k.a. ‘Genius from the Waist Down’ a.k.a. ‘Pusherman of Love’ or for short just Bob, has left us with. He may not have sold a million records, but the mark he made on the Detroit music scene outweighs any statistics imaginable. Thanks for all the wisdom, Bootsey, you are sorely missed.”
(March 2016)
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