Ramones
The
Ramones were an
American rock band widely considered to be the first
punk rock group. While acknowledged as defining the sound and attitude of mid-1970s punk, they never really achieved the commercial success of their contemporaries
The Clash or the notoriety of the
Sex Pistols, but still had an immense impact on the punk and
alternative rock scenes. After forming in
Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, they performed virtually non-stop for 22 years until disbanding in 1996 after a final tour with the
Lollapalooza music festival. Three of the original band members—Joey, Johnny, and Dee Dee Ramone—died within a few years of the break up. While they were always regarded as influential, it is arguable that the band's fame is now greater than while they were actively performing and recording.
The original band members were:
*
Joey Ramone (
May 19,
1951–
April 15,
2001) (real name Jeffry Ross Hyman) (
vocals) (1974–1996)
*
Johnny Ramone (
October 8,
1948–
September 15,
2004) (real name John Cummings) (
guitar) (1974–1996)
*
Dee Dee Ramone (
September 18,
1952–
June 5,
2002) (real name Douglas Glenn Colvin) (
bass guitar) (1974–1989)
*
Tommy Ramone (
January 29,
1952) (real name Tamás Erdélyi (Hungarian)) (
drums) (1974–1978)Later band members:
*
Marky Ramone (
July 15,
1956) (real name Marc Bell) (replaced Tommy and later Elvis on
drums) (1978–1983, 1987–1996)
*
Richie Ramone (
August 11,
1957) (real name Richard Reinhardt) (replaced Marky on
drums) (1983–1987)
*
Elvis Ramone (
November 24,
1955) (real name Clem Burke) (replaced Richie on
drums for two gigs) (1987)
*
C.J. Ramone (
October 8,
1965) (real name Christopher James Ward) (replaced Dee Dee on
bass) (1989–1996)
An earlier member, Ritchie, left the band before the first recording (not related to the Richie Ramone, above). "In Memory of Ritchie Ramone 1975" can be read on a cartoon drawing of a gravestone on the innersleeve of the
Rocket to Russia album. According to Joey, he became a button manufacturer.
Phil Ramone, a producer, was never a member. His surname is simply a coincidence.
1970s
The pre-history of the band is centered in the predominantly Jewish, middle-class neighborhood of
Forest Hills in the New York City borough of
Queens. The band all first met as bored teenagers, drawn together by a mutual love of
The New York Dolls,
The Stooges,
The MC5 and '60s
garage rock. Most of the members had been in various bands since the late 1960s--Johnny and Tommy had both been in a high school garage band circa 1966-'67 known as the Tangerine Puppets, and Joey was in a brief, early 1970s glam rock outfit called Sniper. The initial version of the Ramones included Jeffry Hyman on drums, John Cummings on guitar, and Douglas Colvin on bass and vocals. Colvin was the first to use the name Ramone, calling himself
Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by the fact that
Paul McCartney used the pseudonym Paul Ramone—although some accounts say Paul Ramon— when he checked into hotels. The other members followed suit and adopted new stage names; Hyman became
Joey Ramone, reportedly after bubblegum pop music vocalist
Joey Levine, Cummings became
Johnny Ramone, and the group itself became known as the Ramones.
Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he couldn't sing and play bass at the same time (he would continue, however, to count off each song's
tempo with his trademark rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!"). Joey became the lead vocalist, which left the drummer position vacant. The band auditioned new drummers at Performance Studio, where they rehearsed. Thomas Erdelyi, an employee of the studio and long time acquaintance of the other members, would often take the drummer seat in order to demonstrate to the auditioners how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was more able to play the group's songs than anyone else, and he joined the band as drummer
Tommy Ramone.
They played their first show at the Performance Studio in New York on
March 30, 1974. Their early songs were very fast and very short; most clocked in at about two minutes. Earliest titles included "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You," "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement," and "I Don't Wanna Get Involved with You." Dee Dee later said, "We didn't write a positive song until 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue'."
In the early '70s, many New York bands started to play in clubs in the
Lower East Side of
Manhattan, such as
Max's Kansas City and
CBGB OMFUG (which stands for "Country, BlueGrass, Blues, and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers" according to owner Hilly Kristal). Other bands from this period of New York's "underground" music scene include the
Television,
Blondie,
The Cramps,
Richard Hell and
The Voidoids, The
Patti Smith Group,
Suicide, and the
Talking Heads. Ramones concerts at CBGB's became legendary, due in part to their brevity: most concerts were twenty to thirty minutes long, much shorter than their contemporaries', and are often described by their witnesses as extremely fast, crude, energetic and desperate. A few
superâ€"8 movies of these shows have survived, and are present in a couple of the band's later videos.
After garnering considerable attention for their performances at
CBGB, the group was signed to a recording contract by
Seymour Stein of
Sire Records in
autumn 1975. They soon recorded their debut
album Ramones on an extremely low budget: about $6,000.
The band was plagued by hostile audience reactions outside of New York City; it wasn't until they made a small tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor: a performance at
The Roundhouse in
London,
England, on July 4,
1976 (second-billed to the
Beatlesque Flamin' Groovies) was a huge success. Their appearance galvanized the burgeoning UK punk rock scene, inspiring future punk stars including members of
The Clash and
The Damned.
Upon returning from England, they found themselves prophets without honor in their own country: their subsequent two albums,
Leave Home and
Rocket to Russia (both 1977), failed to become the hits the band desired. Tommy, tired of touring, left the band at this time but continued to produce; he was replaced by Marc Bell, who became
Marky Ramone. Their fourth album,
Road to Ruin, included some stylistic flourishesâ€"acoustic guitar, several ballads, songs over three minutesâ€"that might have been concessions to mainstream tastes, but the album still failed to chart highly. Despite excellent reviews for both their albums (
"Rocket to Russia is the best American rock & roll of the year and possibly the funniest rock album ever made,"
Dave Marsh wrote in
Rolling Stone magazine) and their live performances, the Ramones remained a cult band. The highly publicized dissolution of the Sex Pistols in 1978 seemed to signal the end of punk as a viable commercial force and branded the Ramones as forever outsiders.
1980s and 1990s
After the band's movie debut in
Roger Corman's
Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), legendary producer
Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album
End of the Century. During the recording sessions, Spector reportedly pulled a gun on Dee Dee, and forced Johnny to play the opening chord to "Rock 'n' Roll High School" hundreds of times. The band would later consider this one of their "not-so-great" albums they had released, crediting tensions between the producer and the artists. Johnny recalls that he was disappointed with the outcome of
End of the Century and the album failed to capture the public's attention. Albums like
Pleasant Dreams (1981) and
Subterranean Jungle (1983) found the Ramones struggling to maintain their identity as punk's first family.
Marky Ramone was fired in early 1983 because of his alcoholism and eventually replaced by
Richard Reinhardt (under the name
Richie Ramone). The Ramones recorded three albums with Richie:
Too Tough to Die in 1984,
Animal Boy in 1986 and
Halfway to Sanity in 1987. Richie left in August 1987. He was replaced by
Clem Burke (a.k.a.
Elvis Ramone) from
Blondie. Burke lasted two shows before Marky, now clean and sober, returned.
Dee Dee Ramone left after
1989's Brain Drain, and was replaced by
Christopher John Ward (
C.J. Ramone), who performed and recorded with the band until their break-up. However, Dee Dee did continue contributing to the music of the Ramones by lending his lyrics for use in later songs. Dee Dee left to pursue a brief and rather embarrassing solo career as a rapper, adopting the name Dee Dee King.
After 16 years at
Sire records, the band moved to new label
Radioactive Records with their 1992 album
Mondo Bizarro, which also reunited them with producer Ed Stasium.
Intra-band tensions
The Ramones always had a certain amount of tension, mainly between Joey and Johnny. The pair were highly politically antagnostic, Joey being a left-leaning
liberal, Johnny a staunchly right-wing
conservative. The relationship between the two got considerably worse when Johnny 'stole' Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom he later married. They didn't speak to each other for years afterwards. It is believed the song "The KKK Took My Baby Away", written by Joey, alludes to this enmity. Johnny did not even call Joey before his death in 2001, but said in the documentary
End of the Century that he was depressed for weeks after the singer's death.
Ramones Break Up
After a spot in the
1996 Lollapalooza festival, The Ramones disbanded, reportedly due to ongoing personality clashes and frustration at not achieving success commensurate with their influence. Joey was also reported to have drug problems, and later admitted drinking heavily for much of the '80s. Joey achieved sobriety in 1990, but was diagnosed with
lymphoma in 1995. In his later years he became an avid follower of
yoga and health food. During the late 1990s, Joey started day trading NYSE stocks. Joey actually wrote a song about
CNBC financial news reporter
Maria 'Money Honey' Bartiromo, entitled "Maria Bartiromo", which is included on his 2002 solo album
Don't Worry About Me.
Their last show was recorded, and later released on video and CD as
We're Outta Here. The show featured several special guests such as
Lemmy Kilmister from
Motörhead,
Eddie Vedder from
Pearl Jam,
Tim Armstrong and
Lars Frederiksen of
Rancid, and
Chris Cornell (then in
Soundgarden).
On
July 20 of 1999, all of the former members of the group except for Richie appeared together at Tower Records in New York City for an autograph signing. This was the last occasion on which the ex-members of the group appeared together before Joey's death.
In 2002, the band was inducted into the
Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Johnny, Tommy, Marky and Dee Dee spoke on behalf of the band. Johnny blessed George Bush and his presidency. Dee Dee congratulated and thanked himself. Sadly, this would be one of his last public appearences as he died two months later of a heroin overdose. Also at the ceremony, Green Day played Teenage Lobotomy and Blitzkrieg Bop as a tribute to the Ramones, showing the influence that the Ramones had on later rock bands. In the summer of 2004, the Ramones documentary
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones was released in theaters. Its release was treated as an event by Ramones fans and former members, and it received rave reviews. Coincidentally, however, Johnny Ramoneâ€"who had been privately battling prostate cancerâ€"died almost exactly as the film was released, on
September 15,
2004.
Deaths
|
Joey Ramone Place, New York City |
* Joey Ramone died of
lymphoma on
April 15,
2001 in
New York.
* Dee Dee Ramone was found dead at his
Hollywood home on
June 5,
2002 following a heroin overdose, only two months after The Ramones were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
* Johnny Ramone died of
prostate cancer on
September 15,
2004 in
Los Angeles, California.
The Ramones pioneered a straightforward, stripped-down sound that was a far cry from the virtuosic musicianship and complex instrumentation that 1970s rock music had become known for. Joey Ramone has stated the Ramones were rather taken with the
Bay City Rollers' hit song "Saturday Night", and set out to imitate its catchy, singalong quality, inspiring the "Hey-ho, let's go" chant from their first single, "
Blitzkrieg Bop." Johnny disliked
guitar solos, and played only a handful of them in his more than two decades with the group; his simple, direct playing exclusively
power chords with 8th note downstrokes set the standard for many subsequent punk guitarists.
There were strong influences from the rock and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s; bands such as the
Beach Boys,
the Who,
the Kinks,
the Troggs and the
Yardbirds. The Ramones recorded
cover songs of such "garage" classics as "Surfin' Bird" and "California Sun." Joey often cited
Ronnie Spector as one of his favorite singers; the various love songs he sang for the band are reminiscent of the 1960s
girl group sound. This type of material alternated with harder rock songs in the vein of
proto punk bands
The Stooges,
MC5 and
The New York Dolls. The Ramones' first British concerts on July 4 and 5, 1976, are widely credited with inspiring the first wave of English punk groups:
Buzzcocks (first concert July 20, 1976),
The Damned (first concert July 6, 1976),
The Clash (first concert July 10, 1976) and others. (Coincidentally, all these shows were supporting the
Sex Pistols).Likewise, early shows in
Los Angeles and
Washington, D.C. inspired groups as diverse as
X,
Dead Kennedys,
Black Flag, and
Bad Brains. Still the Ramones are definitive
pop punk band, however their aggressive and powerful
rhythm section become a blueprint for future
hardcore punk and even
thrash metal genres.
The Ramones never achieved much commercial success in the United States during the time they were touring, but they were extremely popular in Europe and especially South America, where their records often topped the charts. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was the 1988 best-of album,
RamonesMania; 1992's
Mondo Bizarro went gold in Brazil. Ironically, the band has seen somewhat of a renaissance during the early and mid-2000's, with their songs being used in soft drink, car, athletic wear, and cellular phone commercials. The band and their albums now regularly appear on "all-time greatest" lists in various rock magazines, such as
Spin, Rolling Stone, and
Mojo--an honor not often bestowed upon them during their career. Their famous "presidential seal" logo is often seen as being trendy (to the ire of some fans), pictures of
Paris Hilton wearing a pink tee-shirt featuring the seal have been printed and it is frequently parodied. Sales of Ramones merchandise are apparently growing every year.
The Ramones 30th Anniversary Tribute concert occurred on
September 12,
2004. The event was at Los Angeles'
Avalon and hosted by
Rob Zombie. The performers demonstrate the breadth of the Ramones' influence:
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
The Dickies and
X played sets and then C.J. Ramone, Marky Ramone and long time producer Daniel Rey took the stage and played while different
guitar and vocal teams, including longtime Ramones fan
Henry Rollins, performed various Ramones songs.
Some bands are so taken by the Ramones as a whole that a subgenre dubbed "Ramones-core" has appeared. These bands often dress up like the Ramones, and play instruments like theirs. The music is generally a little faster and heavier on the guitars with (often)
tongue in cheek lyrics about girls and similar fare. Notable bands include
Screeching Weasel,
The Spazzys,
The Vindictives,
The Queers,
Teenage Bottlerocket and
The Mr. T Experience, who recorded covers of the Ramones albums
Ramones,
Leave Home, and
Rocket to Russia, and
Road to Ruin, respectively. There are also bands heavily influenced by the Ramones such as
The Lillingtons. This type of music can also be considered
Cartoon Punk. In 1992 Canadian jazzcore band
NoMeansNo created a side-project called
the Hanson Brothers; adopting Ramones-esque alter-egos, Ramoneslike graphics and stage monikers, and releasing three successful albums in Ramones three-chord style. While sometimes panned as a Ramones parody;
the Hanson Brothers, all longtime Ramones fans, conceived the project as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to their heroes.
In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in two magazine polls
Rolling Stone&
Spin Magazine, trailing only in both polls to
The Beatles.
For a complete discography, see
Ramones Discography.
*
Download sample of "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" from
Rocket to Russia*
Download sample of "I Wanna Be Sedated" from
Road to Ruin*In 1997, a pair of
paleontologists, Adrain & Edgecombe, named a series of fossil
trilobite species
Mackenziurus johnnyi,
M. joeyi,
M. deedeei, and
M. ceejayi.
*Since mid-80s, Finnish band
http://kotisivu.dnainternet.net/a7805/Ne/nemuut/neengl.htm Ne Luumäet have been performing their own humorous, yet thoroughly respectful adaptation of Ramones music in Finnish. Their translations are noted for near-perfect literal following of original English themes; in cases where Finnish language has refused to adapt to the original meaning and rhyme, they have creatively applied onomatopoetics, such as in the case of "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" ("
Siinä on Punk Kari"; lit. Here is Gary the Punk, the noun "punkkari" also signifying a punk rocker). The name of the band is another translation with a hidden pun; as Finnish language has no
article, definite or otherwise, they have substituted it with a demonstrative
pronoun. ("Ahh,
those Luumäet!")
Luumäki itself is a minor township in southeastern Finland.
*On the DVD of the
Rolling Stones, Live In Hyde Park, Joey Ramone can be seen dancing in the crowd during (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.
*The famous punk
'zine Sniffin' Glue was named after the Ramones song, likewise was the influential
Hardcore punk group
Bad Brains.
*
David Fricke, untitled 1999 essay included in
The Ramones Anthology*Monte Melnick,
On The Road With The Ramones (Paperback, 2003)
*Jim Bessman,
Ramones: An American Band (Paperback, 1993)
*
Legs McNeil and Gilian McCain,
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (1996)
*
Dee Dee Ramone,
Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones (Paperback 2000)
*
Official Website*
Finnish Ramones fan-site The most complete and updated Ramones page since 1995
*
Ivo's Ramones history*
A retrospective of the Ramones' career and influence*
Rekindling the Punk Flame –
Los Angeles Times article about the gain in popularity of '77 punk.
*
Ramonesbootlegs Bootlegs and Setlists reference
*
RamonesMania.Com.Br Brazilian Site - Everything about Ramones! (in portuguese)
*
Ramones Interview Ramones interview from The 1990s
