When Johnny Ramone (nee Cummings) died recently after a five-year battle with prostate cancer, it was a sad loss. Like most people who spent their teen years in the 70’s, their introduction to “punk rock” came via the first Ramones album in 1976.
In earlier years, the MC5, Stooges, Flamin' Groovies, and countless Nuggets-style garage bands were already on the scene. It can be argued as to who was truly the first "punk" band to hopeless no-lifers like the combined staffs of "Rolling Stone," MTV, and VH1. In the grand scheme of things, it matters not anyway.
So much has been written about the Ramones, especially in the last 10 years, about their influence on throbbing, amplified, and usually childish whiplash punk genius has had on so many would be not only pointless, but redundant and dreadfully boring as well. When the band came up with the bright idea of using guitars and Marshall stacks to wax poetic about girls, dope, and social sickness, it marked a turning point not only in rock and roll as we knew it, but a turning point in many of our lives.
Johnny Ramone was known for sawing out the glorious opening salvo of chords which kick off “Blitzkrieg Bop,” Hindsight being 20/20, Johnny is now being heralded as the Ramones’ strategist, the man with a plan, looking after the band’s interests and defending them, literally, to the grave. Some people with too much time on their hands have postulated that they functioned as much like a gang as they did a band, but a more accurate analogy might be La Cosa Nostra, with Johnny as capo di tutti capi and the rest as misfit goombahs.
Until the end, it appeared the Ramones' creed was "in for life" and to this day, there appears to be some sort of omerta regarding Richie, who came up to the bigs for a cup of coffee when Marky was too drunk to sit upright on his drum stool.
In earlier years, the MC5, Stooges, Flamin' Groovies, and countless Nuggets-style garage bands were already on the scene. It can be argued as to who was truly the first "punk" band to hopeless no-lifers like the combined staffs of "Rolling Stone," MTV, and VH1. In the grand scheme of things, it matters not anyway.
So much has been written about the Ramones, especially in the last 10 years, about their influence on throbbing, amplified, and usually childish whiplash punk genius has had on so many would be not only pointless, but redundant and dreadfully boring as well. When the band came up with the bright idea of using guitars and Marshall stacks to wax poetic about girls, dope, and social sickness, it marked a turning point not only in rock and roll as we knew it, but a turning point in many of our lives.
Johnny Ramone was known for sawing out the glorious opening salvo of chords which kick off “Blitzkrieg Bop,” Hindsight being 20/20, Johnny is now being heralded as the Ramones’ strategist, the man with a plan, looking after the band’s interests and defending them, literally, to the grave. Some people with too much time on their hands have postulated that they functioned as much like a gang as they did a band, but a more accurate analogy might be La Cosa Nostra, with Johnny as capo di tutti capi and the rest as misfit goombahs.
Until the end, it appeared the Ramones' creed was "in for life" and to this day, there appears to be some sort of omerta regarding Richie, who came up to the bigs for a cup of coffee when Marky was too drunk to sit upright on his drum stool.
Johnny will always be the fastest right hand in rock, with no time for carpal tunnel syndrome. Too bad he never quite mastered the main riff in "California Sun," but come to think of it, that would have been like putting perfume on a pig. His howitzer Mosrite fretfire was the foundation on which the Ramones house was built, and what a shaky house it was at times.
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