On the occasion of 50 years of the Ramones: An ode to the best band in the world

Do you remember? 2016 – this year was declared the punk anniversary year. This is because the Sex Pistols released their debut single “Anarchy in the UK” on November 26, 1976:

Without wishing to downplay the shock effect of this disc, which is difficult to imagine today, it must nevertheless be said that when the British press spoke out about the lèse majesté, it became clear four boys from the New York borough of Queens rather mildly impressed. They had already released their first single in February 1976. And the following April their first album. Ladies and gentlemen, The Ramones:

The Ramones were founded two years earlier. We even have an exact date:

On January 28, 1974 John Cummings, Thomas Erdelyi, Douglas Colvin and Jeffrey Hyman were in Manhattan Performance studios to a band rehearsal. The four boys had known each other for a few years; they all came from the same Forest Hills neighborhood in the New York borough of Queens. Cummings and Erdelyi had had a high school band together; Hyman was a singer in a glam rock band. The new band project for which the boys came together in January 1974 had already undergone some concept changes (for example, Hyman was initially going to play drums), but the line-up was agreed upon that day. And: Douglas Colvin announced that he wanted the stage name Dee Dee Ramone contract.

The inspiration behind the pseudonym was Paul McCartney’s old nickname Paul Ramon been, which he used in the early days of the Beatles in 1960, when the group was still called The Silver Beetles. Hyman and Cummings followed Colvin’s example and were accepted Joey And Johnny Ramone. Erdelyi, on the other hand, had no musical ambitions and preferred to act in the background as the band’s manager. But when prospective drummers auditioned, he often had to sit behind the drums and demonstrate how to play the songs. It soon became clear that he had mastered the band’s drumming style better than anyone else – and he joined the band as Tommy Ramone bee.

The Ramones played their first concert on March 30, 1974 at Performance Studios. But her first appearance at the club would have a more lasting impact CBGBs on August 16, 1974. Legs McNeil, who founded the magazine the following year punk co-founder, described the effect of this appearance: “They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they were counting down this song… and it was just a wall of noise… They looked so incredibly good. These guys weren’t hippies. That was something completely new.”

A cult band was born and the public’s interest was aroused. As a result, The Ramones played CBGB’s 74 times by the end of the year. And In their wake a large number of bands emerged that quickly formed the new and emerging punk scene in New York: Blondie, The Dictators, Talking Heads, The Dead Boys and many more.

The Ramones were, are and remain, even 28 years after their breakup in 1996, one of the most influential bands in music history. There are clear reasons for this:

“I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement” is the longest song from the debut album “Ramones”. It lasts 2 minutes and 35 seconds. “Havana Affair” lasts almost 2 minutes, while “Judy Is a Punk” comes in at 1:32. And that is good.

Back then, at a time when art rock and progressive rock bands were pressing pompous concept double albums to vinyl and emphasizing their seriousness with ten-minute guitar solos, the Ramones struck at the heart of rock ‘n’ roll.

Ask around your circle of musician colleagues – more precisely: guitarists – and you will discover: Lead guitarists don’t like the Ramones. “Too primitive” is often their reasoning. The real reason: The Ramones proved that guitar solos are not necessary. Your fussing about with your phallic extension isn’t going to get the girls dancing, honey Guitar Hero! But the four ugly souls with their supposedly primitive songs have never lacked female fans.

Too often, the Ramones’ music is dismissed as ‘stupid’: A few punks who simply can’t play any better and therefore releases 2-minute songs that all sound alike.

And then there was the alternative view. There are conceptual artists at work here who consciously put musical ultra-minimalism into practice. Refusal of creativity as protest, so to speak.

Oh what!

The band’s ambition was never intellectual. But never stupid either. Ultimately, they wanted to play rock ‘n’ roll. And they did that like no other.

Early in their career, the Ramones always had the same problem with concert promoters: their set was over after 17 minutes, but they were booked for a 30-minute set. “We fulfilled our contract and played our 30-minute set.”says drummer Tommy Ramone, “Just faster – in 17 minutes”.

Although the band’s visual concept aimed to emphasize uniformity, the individual members were as different as possible.

Guitarist Johnny Ramone, for example, was a real right-wing bastard. I guess you can say that. Singer Joey Ramone wrote the song “The KKK Took My Baby Away” about him when his then-girlfriend Linda left him for Johnny. The reference to the Ku Klux Klan is because Johnny was a pretty bad racist who always mocked Joey because of his Jewish heritage.

But you can assume that Johnny never checked the allusion in the song in question anyway. He, the staunch Republican, also didn’t recognize the anti-Reagan song “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” as such until it started climbing the charts. Too late, Johnny! Etching!

The fact that Johnny and Joey are so tense They never spoke again for decades, but still toured hard and recorded albumsis one of the many storylines of the dysfunctional Ramones family that makes for a wonderful soap opera.

Had it in the meantime Bassist Dee Dee Ramone, along with Joey, the band’s other creative head, struggled with drug problems his entire life and drove people like manager Monte Melnick to despair when he once again disappeared for hours in a completely unknown city, only to reappear just five minutes later. before the show started. Over time, Dee Dee could no longer tolerate the tensions within the band (especially with Johnny) and resigned, but continued to diligently provide them with songs.

The Ramones have not achieved gold status with any of their albums. One of the most demoralizing statistics about the music world is ‘The Young and Hopeless’, Good Charlotte’s debut album It sold 4.9 million copies – ten times more all Ramones albums together.

You have to think about this: a terrible pop parody of a punk band, four Southern California poseurs from wealthy families who owe everything – absolutely everything – about their style to the Ramones, who with one copy sell ten times the entire catalog of their ancestors sell album.

But perhaps justice will prevail in the end – at least morally. Hardly anyone knows Good Charlotte today, while the Ramones are part of the global cultural subconscious.

The downside to this is that the clientele of trendy clubs in Zurich tends to be believes that “Ramones” is a T-shirt brand. Similar to Motorhead. Or misfits.

But that’s what the Ramones are for, 50 years after their band formed48 years after the release of their first records, 28 years after the last of their 2,263 concerts in 1996 and ten years after the death of their last founder Tommy in 2014 (Joey died in 2001, Dee Dee in 2002, Johnny in 2004), more present than ever before. And everything, but really everyonepunk bands formed after 1977 actually owe everything to the Ramones.

And when Lemmy pays his respects, you must:

Hey ho, let’s go.