Comments on: Johnny Ramone, RIP

By: jill

jill — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 02:17:25 +0000

i must say johnny ramone has been a fabulous guitarist and he has shown me the light to trying to play guitar. you dont have to be great you just have to go with it. being a guitarist isnt half as great as being in a band. the ramones were one of the best bands of all time.

By: Paco

Paco — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 14:32:32 +0000

The Ramones were the first punk band, at least for Joe Strummer: “(The Ramones) are the daddy punk group of all time.” Joe Strummer (R.I.P.) PSF: So what actually happened? The first I heard about the punk rock movement is reading about the New York scene. That’s where I remember, especially in NME through Nick Kent, hearing about CBGB’s and the Ramones. It sounded very exciting, talking about things in a new way. There was connections to Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground- that was interesting. Patti Smith, her stuff about her lyrics and the French existentialists. Then the Ramones album come out, first album and it was on import. Nick Kent reviewed it and it sounded interesting. I went and bought the import copy before it came out in Britian. I was just blown away. It was like… fucking hell, what an exciting album! They had the edge over Doctor Feelgood for me. This was something special, their whole attitude. PSF: Is that what led you to start Sniffin’ Glue? Yeah, that was it really. It was the Ramones coming over was why I decided to do the fanzine. They came over supporting the Flamin’ Groovies who were doing the ‘Shake Some Action’ tour and they were on Sire as well. They played the Roundhouse. It was damn rock and roll, feet on the monitors. Fantastic! Within a week, I got the fanzine out. (Mark Perry of Alternative TV and creator of Sniffin’ Glue the legendary and first London Punk Zine). Or you could go to The Damned official website and read what they’ve written about Johnny and The Ramones: http://www.officialdamned.com/

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 03:13:42 +0000

First Punks? The Monks!! GI’s in Germany with tonsures and habits, circa 65!

By: dsquared

dsquared — Sat, 18 Sep 2004 00:50:52 +0000

lazarou: I swear to you that what you’re hearing there is a phaser pedal and my tabbed version is as it was played on the record.

By: mick

mick — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 18:43:41 +0000

The Ramones were not the first punks (even Joey credited the Stooges), and perhaps not the greatest. But I still think Joe Strummer was right in calling them the “daddy punk group of all time.” They didn’t invent punk, but they metastasized it. Dsquared: True punks cared about great singles, not coherent albums (which was a mid-sixties invention of the Beatles, among others). But I never get bored of their debut, anyway.

By: philspectorno1fan

philspectorno1fan — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 18:37:17 +0000

someone please plot a network graph showing influence of ramones on popular music, giving stronger weights to non-ramones songs that sound like ramones songs. more songs today follow the ramones formula than the beatles formula. i applaud their commitment to schtick, and resiliency against music critic intellectualization.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:54:29 +0000

But Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten and Patti Smith and countless other do not cite Doctor Feelgood as their inspiration, so far as I know. Strummer’s band before the Clash, the 101ers, played support to Feelgood a number of times. Wilko Johnson, lead guitar player of Dr Feelgood, played at the memorial service for Joe Strummer. So now you know. The Ramones played in London for the first time in 1976, and it’s true that members of the Clash, the Damned and the Sex Pistols were there, but that really just goes to show that there was already a scene in London (btw, I’m not sure that Johnny Rotten cited anyone as an “inspiration” other than himself, and I’ve heard him say some fairly nasty things about New York punks over time). I don’t want to be nasty at anyone’s funeral – I liked the Ramones as much as anyone – but it’s pure revisionist history to claim that punk wouldn’t have happened without the Ramones, that the Ramones were “the second coming of the Beatles”, or indeed that they were really ever capable of making an album that you could listen to from start to finish without getting bored.

By: MCarson

MCarson — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 13:14:10 +0000

I love the Pistols (to death?) and the Clash have great stuff. There is at least something I like about nearly every form of music I’ve heard, from hip-hop to Gregorian chant. But the Ramones grab me in my soul. That’s important. Thanks, guys.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 11:40:43 +0000

Saw this somewhere else in blogland: Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go I wanna be cremated Nothin to do nowhere to go ho I wanna be cremated…

By: lazarou

lazarou — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 10:19:57 +0000

God I hate to be pedantic but for that solo you duplicate the E note by also playing the 5th fret on the B string. Clear as day on the record, the two notes are ever so slighlty out of tune with each other. Sorry, I’ll just go and consign myself to geek hell. RIP Johnny

By: malcolm

malcolm — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 04:48:44 +0000

dsquared, The Ramones certainly were limited, as was Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and the early Beatles. But Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten and Patti Smith and countless other do not cite Doctor Feelgood as their inspiration, so far as I know.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 03:18:42 +0000

AMG Groovies For comparison.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 03:11:49 +0000

Flamin Groovies, late 60’s SF. Best “Louie Louie” ever. But I do think the Ramones are as important as Malcolm says, and also much much beloved.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 02:35:32 +0000

Hang about, let’s not get out of hand here. The Ramones were a good band, but a chronically limited one (which a succession of producers tried and failed to make sound interesting after about an hour’s listening), and there is no apostolic succession which has them as reinventors of rock music, keepers of the scared flame and turns them into male-line progenitors of the Clash and the Pistols. Doctor Feelgood’s first album predates “Ramones” by a year, for example.

By: b

Fri, 17 Sep 2004 02:02:52 +0000

a prime example of the art of the solo. see also “copper blue” by sugar.