The Ramones were
a hugely influential punk rock band
formed in New York in
March 1974. They
led the
The original band members all adopted Ramone as a surname
although they were not actually brothers:
Later band members also adopted the name:
Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone) suggested the name, inspired by the fact that Paul McCartney used to call himself Paul Ramon when he was in the Silver Beatles.
The Ramones pioneered a back-to-basics sound that avoided complicated progressive rock and the bloated, meandering guitar solos that 1970s rock
music had become known for. It heralded a raw, loud, fast
and direct sound often reminicent of 1950s-early 1960s rock and roll or bubblegum pop. 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, sing-a-long quality.
The Ramones
started with Joey Ramone on drums, Johnny Ramone on guitar and Dee
Dee Ramone on bass and vocals. Tommy Ramone was then an employee of
the studio, and after several times helping Joey to get some beats straight, he
ended up joining the band, while Joey took over the lead vocals.
Their early songs were very fast and very short, most clocked in at
about two minutes.
In the early 70's, many New York bands started to play in rock clubs
such as the famous Max's Kansas City and CBGB
(which stands for "country, bluegrass and blues" and was not
originally intended to be a rock club) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Other bands from this period include the New York Dolls, Tom Verlaine's Television, Blondie,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Patti Smith Band, Suicide, and
the Talking Heads. These bands formed a very interesting musical scene of creative people
who played very different styles of music that later were called punk rock,
perhaps due in part to a fanzine called Punk Magazine.
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. There are some super8 movies of these
shows, present in a couple of the band's videos.
After playing for several nights at CBGB, they were signed by Sire Records in autumn 1975 and
recorded their debut album Ramones for about $6000.
They appeared at the Roundhouse in London,
After two years on the road and the Top 50 hit album Rocket to Russia,
an exhausted Tommy Ramone was replaced on drums by Marc Bell, who became
Marky Ramone.
Tommy left the band to go back to his studio work, which he preferred to the
hard life of touring. Tommy worked with Marky to ensure that his drumming was
appropriate for the Ramones style; he also produced the Ramones fourth studio
album Road to Ruin and their eighth Too Tough To
Die. It was the lineup with Marky which played a central role in the 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School, a film that Roger Corman
originally called Disco High until writer/director Allan Arkush heard
the Ramones.
Marky Ramone was eventually replaced by Richard Beau (under the
name Richie Ramone) and then by Clem Burke (a.k.a. Elvis Ramone) from Blondie.
Burke lasted two weeks in the band before Marky came back in 1990.
Dee Dee Ramone left after 1989's Brain Drain, and was replaced by
Christopher John Ward (C.J. Ramone), a Ramones fan that gave a younger rock
feeling to the Ramones' work.
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 and Johnny didn't speak to each other for years. Joey was also reported to
have drug problems.
Their last show is recorded on video and CD and featured several special
guests such as Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead and Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.
The Ramones have proven hugely influential, mostly on later musicians,
but in other fields as well: In 1997 four species of trilobites were named after members of the band: Mackenziurus johnnyi, Mackenziurus
joeyi, Mackenziurus deedeei, and Mackenziurus ceejayi.
While the origins of punk rock are the subject of debate, The Ramones
are widely credited with popularizing the form. Several people often state
that, when they first heard the Ramones, they felt that they could do the same,
deciding to play instruments and form their own groups.
Some bands are so taken by The Ramones as a whole that a subgenre dubbed
"Ramones-punk" 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 and The Queers, both
of whom recorded entire Ramones cover albums.
Longtime Ramones fan Henry Rollins appeared at a Ramones Thirtieth Anniversary Tribute concert September 12, 2004. The
event was at
Slash from
Guns and Roses has stated that he learned to play guitar by listening to Road to Ruin.
Lemmy Kilmister wrote a song called R.A.M.O.N.E.S..
When Joey died, The Misfits took their website off the air and replaced it with a picture of Joey.
In the next day, Bono Vox made a speech about Joey and the Ramones.
Jello Biafra has a
track called Joey Ramone on one of his spoken word albums.
William Shatner mentions Joey Ramone on a song.
Ramones fans often try to look like their idols. The uniform often
consists of a Perfecto leather jacket, ripped jeans, and Converse
sneakers.
Swedish band Roxette
included a tall thin puppet with long black hair, Perfecto leather jacket and
red sunglasses in one of their video clips. By the end of the video, the puppet
name is revealed as being "Joey".
The street behind CBGB was named after Joey Ramone after his death.
Animation TV show Oggy and the Cockroaches featured a trio of
cockroaches called "Joey", "Marky" and "Dee Dee".
Australian all
girl punk rock band The Spazzys are huge fans of The Ramones and once played with Mark Ramone.
They say that The Ramones are one of their main musical infulences