1234!
February 3, 2016 1:08 PM Subscribe
Forty years of the Ramones ‘They were the smartest dumb band you ever heard’: Bands from the Sex Pistols to Blondie to Talking Heads recall the Bowery punks’ explosive impact
Thank you for this link. Love them to this day...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 1:26 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 1:26 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I worked at club where they played a number of times. My vantage point was right below Joey, front and center. Good times. This was about 10 years later...
posted by sfts2 at 1:37 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by sfts2 at 1:37 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
The sad thing about the Ramones is that none of their studio albums come anywhere close to representing their awesomeness live.
Luckily, there are some very good bootlegs of their live shows out there, so it's not totally impossible to give your kids a better idea what you're babbling about.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:41 PM on February 3, 2016
Luckily, there are some very good bootlegs of their live shows out there, so it's not totally impossible to give your kids a better idea what you're babbling about.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:41 PM on February 3, 2016
They were such tremendous songwriters. Those songs were (are!) so melodic, so catchy, so well structured. A lot of punk bands big on attitude but didn't have very good songs.
posted by zipadee at 1:52 PM on February 3, 2016
posted by zipadee at 1:52 PM on February 3, 2016
Awesome title!
(old man voice) I REMEMBER, my friends were into metal and thought the Ramones were trash punk, but I got them to listen to some, LOUD, and they grudgingly liked it, and then I finally talked them into going to a concert, and they were blown away by the music and the performance and the crowd.
I bought a black Ramones t-shirt at the concession stand and immediately ripped the sleeves off it - right there, at the stand, in front of my metal friends, which impressed them even more. Then I threw it on the ground and dumped my beer on it and said "Guys. GUYS. I need you to stomp on this shirt till it's totally wrecked, STOMP THE SHIT OUT OF IT DO IT NOW" and that pretty much clinched it for them. Kept that shirt for 20+ years.
good times
posted by sidereal at 1:55 PM on February 3, 2016 [10 favorites]
(old man voice) I REMEMBER, my friends were into metal and thought the Ramones were trash punk, but I got them to listen to some, LOUD, and they grudgingly liked it, and then I finally talked them into going to a concert, and they were blown away by the music and the performance and the crowd.
I bought a black Ramones t-shirt at the concession stand and immediately ripped the sleeves off it - right there, at the stand, in front of my metal friends, which impressed them even more. Then I threw it on the ground and dumped my beer on it and said "Guys. GUYS. I need you to stomp on this shirt till it's totally wrecked, STOMP THE SHIT OUT OF IT DO IT NOW" and that pretty much clinched it for them. Kept that shirt for 20+ years.
good times
posted by sidereal at 1:55 PM on February 3, 2016 [10 favorites]
ONE OF US
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:56 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:56 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
We loved to watch the Ramones, but nobody wanted to follow them: the audience would be spent.
yeah
posted by caddis at 1:57 PM on February 3, 2016
yeah
posted by caddis at 1:57 PM on February 3, 2016
The sad thing about the Ramones is that none of their studio albums come anywhere close to representing their awesomeness live.
True - no studio album. Luckily there's It's Alive! One of the best punk double LPs of all time!
Here - enjoy 26 or so minutes of the whole "It's Alive" show at the Rainbow Theatre.
A comment from 2012:
True - no studio album. Luckily there's It's Alive! One of the best punk double LPs of all time!
Here - enjoy 26 or so minutes of the whole "It's Alive" show at the Rainbow Theatre.
A comment from 2012:
Saw them in Providence, RI, in the mid-1980s... some small venue on the East Side. Came out with my shirt torn, my nose bloody, my glasses broke, and pretty much deaf. One of the best nights of my life. All of which is to say: Ramones = punk as fuck!posted by jammy at 1:57 PM on February 3, 2016 [5 favorites]
"Do your parents know that you're Ramones?!"
Actually, my dad's personal claim to fame is that his band opened for the Ramones the first time they played in Seattle. The Ramones didn't have enough songs to make a full set yet so they played all the songs off their first album, took a short break, and then played all their songs again.
posted by skycrashesdown at 2:10 PM on February 3, 2016 [12 favorites]
Actually, my dad's personal claim to fame is that his band opened for the Ramones the first time they played in Seattle. The Ramones didn't have enough songs to make a full set yet so they played all the songs off their first album, took a short break, and then played all their songs again.
posted by skycrashesdown at 2:10 PM on February 3, 2016 [12 favorites]
I saw them live in 95. I got dead center right in the front. When they came out a mosh pit erupted behind me, and my glasses fell off my face between the barrier and the crowd. I managed to get down on my knees and get them and stand back up with Joey sweating on me from the stage about 4 feet away. I held my spot for the whole show. They were flawless. You shoulda been there, but you hadda fight for it.
posted by Catblack at 2:13 PM on February 3, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Catblack at 2:13 PM on February 3, 2016 [6 favorites]
Impossible to convey to a kid today, just how damned exciting this seemed at the time. Punk is just another genre now, but to a 14 year old in 1976 - the Ramones felt like an atomic bomb.
posted by davebush at 2:24 PM on February 3, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by davebush at 2:24 PM on February 3, 2016 [11 favorites]
I saw them from way the fuck in the back of a gross nightclub with a shitty sound system back in maybe '89ish??? One of the top rock shows in my life, and I could barely see them.
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:37 PM on February 3, 2016
posted by Cookiebastard at 2:37 PM on February 3, 2016
I love that the "eins zwei drei vier" from Kraftwerk's Schaufensterpuppen/Showroom Dummies was an affectionate parody to them. My understanding is that Ralf is the one who really digs punk, and Iggy, and The Ramones.
And when I was in school, punk wasn't some weird, far out thing, even though it was new. I was just little enough that it was one of many genres I was being exposed to at the time, and I learned to appreciate it. The party was always gonna rock out once our teacher put on The Ramones. Iggy was just a little too raw for 5th grade, so bless the boys from Queens.
posted by droplet at 2:48 PM on February 3, 2016
And when I was in school, punk wasn't some weird, far out thing, even though it was new. I was just little enough that it was one of many genres I was being exposed to at the time, and I learned to appreciate it. The party was always gonna rock out once our teacher put on The Ramones. Iggy was just a little too raw for 5th grade, so bless the boys from Queens.
posted by droplet at 2:48 PM on February 3, 2016
I wish the Ramones had been invited to do an episode of The Flintstones or Scooby Doo. That would have been awesome.
posted by sidereal at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by sidereal at 2:54 PM on February 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
As I've grown older, it's frankly gotten a bit confusing for me that the Ramones, as important and beloved as they are, aren't a cultural institution equal to, say, the Beatles. A huge catalog of perfect songs, a great (and easily merchandised) image, distinct and memorable personalities.
Nobody has ever been anything but happier when a Ramones song is playing.
posted by incomple at 2:59 PM on February 3, 2016 [9 favorites]
Nobody has ever been anything but happier when a Ramones song is playing.
posted by incomple at 2:59 PM on February 3, 2016 [9 favorites]
I wish the Ramones had been invited to do an episode of The Flintstones or Scooby Doo.
They did make an appearance on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. With Zorak Ramone!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:07 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
They did make an appearance on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. With Zorak Ramone!
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 3:07 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
I feel like The Ramones were sorta the Occam's Razor of Rock n' Roll.
posted by panama joe at 3:11 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by panama joe at 3:11 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
A decade ago, Jeffrey Lewis observed (in "The History of Punk on the Lower East Side" ) that the appearance of the New York Dolls marked the moment when "stupid on purpose became the new smart". The Ramones may have had an explosive impact, but they took that glorious, willful, sexy stupidity to punk straight from glam.
It's no secret that the Ramones were huge fans of the New York Dolls before they started the Ramones.
I always thought that Johnny Thunders looked like he could have been a fifth Ramone or something, once he dropped the glam styling and I guess, uh, got pretty far in trying to kill himself with drugs. Thunders even recorded Chinese Rock before the Ramones (written mostly by Dee Dee)
posted by alex_skazat at 3:15 PM on February 3, 2016
It's no secret that the Ramones were huge fans of the New York Dolls before they started the Ramones.
I always thought that Johnny Thunders looked like he could have been a fifth Ramone or something, once he dropped the glam styling and I guess, uh, got pretty far in trying to kill himself with drugs. Thunders even recorded Chinese Rock before the Ramones (written mostly by Dee Dee)
posted by alex_skazat at 3:15 PM on February 3, 2016
Two ramones stories; once I saw them after a bad breakup where I'd mostly shaved my head and the rest was fire engine red. Joey, in they middle of the show, looked down at me, the only girl holding a stage spot in the pit, and said "you look like a fucking fraggle!" To which I replied, "pot, kettle, black, baby." I still have my signed shirt from the after party.
2) When my son was a toddler, and people would ask him who his parents were, like at parties or playgrounds, he would run over and sing we're a happy family.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:18 PM on February 3, 2016 [14 favorites]
2) When my son was a toddler, and people would ask him who his parents were, like at parties or playgrounds, he would run over and sing we're a happy family.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:18 PM on February 3, 2016 [14 favorites]
Growing up in the 70s, I was a combo Deadhead and southern rock guy. My brother was into punk. One night he went into the city to see the Ramones. I had no idea who they were at the time however, I have a vivid memory of my brother coming home at around 2:30 in the morning. See he was puking outside my bedroom window. He finally snuck into the house and I went to his room to ask how it was. He just looked up at 15 yo me from lying on his bed with all his clothes and his boots on, and said, "Man, they were more fucked up than I was. It was great!" and closed his eyes and passed out.
posted by AugustWest at 3:24 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by AugustWest at 3:24 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
Thunders even recorded Chinese Rock before the Ramones (written mostly by Dee Dee)
I'm probably in the wrong thread to say it, but I like Thunders' version better. but I love the Ramones too so don't hurt me please
posted by Hoopo at 3:30 PM on February 3, 2016
I'm probably in the wrong thread to say it, but I like Thunders' version better. but I love the Ramones too so don't hurt me please
posted by Hoopo at 3:30 PM on February 3, 2016
My uncle, who was (at the time) a music critic for The Globe & Mail, absolutely panned the Ramones' first performance in Toronto in 1976.
I still give him shit for that.
The thing is, most of his characterization of the band and their performance was completely valid, he simply came to the wrong conclusion.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:15 PM on February 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
I still give him shit for that.
The thing is, most of his characterization of the band and their performance was completely valid, he simply came to the wrong conclusion.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:15 PM on February 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
I saw them at One Step Beyond in Santa Clara in 1988 I guess--the Ramones Mania tour. The feeling of pure exhilaration at that show has always stayed with me and I'm not sure it has ever been matched. Every time I hear them it sounds like 16 years old again.
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:58 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:58 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Kafkaesque, I was also at that show! The Dickies opened. I remember it being insanely hot and sweaty even before the Ramones came out, and then the temperature went up by another fifty degrees.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:08 PM on February 3, 2016
posted by oneirodynia at 5:08 PM on February 3, 2016
Joey Ramone and I had the same dentist but I had to change dentists because he'd play Hannity in the waiting room.
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:49 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I wish the Ramones had been invited to do an episode of The Flintstones or Scooby Doo.
Their cover of Spiderman will probably have to do?
posted by jeremias at 6:35 PM on February 3, 2016 [5 favorites]
Their cover of Spiderman will probably have to do?
posted by jeremias at 6:35 PM on February 3, 2016 [5 favorites]
Ha ha, I was *also* at that One Step Beyond show! It was my first of several, and I remember being surprised at Joey coming out in all leather, including gloves.
posted by rhizome at 6:40 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 6:40 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Joey Ramone and I had the same dentist but I had to change dentists because he'd play Hannity in the waiting room.
Joey?
posted by davebush at 6:50 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Joey?
posted by davebush at 6:50 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
I used to see them all the time in Philly. One time they were playing this club, Ripley's, on South St. It had 2 levels and the dressing room was upstairs, though the stage was downstairs.
That night I was speeding my balls off and wandered upstairs. Joey was outside the dressing room sort of holding court. I had to stop and say hi, of course.
I can't remember anything he was saying, but I could see, out of the corner of my eye, the dressing room door opening a crack, and Johnny peeking out.
That happened two or three times. So I decided that the next time he peeked out, I'd do something, because I was hilarious. He peeked out again and I pointed at him and yelled at the top of my voice:
"SHUT THAT GODDAMNED DOOR RIGHT NOW ASSHOLE!"
Which he of course did, because some drug crazed weirdo was shouting at him.
I had a moment of near sanity and decided I would be better off in the middle of a crowd, down on the dance floor.
And that is my clean Ramones story.
posted by evilDoug at 6:55 PM on February 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
That night I was speeding my balls off and wandered upstairs. Joey was outside the dressing room sort of holding court. I had to stop and say hi, of course.
I can't remember anything he was saying, but I could see, out of the corner of my eye, the dressing room door opening a crack, and Johnny peeking out.
That happened two or three times. So I decided that the next time he peeked out, I'd do something, because I was hilarious. He peeked out again and I pointed at him and yelled at the top of my voice:
"SHUT THAT GODDAMNED DOOR RIGHT NOW ASSHOLE!"
Which he of course did, because some drug crazed weirdo was shouting at him.
I had a moment of near sanity and decided I would be better off in the middle of a crowd, down on the dance floor.
And that is my clean Ramones story.
posted by evilDoug at 6:55 PM on February 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
Gotanda I was there 6 nights a week from 76-81...some of the best time in my life. Saw plenty of punk and new wave....lots of stuff, many stories. Ramones one of the best, and a pretty lively local punk rock scene. I still live in the area and go back from time to time. Guys I hired and worked with still work there...but an ungodly number have died...its a tough life.
posted by sfts2 at 6:59 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by sfts2 at 6:59 PM on February 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
"I saw them at One Step Beyond in Santa Clara in 1988 I guess--the Ramones Mania tour. "
It was odd seeing this earlier, as I'm wearing my old Ramones shirt today.
I saw that show too, as I handled promotions for San Jose State's radio station. I'm still friends of Stan, the original owner of One Step, who has a website up for One Step Beyond with a section on The Ramones, who played there *A LOT*. We also had them visit our station, I got to eat pizza with Joey and Dee Dee. I also have an old Ramones drumstick from one of their concerts at One Step.
The way they just kind of leaned into the crowd was visually really striking and iconic. Artistically, they had that classic Renaissance triangular composition going for them... and then that ONETWOTHREEFOUR!!!, followed by a practically visible wall of sound.
posted by markkraft at 9:57 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
It was odd seeing this earlier, as I'm wearing my old Ramones shirt today.
I saw that show too, as I handled promotions for San Jose State's radio station. I'm still friends of Stan, the original owner of One Step, who has a website up for One Step Beyond with a section on The Ramones, who played there *A LOT*. We also had them visit our station, I got to eat pizza with Joey and Dee Dee. I also have an old Ramones drumstick from one of their concerts at One Step.
The way they just kind of leaned into the crowd was visually really striking and iconic. Artistically, they had that classic Renaissance triangular composition going for them... and then that ONETWOTHREEFOUR!!!, followed by a practically visible wall of sound.
posted by markkraft at 9:57 PM on February 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Varsity Grill, College Park, MD 1979-ish- sleazy college bar on Rt 1 with a room in the back where local cover bands would play. Owner clearly had no idea what he was in for when he booked the Ramones. Doubled the admission price when people started lining up at 4:00 and sold way more tickets than the place could safely support. They had to pause the show halfway through when an amp tower started wavering from the push of humanity.
I worked across the street and got my copy of "Ramones" autographed when I found them in the record store.
Good day.
posted by krtzmrk at 6:17 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I worked across the street and got my copy of "Ramones" autographed when I found them in the record store.
Good day.
posted by krtzmrk at 6:17 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Guess I'll have to break the news
That I got no mind to lose
Guess I'm gonna hafta tell'em
That I got no cerebellum
posted by telstar at 10:21 AM on February 5, 2016
That I got no mind to lose
Guess I'm gonna hafta tell'em
That I got no cerebellum
posted by telstar at 10:21 AM on February 5, 2016
It's interesting how some of the interviewees in the OP wind up talking more about their own bands than the Ramones. Handsome Dick in particular comes off fairly self-aggrandizing, although the Dictators genuinely are one of the great shoulda-coulda-woulda stories of punk/rock. Sort of a missing link between the Dolls and The Ramones.
(although perhaps I'm just positively disposed to Manitoba because his bar in Alphabet City has an air hockey table in the basement and a legit jukebox)
posted by panama joe at 1:29 PM on February 5, 2016
(although perhaps I'm just positively disposed to Manitoba because his bar in Alphabet City has an air hockey table in the basement and a legit jukebox)
posted by panama joe at 1:29 PM on February 5, 2016
Who could forget their birthday show for Mr. Burns?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:08 AM on February 15, 2016
posted by Chrysostom at 10:08 AM on February 15, 2016
« Older Which Reaction GIF are you? | "I listen for your footsteps" Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by ryanshepard at 1:16 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]