The Ramones : Classic Or Dud

welcome rookie.

nicholas cage's johnny impression!!

aw that nicholas cage thing is actually really sweet

The Ramones meet Regis and Kathy Lee

Meanwhile, on the 6 train...

awesome clip - thx!

xpost -- I see you noticed that as well.

i don't know if i've ever seen a human male with skinnier legs than joey ramone.

inventing post rock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MPEqGJqqSI

has anyone read johnny's book?

― fit and working again, Saturday, August 11, 2012 8:02 AM (5 months ago

Yep. It's a great read. Not brilliantly written - it jumps all over the place, he skips a lot, repeats a lot and a few other problems. But you really get a sense of his character - and what a character he is. He's a grouchy, conservative, misanthrope with a chip on both shoulders who won't tolerate bullshit of any kind and loves baseball, movies and punk music (in that order). He's paranoid about the Ramones' image but loves them and is so proud of them, regards as the best ever and loves his celebrity friends (there are probably hundreds of photos of him with famous people). Seems like he and Joey were complete opposites and Joey made him crazy. Dee Dee he loved and he really respected him, while openly admitting to bullying him and considering him a fuck-up. There's good, non-judgmental insights into the various drug problems etc that they went through. He writes about each album and rates them etc, like a true music geek. There's lots of lists actually. Then it ends as he is dying and it's pretty touching as he does the "I couldn't have wished for a better life" routine. Worth your time if you love the Ramones.

Here's an interesting question that was asked on twitter...who played the keyboards on "Let's Dance"?

Craig Leon. This is mentioned in Mickey Leigh's book "I Slept With Joey Ramone".

The two of them, plus other people like Arturo Vega added quite a few tiny details on top of the bass/guitars/drums/vocals of the Ramones after the formal recording of the album - handclaps, a few "ooooohs" here and there, that weird tss-boom sound on the chorus in Havana Affair etc. For Let's Dance he specifically mentions that Leon played a huge pipe organ that was in the studio.

Via Facebook via Rolling Stone--the Sun Sessions 1974:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI4EDSw3K3A

Tommy (who I seem to remember from the documentary had a more normal rock group pedigree): "I can't take it."

Weird--seems to have been taken down seconds after I posted.

seems to not have been taken down to me. nice show.

Because of the Rolling Stone piece, maybe the link was overwhelmed for a while. I love that they don't seem 100% sure of what image they want to project yet. Joey's swishing around bipperty-bopperty during "Basement," while Johnny's bare-chested, like he's Iggy Pop or Robert Plant or Roger Daltrey (amazing close-up at 3:30). The music's already in place, though. Sept 15, 1974: "I Shot the Sheriff" #1 song, Chinatown film, new president about a month in office.

"#1 film"

love the argument at 2:00, it's like Mean Streets dialogue.

Joey: I DON'T WANNA GO DOWN TO THE BASEMENT!
Marky: Aw come on, let's do Loudmouth alright?
Dee Dee; I wanna do I Don't Wanna Go Down To Basement too!
Johnny: Yeah, come on, it's three against one.
Marky: Fuck you all.
Johnny. OK OK Let's go. Quick. Lively.
Dee Dee: 1-2-3-4!

tommy, not mark

yeah of course right

In honor of July 4th, I posted a bunch of Ramones clips on fb. I especially dug this one, a PBS story on them from '78. It was recorded in Minneapolis--I wonder if any future 'Mats or Husker Du-ers were in the house?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1QG8MJ7jv4

I love that they don't seem 100% sure of what image they want to project yet. Joey's swishing around bipperty-bopperty during "Basement," while Johnny's bare-chested, like he's Iggy Pop or Robert Plant or Roger Daltrey

Did they ever really resolve this tension? It always seemed unlikely that Joey and Johnny should be in the same band. Part of their charm, I'd say.

Fascinating to see those two clips next to each other. There's assurance and speed after four years, but so much is in place in 1974, even as it drips with stage fright. They already can't control what they've created, like there's only one direction this can go. Impossible to separate what they wanted to do from what just came out that way.

xp johnny's leopard skin lapels show the glam influence just as much as joey's posturing.

Ramones filling the State Theatre with 3,000 people in 1978 explains so much about Minneapolis. Love the Batman tee!

RIP Tommy Ramone. Does this make the Ramones one of the few bands where every original member is dead? Sad, regardless.

see this thread for more:

Tommy Ramone RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5pN9xU6HHc

Keep an eye out for ironing at 3:40 mark.

"The Raymones" ...Joe's pronounciation. RIP Joe

Indeed

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/arts/music/ramones-the-story-behind-a-debut-album-from-punk-pioneers.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=arts/music&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Music&pgtype=article

40th anniversary and exhibit at Queens Museum in NYC

I've been listening to the 40th anniversary mono mix of the debut and it's fantastic.

I've been on a big listening binge on The Ramones for the past few months. Their sound was so streamlined and perfect. Thinking about how it all went, I am curious to find out what the best biography of the Ramones to check out? I have read "From the Velvets to the Voidoids" and "Please Kill Me", but I know there have been a few Ramones biographies that have come out in the recent years.

Having a mono LP of the debut would be cool.

Their sound was so streamlined and perfect

yeah the first album in particular is one of the great formal breakthroughs IMO. just a remarkable synthesis that seems obvious in retrospect but required a real leap.

so sad that the ramones story turned out to be a tragedy.

i just read marky's book and was surprised to learn that they all could barely tolerate each other as early as when he joined the band. it's amazing they lasted as long as they did.

i've read a bunch of books about them and, while i'd be hard-pressed to name a "best", i'd recommend the books by everett true and tour manager monte melnick.

And while not a book, the End of the Century documentary is well worth your time.

Marky's book gives the best insight and is the best autobiography by quite a way. Dee Dee and Johnny's books were cool but much more limited and personal in completely different ways. Fans should read all three.

Watching the Anthony Bourdain episode called Lower East Side where he had a meal with Danny Fields has me listening to "Danny Says" (both the original and demo versions).

What about the documentary of the same title?

Yes, that too

stumbled upon 'the job that ate my brain' from mondo bizarro the other day. a 1992 gem! huge production!

Their sound was so streamlined and perfect.

Those first four albums are amazing. I may be alone in thinking Leave Home is the best of them (Leave Home > Ramones > Road To Ruin > Rocket To Russia), but they all sit together as a set, too. I recently came back to them after not having listened for years, and even their '80s stuff - albums like Too Tough To Die and Animal Boy - is shockingly strong.

The 70s set being topped off with "It's Alive", which also kicks ass.

For a band that had such a focus, they had more range in production and guitar sounds than one might expect. I love the first albums sound with the bass all up in the mix.

There are definitely lots of good nugget tunes on all of their records.

I loved and still love Acid Eaters which was their current LP when I saw the band. They have quite a few really ace covers. I think they do the best "Surfin' Bird" this side of the Trashmen original.

I didn't get to see them live until 1989 or 1990; CJ had just joined the band. They were amazing, though; I swear they played 40 songs in 75 minutes. The show was crazy violent, though, because the opening acts were GBH and Warzone. Lots of fights between old-school punk types and NYHawdCoah knuckle-walkers.

that they produced those four albums (plus It's Alive and End of the Century) in the space of barely more than three years is astounding, such a great hot streak, it rivals any other run of consistently great material in the ~history of rock~

1987 Ramones show I saw was the most crazy violent gig, too. They drew in a large array of outcasts with different expectations and altered states, not the typical HC pit.

HI DERE