Members

The original band members were:

History

1970s

The pre-history of the band is centered in the predominantly Jewish, middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. The band members were drawn together by a mutual love of The New York Dolls, The Stooges, The MC5 and '60s garage rock. Most of the members had been in various bands since the late 1960s--Johnny and Tommy had both been in a high school garage band circa 1966-'67 known as the Tangerine Puppets, and Joey was in a brief, early 1970s glam rock outfit called Sniper.

1980s and 1990s

Break-up

The Ramones always had a certain amount of tension, mainly between Joey and Johnny. The pair were highly politically antagonistic, Joey being a left-leaning liberal, Johnny a staunch conservative. The relationship between the two got considerably worse when Johnny "stole" Joey's girlfriend Linda, whom he later married. Joey and Johnny didn't speak to each other for years afterwards. It is believed the song "The KKK Took My Baby Away", written by Joey, alludes to this enmity. Johnny did not even call Joey before his death in 2001, but said in the documentary End of the Century that he was depressed for weeks after the singer's death.

Deaths

Musical style and influence

The Ramones pioneered a straightforward, stripped-down sound that was a far cry from the virtuosic musicianship and complex instrumentation that 1970s rock music had become known for. 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, singalong quality, inspiring the "Hey-ho, let's go" chant from their first single, "Blitzkrieg Bop". Johnny disliked guitar solos, and played only a handful of them in his more than two decades with the group; his simple, direct playing, exclusively power chords with 8th note downstrokes, set the standard for many subsequent punk guitarists.

Legacy

The Ramones never achieved much commercial success in the United States during the time they were touring, but they were extremely popular in Europe and especially South America, where their records often topped the charts. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was the 1988 best-of album, RamonesMania; 1992's Mondo Bizarro went gold in Brazil.

Covers

The Ramones' songs have frequently been covered by other bands.^[6] Some bands have released albums which are made up entirely of Ramones cover songs, including The Queers, Screeching Weasel, The Vindictives, The Mr. T Experience, Kristy Majors, Parasites, and The McRackins. There are also some extraordinary projects, such as surf-album by instrumental cover band Ramonetures and dance-hall pop album by the Nutley Brass orchestra.

Homages

Frank Black wrote a song called "I Heard Ramona Sing", because he and his ex-Pixies bandmate Kim Deal were huge fans of the Ramones. The song itself has nothing in common with the Ramones' sound, however it tells the story of the vital Ramones' power gained by devoted listener: "And then I got me a Walkman / I really liked it a lot, and / They walked right in and they solved them / I heard Ramona sing / And I heard everything / The speed they're travelling / They are the only thing / Ramona...". The song can be found on Frank Black's first solo album (1993).

In popular culture

Horror writer Stephen King is a big Ramones fan. His Pet Sematary novel includes lines from the Ramones' songs, and its main character used "Dee Dee Ramone" as a pseudonym while registering in a hotel. Later, the Ramones contributed a song to the film adaptation's soundtrack, which Dee Dee wrote.

The Ramones 'uniform'

Johnny Ramone enforced a very strict dress code for the band consisting of sneakers, torn jeans, t-shirt and a rocker jacket - the Ramones 'uniform'. In the early days they often wore white Sperry Top-Sider shoes, later on they wore everything from Converse Chuck Taylors to Reebok. Their jackets didn't vary that much, they mainly wore Schott Perfectos. According to the documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones Dee Dee Ramone wasn't too happy about the 'uniform' and wanted to look more punk rock. The band wore the 'uniform' until the very end in 1996.

Samples

• Download sample of "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" from Rocket to Russia
• Download sample of "I Wanna Be Sedated" from Road to Ruin

Trivia

• Nirvana shared a stage with the Ramones, as captured in the documentary 1991: The Year That Punk Broke. During this festival, according to the Kurt Cobain biography Come As You Are, Cobain switched Nirvana's and the Ramones' name cards on the tables in the banquet room, forcing the Ramones with all their supporting crew to lunch at the small four-person table.

• The Ramones were invited to record the soundtrack to the Sid And Nancy movie. During their work some management problems developed, and the deal was canceled. However, a handful of songs created for this movie were included in the Animal Boy album, most notably "Love Kills", which contains lyrics about Sid Vicious and his girlfriend's affair.

• Many of the Ramones early demo records are still not available on officially released CD's. For example, demo versions of "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" and "Loudmouth" could be found on bootleg records only.

• The Ramones were included in a "forbidden music" list compiled by the USSR Communist Party in the early 80's--most likely for the "anti-Soviet" cover art of the Rocket to Russia album.

• The song "I Won't Let It Happen" is loosely based on "I Won't Let It 'appen Agen" by Slade (1972, Slayed?).

• The "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" video was featured on a Christmas episode of of Beavis & Butt-Head.

• The Ramones were the first band to be interviewed on MTV, on August 1st 1981, during the stations's first hour.

• Ramones performed live at the MTV Awards in 1995, playing a short and fast medley with recent hits from Urge Overkill and Elton John, among others.

• During the 2001 MTV Video Awards, U2 were nominated for five awards and were presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award - which they dedicated to the surviving Ramones, calling them a huge inspiration.

• The Ramones' live trademark - beginning shows with The Good the Bad and the Ugly - was later adopted by Metallica.

• Sire Records chief Seymour Stein is the president of the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2005 he was inducted in the Hall for Lifetime Achievement, mainly for his discovering of the Ramones and Madonna.

• Ramones recorded three radio spots for the beer Steel Reserve: "Fill My Cup", "Gimmie My Steel Reserve", and "High Gravity Lager".

• The Ramones once played a gig with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In Anthony Kiedis' autobiography Scar Tissue he said that his band went out on stage naked during the Ramone's performance. Johnny Ramone was angry about this and didn't realize it wasn't supposed to make them angry. Tommy Ramone later told Anthony in their hotel that he thought what they did was awesome and that Johnny was just overreacting.

1. ^ http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/ramones/bio.jhtml#/music/artist/ramones/bio.jhtml
2. ^ http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=1775
3. ^ http://www.vergemag.com/0501/music/muse4.html
4. ^ http://www.roughedge.com/live/ramones.htm
5. ^ http://www.limusichalloffame.org/inductees/07inductees.html
6. ^ http://www.coversproject.com/artist/ramones

• David Fricke, untitled 1999 essay included in The Ramones Anthology
• Monte Melnick, On The Road With The Ramones (Paperback, 2003)
• Jim Bessman, Ramones: An American Band (Paperback, 1993)
• Legs McNeil and Gilian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (1996)
• Vanni Neri & Giorgio Campani, Ramones. Leathers From New York (1997). Small-sized book including 4 rare tracks CD. English/Italian
• Dee Dee Ramone with Veronica Kofman, Poison Heart: Surviving The Ramones (FireFly 1997)
• Dee Dee Ramone, Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones (Paperback 2000).
• MTV's First Hour on MTV UK August 1 2006