The Ramones never made any big money, but what they did make - especially in the 80s and early 90s - was probably due to Johnny Ramone. A Reagan Republican, baseball card collector, and jackhammer rhythm guitarist, Johnny was the "business brains" behind the Ramones - that is, if a largely dysfunctional band that inspired mass culture but never really benefitted from it financially can be said to possess a business brain.
Three of the original four Ramones are now dead, with Johnny passing from this life yesterday after suffering from prostate cancer for five years. He was predeceased by Joey in 2001 (cancer) and Dee Dee in 2002 (overdose). Only original drummer Tommy survives.
If Johnny and Joey famously didn't speak for two decades, if the band never hit the big money, if they became something of a cool novelty act - and that's all true - then it can also be fairly argued that the Ramones held it together in two minute bursts as well as any rock act in history. They existed musically within a very tight construct - downstroked power chords, thumping bass and tom-toms, punctuated by Joey's glammy vocals. (I always thought he took his singing style from Dylan's strange back-the-the-throat delivery of Lay Lady Lay.) The Ramones didn't stretch - they played very fast, with an occasional ballad. And then they left the stage.
Where they excelled was in style and humor. To me, their consistency in style - the same chords, the same leather jackets and jeans, the same hair, the same last name - put their hilarious commentaries on modern life front and center. In this, they rose well above a Sha Na Na meets punk parody. They were iconic cultural godfathers to be treasured by the likes of Eddie Veder (who was at Johnny's dying bedside) and Nirvana. But they also concocted great characters, sly lines about pop culture, and a version of New York that is a true document of life here in the 1970s. What inspires New York punk patriotism better than Sheena is a Punk Rocker:
Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go They’re ready to go now They got their surfboards And they’re going to the discotheque au go go But she just couldn’t stay She had to break away Well New York City really has it all Oh yeah, oh yeah.
From the classic The KKK Took My Baby Away to Bonzo Goes to Bitburg, the Ramones always touched very lightly on public sentiment and politics - their songs that ventured outside of girls, cars, and high school were cartoonish, in the best sense of the word. Bonzo, to me, is the best commentary of its day on Reagan's controversial visit to a German cemetery contained the remains of SS officers:
Bonzo goes to bitburg then goes out for a cup of tea As I watched it on tv somehow it really bothered me Drank in all the bars in town for an extended foreign policy Pick up the pieces My brain is hanging upside down I need something to slow me down
So it's the end of the century really, and the Ramones belong firmly in the last quarter of the 20th. Gabba Gabba. Hey.
UPDATE: I think the NYT's Ben Sisario hits the rights notes in the paper's obit today. And Fred points to this posting by Jackson.
