Friday, 15 May 2009

The Ramones.


Hey ho, let's go
Hey ho, let's go
They're forming in a straight line
They're going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
~The Blitzkrieg Bop.
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat
What can you do?
What can you do?
With a brat like that always on your back
What can you do? (lose?)
~ Beat On The Brat.
Hey, little girl
I wanna be your boyfriend
Sweet little girl
I wanna be your boyfriend
Do you love me babe?
What do you say?
Do you love me babe?
What can I say?
~ I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.
Jackie is a punk
Judy is a runt
They both went down to Berlin, joined the Ice Capades
And oh, I don't know why
Oh, I don't know why
Perhaps they'll die.
~ Judy Is A Punk.
"With just four chords and one manic tempo, New York's Ramones blasted open the clogged arteries of mid-'70s rock, reanimating the music. Their genius was to recapture the short/simple aesthetic from which pop had strayed, adding a caustic sense of trash-culture humor and minimalist rhythm guitar sound." ~ Ira Robbins and Scott Isler, Trouser Press.
The Ramones, original members consisted of bassist and principle songwriter Douglas Colvin aka Dee Dee Ramone (September 18, 1951 - June 5, 2002), rhythm/lead guitarist John Cummings aka Johnny Ramone (October 8, 1948 – September 15, 2004) who is accredited with creating the highly influencial playing technique called "The Buzzsaw", the iconic lead singer and frontman Jeffrey Hyman aka Joey Ramone (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001) and drummer (sometimes lead guitar on albums) Erdélyi Tamás aka Tommy Ramone (the only surviving member from the original lineup and wrote one of the best pop ballad I've heard = I wanna be your boyfriend). America first recognised punk rock group which managed to fused pure tangerine sweet pop with loud, fast, straightforward musical style. Their debut album, Ramones, was produced for just USD 6400 during that time (1976). Listening to that album (in fact the only album I owned on this seminal band, others were just overheard or shared by friends to me), it was a surprise to me why it failed to chart at all. It is catchy and simple, fast and went straight to the heart.

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