Content Starts Here
The Ramones biography
THE RAMONES BIOGRAPHY
With perennial punk subjects such as solvent abuse, I Wanna Sniff Some Glue and er, chainsaws, Chain Saw, New York rockers the Ramones, with their larger than life, cartoon yobbiness and mop topped, leering scruffiness, became anthemic trailblazers for the US punk movement.
The band were formed in 1974 as a trio by Johnny, (John Cummings), Joey (Jeffrey Hyman), and Dee Dee (Douglas Colvin) who all took the working surname Ramone (although they weren't brothers) and were later joined by Tommy (Tom Erdelyi) on drums. Hailing from Forest Hills, a quiet suburb of New York, the trio were the local marijuana freaks. When the group formed it was clear that rock music was their only hope of escaping the gutter. Each seemed ill-equipped for the outside world. Singer Joey was a near-mute human lamp-post who'd spent time in a mental institution, bassist Dee Dee was a heroin-addicted fantasist who paid for his drugs by working as a rent boy and Johnny was a quick-tempered hothead prone to violence. Tommy initially started as the band's manager until he convinced them things would work better with him behind the drums.The band started out playing low key gigs at New York's CBGB, a New York club in the sleazy Bowery district. From the off, the band were aware of their musical shortcomings. So they resolved to distill the essential rock 'n' elements to their basics, four chords, superfast guitars, jeans, leather jackets, bowl haircuts. Somehow, the sledgehammer approach worked.
Soon the band were signed to Warners subsidary label Sire Records by Madonna's future manager Seymour Stein. And by 1976, they had had recorded their eponymously titled debut album full of gloriously dumb, 2 minute, buzz-saw punk anthems such as I Wanna Sniff Some Glue. The album was greeted with less than rampant enthusiasm in the music press with one critic moved to call it: "El stinko garbage!" But news of the band had made it to the UK and with the help of a few crusading NME articles, by the time they arrived in London in the spring of 1976, the Ramones had already been adopted as punk outsiders by the growing army of Sex Pistols fans. A gig at London's Roundhouse in May 1976 would become a pivotal moment in the band's history as the Sex Pistols and The Clash all beat a path to the door of the new American punk sensations.
Barely pausing for breath with their newly added cachet of hipness, the band released second album, Leave Home in 1977. It was another strychnine-fuelled session of primitive but tuneful terrace chant anthems. The album even managed a dent in the UK charts although a full scale assault led later that year to the brilliantly throwaway Sheena Is A Punk Rocker which revealed the band's love of surf guitar music and '60s girl group harmonies. The climax of their early blitzkrieg came with their third album, Rocket To Russia with the hilarious Cretin Hop, Rockaway Beach and Teenage Lobotomy. The following year Tommy retreated into production duties so ex-Richard Hell and The Void-oid Marc Bell took his place and was rechristened Marky Ramone.
By 1978 and the beginning of the decline of punk, the Ramones' records became more orthodox. Next album Road To Ruin had songs lasting more than three minutes and even a cover of The Searchers' 1964 hit Needles and Pins. Concert album It's Alive in 1979 captured The Ramones in all their riotous concert glory and wrapped up the first stage of their career. With former punk acts dealing with the fragmentation of the movement in their own way, The Ramones chose to indulge their love of classic pop with '60s wall-of-sound producer Phil Spector. The collaboration didn't go down well with hardcore Ramones fans when the band released a cover of The Ronettes Baby I Love You, even though the song gave them a UK Top 10 hit. The resulting album, 1980's End Of The Century also gave the band some much needed chart action. Spector had already worked with the band on the soundtrack to the film Rock 'n' Roll High School.
In the '80s subsequent albums such as 1981's Pleasant Dreams and 1983's Subterranean Jungle lacked the ragged attack of their earlier albums. The mid- eighties saw a new found popularity with their single Something To Believe In. The accompanying video was a parody of the USA For Africa video, We Are The World. 1987 album Halfway To Sanity featured a guest appearance from Debbie Harry but after 1989 album Brain Drain, Dee Dee decided to quit the band.
In the nineties, with the emergence of bands like Green Day and Offspring throwing nods in The Ramones' direction, their stock rose among metal and punk fans but they decided to split in 1996, after a slot on the sixth Lollapolooza tour and the release of their farewell album, Adios Amigos. Just a few years later, Joey Ramone passed away on April 15, 2001, at age 49, the victim of lymphoma. Little more than a year after Joey's death, Dee Dee Ramone was found dead in his home in Los Angeles on June 5, 2002. Johnny Ramone passed away two years later on September 15, 2004 after a long battle with cancer.
Related Links
Font size
Mail
My account
Help
Community
Print now
Send to a friend
Related articles
Related products
