The Ramones
OTD in 1976, Queens, New York based Punk Rock band "The Ramones" launched their debut album "Ramones", forever changing the American Punk Rock movement for years to come.
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OTD in 1976, The Ramones, a Queens, New York-based band released their debut album called ‘Ramones’ and started an entire genre of Punk Rock which would define the American Punk movement for years to come.
Despite getting glowing reviews when the album launched, with critics appreciating the fresh take by the band on the Rock music scene in America at the time, the album was a commercial failure, with it reaching only the 111th spot on the Billboard charts and neither of their singles ‘Blitzkreig Pop’ or ‘I Wanna be Your Boyfriend’ even managing to enter the charts.
So what makes Ramones so special? Bands ranging from Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana credit it as a major influence over their music.
Quite simply? It was unlike anything that was produced in Rock in the 70s. According to lead singer Joey Ramone,
“We decided to start our own group because we were bored with everything we heard, In 1974 everything was tenth-generation Elton John, or overproduced, or just junk. Everything was long jams, long guitar solos. We missed music like it used to be”
The band members, lead singer Joey Ramone, bassist Dee Dee Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and drummer Tommy Ramone, although not biologically related, adopted Ramone as their common last name, after being inspired by Paul McCartney of The Beatles, who used Paul Ramon as a Pseudonym when checking into hotels.
Their debut album, ‘Ramones’ was 14 songs and just 29 minutes long and with the longest song barely crossing 2 minutes 30 seconds, their loud, fast, straightforward musical style was influenced by pop music that the band members grew up listening to in the 1950s and 1960s, including classic rock groups such as The Beach Boys, the Who, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and The Doors.
Despite their heavy influence on Rock Music, and having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Ramones remain known for the colorful life they led off the stage, with constant shuffling of band members and tensions between Joey and Johnny.
The pair were politically antagonistic, Joey being a liberal and Johnny a conservative. Their personalities also clashed: Johnny, who spent two years in military school, lived by a strict code of self-discipline, while Joey struggled with obsessive–compulsive disorder and alcoholism.
Despite practically dressing the same- leather motorcycle jackets, weathered jeans, sneakers and the same dark hair color, and being a symbol of unity when they were onstage, claims go on to say that Johnny and Joey barely talked in the 22 years of the bands existence, once they got off-stage.
The Ramones ended up producing 14 Studio Albums and 71 singles, and despite never being commercially popular, their story has been of much interest to Hollywood, with multiple attempts made to produce a biopic on the band.
Martin Scorsese was rumored to direct it in 2014, on the back of stories of his love for the band, and similar settings to his other successes such as Mean Streets (1973) Taxi Driver (1976), exploring the underbelly of New York. However, the project never materialized.
Until, last week, on the 20th anniversary of Joey Ramone’s death, Netflix announced that they were producing a biopic on the Punk Band called ‘I slept with Joey Ramone’ based on a memoir of the same name, written by Mickey Leigh, the younger brother of Joey Ramone. The biopic stars comedian and actor Pete Davidson playing Joey, who is best known for being a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
It certainly is one of the most awaited musical biopics, and the first-hand account of Joey’s brother certainly would make for an entertaining watch.
As for the band themselves, they will forever go down as underachievers, which is sort of crazy when you think about the wide-ranging impact their music has had over so many legendary artists to come. Check out their debut album ‘Ramones’ now 👇🏻
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Love this! Hope you don’t mind. Wanted to introduce myself and share this story. I’m a 20 year veteran of the film industry/former studio executive. About 5 years ago I started writing again for the first time since college, even sold one of my stories to Netflix. Mostly fiction, but also personal/memoir stories like this one: about my fashion photographer Dad who went from shooting Ralph Lauren’s first ads to crashing and burning at NYC’s iconic Chelsea Hotel. Introspective. Funny. Tragic. Raw. Hope you like it. It even features a bit about Dee Dee Ramone’s room. My Substack is always free and I write daily about selling film rights to short pieces like this. Hope to connect!