{"id":57780,"date":"2023-03-29T12:49:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T17:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/producelikeapro.com\/blog\/?p=57780"},"modified":"2023-03-29T12:49:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T17:49:30","slug":"the-ramones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/producelikeapro.com\/blog\/the-ramones\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramones: Artists Who Changed Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"produ-leaderboard-placement\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;margin-bottom: 30px!important;\" id=\"produ-3163243049\"><script async=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/securepubads.g.doubleclick.net\/tag\/js\/gpt.js\"><\/script>\n<script> var googletag = googletag || {}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || [];<\/script>\n<div id=\"gpt-ad-8266514835721-0\">\n  <script>\n\tgoogletag.cmd.push(function() {\n\t\t\t\tgoogletag.defineSlot( '\/21927241144\/728x90-Leaderboard', [728,90], 'gpt-ad-8266514835721-0' )\n\t\t.addService(googletag.pubads());\n\t\t\t\twindow.advadsGamEmptySlotsTimers = window.advadsGamEmptySlotsTimers || {};\n\t\tconst timers                     = window.advadsGamEmptySlotsTimers;\n\n\t\ttimers['gpt-ad-8266514835721-0'] = setTimeout( function () {\n\t\t\tconst id = 'gpt-ad-8266514835721-0';\n\t\t\tdocument.dispatchEvent( new CustomEvent( 'aagam_empty_slot', {detail: id} ) );\n\t\t\tdelete ( timers[id] );\n\t\t}, 1000 );\n\n\t\tif ( typeof window.advadsGamHasEmptySlotListener === 'undefined' ) {\n\t\t\tgoogletag.pubads().addEventListener( 'slotRequested', function ( ev ) {\n\t\t\t\tconst id = ev.slot.getSlotElementId();\n\t\t\t\tif ( typeof timers[id] === 'undefined' ) {\n\t\t\t\t\treturn;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tclearTimeout( timers[id] );\n\t\t\t\ttimers[id] = setTimeout( function () {\n\t\t\t\t\tdocument.dispatchEvent( new CustomEvent( 'aagam_empty_slot', {detail: id} ) );\n\t\t\t\t\tdelete ( timers[id] );\n\t\t\t\t}, 2500 );\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t\tgoogletag.pubads().addEventListener( 'slotResponseReceived', function ( ev ) {\n\t\t\t\tconst id = ev.slot.getSlotElementId();\n\t\t\t\tif ( typeof timers[id] !== 'undefined' ) {\n\t\t\t\t\tclearTimeout( timers[id] );\n\t\t\t\t\tdelete ( timers[id] );\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tif ( ! ev.slot.getResponseInformation() ) {\n\t\t\t\t\tdocument.dispatchEvent( new CustomEvent( 'aagam_empty_slot', {detail: id} ) );\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t\twindow.advadsGamHasEmptySlotListener = true;\n\t\t}\n\n\t\tgoogletag.enableServices();\n\t\tgoogletag.display( 'gpt-ad-8266514835721-0' );\n\t} );\n  <\/script>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGVVBlUk5hRHdlZzQlMjIlMjB0aXRsZSUzRCUyMllvdVR1YmUlMjB2aWRlbyUyMHBsYXllciUyMiUyMGZyYW1lYm9yZGVyJTNEJTIyMCUyMiUyMGFsbG93JTNEJTIyYWNjZWxlcm9tZXRlciUzQiUyMGF1dG9wbGF5JTNCJTIwY2xpcGJvYXJkLXdyaXRlJTNCJTIwZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhJTNCJTIwZ3lyb3Njb3BlJTNCJTIwcGljdHVyZS1pbi1waWN0dXJlJTNCJTIwd2ViLXNoYXJlJTIyJTIwYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNF[\/vc_raw_html][vc_column_text]\n<p class=\"p1\">Written by Thomas Hanslowe<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones were one of the most influential bands to emerge from New York City in the 1970s. Hailing from the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, the Ramones helped to define the sound, style, and attitude of a new musical genre that came to be known as punk rock. With Joey Ramone\u2019s unique vocal delivery, Johnny Ramone\u2019s buzzsaw guitar, Dee Dee Ramone\u2019s twisted, hilarious songwriting, and Tommy Ramone\u2019s powerful no-frills drumming, the Ramones helped to spark a musical revolution that is still reverberating to this day. Join us as we explore the career and music of one of the most important bands in rock history: the Ramones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>THE ORIGINS OF THE RAMONES<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The story of the Ramones begins in the bureau of Queens in New York City. Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Hyman on May 19, 1951, was the only Ramone actually born in the Forest Hills neighborhood. Future guitarist John Cummings, a.k.a. Johnny Ramone, was born on October 8, 1948 and was also a Queens native. The Ramone\u2019s bassist Douglas Colvin, better known as Dee Dee Ramone, was born on September 18, 1951 in Fort Lee, Virginia, though his father\u2019s military career would lead him to spend much of his childhood growing up in West Berlin, a city split in two by the Cold War and still recovering from the devastation of World War II. Dee Dee spent much of his childhood wandering around the bombed-out city looking for war memorabilia to sell. Sometimes he would even find unused morphine in old medical kits, which unfortunately led to problems with addiction he would struggle with for the rest of his life. Thomas Erdelyi, better known to the world as Tommy Ramone, was born on January 29, 1949 in Budapest to Jewish parents who had survived the Holocaust. By the time the boys were teenagers their families were all located in Forest Hills. The original four members met during their years attending Forest Hills High School together.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">From a young age the boys were attracted to the sounds of early rock \u2019n\u2019 roll and the Beatles. Joey was also very taken with the girl groups of the 1950s and 1960s like the Ronnettes and the Shangri-Las, who made a lasting impression on his vocal style. The first musical collaboration between any future Ramones was a mid-1960s garage band called the Tangerine Puppets, which featured Johnny on guitar and Tommy on drums. The band primarily played covers, and were inspired by 1960s garage rock of the sort preserved on the legendary compilation album <i>Nuggets. <\/i>In 1967 Tommy began working as a recording engineer at Manhattan\u2019s Record Plant where he had the opportunity to work with figures like Jimi Hendrix. This experience proved valuable for his later work with the Ramones as a producer and not just a drummer. As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, the boys were exposed to new sounds and styles in rock music that left a deep impression on all of them. Bands like the Iggy Pop-fronted Stooges, the New York Dolls, and even the larger-than-life hard rock of Led Zeppelin would all go on to inform the Ramones\u2019 distinct musical style and attitude.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In 1972 Joey Ramone\u2014still going by Jeffery Hyman at this point\u2014joined his first band, a glam rock group called Sniper. Although Joey initially learned the drums, Sniper gave him his first experience as a frontman, and his first entry as a performer in New York\u2019s underground rock scene. Even at this early point, the seeds of punk rock were already taking root in New York City. Sniper would play the Coventry and Max\u2019s Kansas City, the latter of which was destined to become one of the city\u2019s most important early punk venues, and shared the bill with bands like Suicide and the glammed-out proto-punk group the New York Dolls. Dee Dee Ramone later recalled seeing one of Joey\u2019s performances with Suicide and immediately being impressed:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\">I saw Sniper play with Suicide one night, and Joey was the lead singer and he was great. He was really sick looking. I thought Joey was the perfect singer because he was so weird looking. And the way he leaned on the mike was really weird. I kept asking myself, how\u2019s he balancing himself? The thing was, all the other singers were copying David Johansen [of the New York Dolls], who was copying Mick Jagger, and I couldn\u2019t stand that anymore. But Joey was totally unique.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\">On January 23, 1974, the future Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone took a trip to Manny\u2019s Guitar Centre where they bought a guitar and a bass, respectively. Johnny claimed he picked up his first Mosrite guitar simply because it was the cheapest one in the store (he reportedly haggled the price down from $69.55 to $50). He also figured all guitars sound the same if you turn them up loud enough, and since it wasn\u2019t a particularly popular guitar, it was something that could be identified with him.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The pair decided to make use of their new gear by forming a band. Tommy had encouraged them to start a group for some time, and he was delighted they were finally going to give it a try, though initially he served as a manager rather than a band member. In an interview with <i>Rolling Stone <\/i>magazine, Johnny recalled that they wrote two songs during their very first rehearsal, \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Walk Around With You\u201d and the admittedly similar \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Get Involved With You\u201d They recruited their friend Joey as well as a short-lived member named Ritchie Stern. At first, Joey was on drums while Dee Dee tried his hand at rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Stern dropped out quickly, leading Dee Dee to replace him on bass. The band soon realized that Joey was the strongest singer of the group. Of course this left them without a drummer. Tommy and the band held auditions to fill the spot, but had trouble finding someone that fit the unique sound they were already developing. Tommy later recounted,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\">So we began auditioning drummers and I was trying to explain to them the style we wanted\u2014eighth-notes across, with the \u2018one\u2019 on the bass and the \u2018two\u2019 on the snare, fast and consistent. At the time everyone wanted to do heavy metal drumming, putting in the rolls. No one could do it, so I tried it and it worked. I\u2019d never played drums before. I was more the mentor at the time, I always was. Once I got behind the drums, all the elements<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>clicked together<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p3\">The name the Ramones came from Dee Dee and was inspired by Paul McCartney\u2019s old stage name\u2014Paul Ramon\u2014from the Beatles\u2019 early days as an unsigned English band. The Ramones soon adopted the stage names they would use for the rest of their long career. They were writing original songs at a quick pace, and on March 30, 1974, the Ramones made their debut. Tommy was away for work so the group played as a trio with Joey on drums. Their first set comprised of seven songs: \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Go Down To The Basement,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Walk Around With You,\u201d \u201cNow I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Be Learned, I Don\u2019t Wanna Be Tamed,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Get Involved With You,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Like Nobody That Don\u2019t Like Me,\u201d and \u201cSuccubus.\u201d It was a bit of a rough start. Joey couldn\u2019t attach the seat of his drum stool. He had to balance on the point, and fell over repeatedly (which attendee and Blondie singer Debbie Harry remembered being hilarious), and Dee Dee was so nervous he reportedly stepped on his bass and broke its neck. As Johnny Ramone recounted to <i>Punk <\/i>magazine just a few years later, \u201cWe were terrible.\u201d Nevertheless, the Ramones had hit the scene and rock music was about to change forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>CBGB AND THE BIRTH OF PUNK<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">When the Ramones started playing gigs in NYC, the city was going through troubled times. Crime was up, the quality of living was dropping, and at points it even seemed like New York might go bankrupt. In spite of all this, New York in the 1970s was a hotbed of musical creativity. The arty underground rock scene where the Ramones were about to make their mark was only one of many vibrant musical communities all over the city. Around the same time the Ramones were kick-starting punk rock, New York was buzzing with musical innovations in a wide variety of genres from salsa to early hip-hop. The Ramones were just one of many innovative and influential musical forces that emerged out of New York City in this decade.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">No venue is more closely associated with the Ramones or the early New York punk scene than CBGB, a grimy music club located in the Bowery neighborhood of lower Manhattan. The club was founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, and its full name was CBGB &amp; OMFUG, which stood for \u201cCountry, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers.\u201d By 1974, the club had already started hosting rock bands, and soon it was the center of a vibrant, creative underground scene. The Ramones played their first show there on August 16, 1974. In addition to the Ramones, groups like Television, the Patti Smith Group, Blondie, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and Talking Heads all played CBGB regularly.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones\u2019 first gigs at CBGB were a far cry from the tightly honed sets they would later be known for. A video of the Ramones playing at the club on September 15th, 1974 captures the band arguing on stage about whether they should play \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Go Down to the Basement\u201d or \u201cLoudmouth.\u201d Within just a few years, the band would be famous for launching almost immediately from one song to another with military precision, propelled by Dee Dee\u2019s signature \u201cone-two-three-four\u201d count offs. The video also shows that at this early stage the Ramones had already landed on their revolutionary, bare-bones style of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll and written some of their first punk rock classics like \u201cNow I Wanna Sniff Some Glue\u201d and \u201cJudy is a Punk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">One of the defining features of the Ramones\u2019 unique brand of rock was Johnny Ramone\u2019s guitar playing. Johnny stripped down rock guitar to its bare essentials, avoiding solos and flourishes in favor of heavy distortion and barre chords delivered at wrist-breaking pace with nothing but downstrokes of the guitar pick. Although Johnny never publicly claimed any particular influences on his guitar playing, the heavy riff running through \u201cCommunication Breakdown\u201d on Led Zeppelin\u2019s self-titled debut album may have inspired his fast, downstrokes-only picking style. Dee Dee also took a stripped back approach to the bass, playing downstrokes with a pick and sticking mostly to the roots of the chords. Tommy deliberately matched their style on the drums, avoiding flashy fills and rolls in favor of a steady, relatively simple pattern hammered out at a breakneck pace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Another key element of the group\u2019s sound was Joey Ramone, one of the most iconic singers in punk and beyond. Joey\u2019s vocal strength and distinct New York accent were matched by his unconventional stage presence. He was influenced not only by the British Invasion, David Bowie, and the Stooges, but also the girl groups of the early 1960s of the sort produced by the band\u2019s unlikely future collaborator, Phil Spector. The Ramones played a relentless, no-frills style of rock that simultaneously looked back toward rock \u2019n\u2019 roll\u2019s origins while setting the mold for what would soon be known as punk. The songs were short, fast, frequently hilarious, and managed to be aggressive and catchy all at the same time. During an era of guitar gods taking lengthy, virtuosic solos, the Ramones<span class=\"s2\">\u2019 <\/span>distinct brand of hard-edged, bar-bones pop was like a jolt out of the blue. Even though playing like the Ramones is actually much harder than it looks, they made it seem like it was something anyone could do. They showed a path forward in which rock music would not be the sole domain of virtuosos with expensive equipment and elaborate stage shows. And while no one would ever quite match the spectacular off-beat energy of the Ramones, they would soon show countless kids the world over that anyone could start a band.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>SINGING WITH SIRE AND RECORDING <i>THE RAMONES<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b> <\/b>The Ramones hit the ground running and soon became staples at CBGB. One of their most important early admirers was a young figure in the music industry named Danny Fields, who had worked with the Doors and the Stooges. After a considerable amount of effort from Tommy, Fields went to see the Ramones in 1975 and was blown away. He introduced himself to the band after their set and offered to manage them. The Ramones agreed on the condition that he buy them a new drum set.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">One of Danny\u2019s first orders of business was taking co-founder of Sire Records Seymour Stein and his wife Linda, who was soon to be the band\u2019s co-manager, to see the Ramones. They were both impressed. Linda Stein would later recall to Ramones biographer Everett True, \u201cI thought they were amazing. You\u2019d hear them once and the second time you\u2019d be singing along. I loved the energy, brevity and simplicity.\u201d By January of 1976, the Ramones were signed to Sire Records. Just a month later, they recorded their self-titled debut album at Plaza Sound, laying down fourteen songs in a mere eighteen day span. Seymour Stein would later recount, \u201cI can remember going to the studio and [the Ramones] had got there three hours earlier. I said, \u2018How\u2019s everything going?\u2019 And Johnny says to me, \u201cThings aren\u2019t going so great, we only got seven tracks down.\u201d The album was produced by Tommy Ramone and Craig Leon, and came in just shy of 29 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i>Ramones <\/i>was released on April 23, 1976. Although the album was well-received by critics, it was not a commercial success, peaking only at no. 111 on the Billboard Hot 200. \u201cBlitzkrieg Bop\u201d and \u201cI Wanna Be Your Boyfriend\u201d were released as singles but did not crack the charts. <i>Ramones<\/i> is now widely regarded as a classic and one of the most influential albums in punk rock. The fourteen original songs show the surprising emotional range the Ramones were able to create within the confines of their stripped down style, from the sensitive, vulnerable pop of \u201cI Wanna Be Your Boyfriend\u201d to the nihilistic humor of \u201cNow I Wanna Sniff Some Glue\u201d and the tongue-in-cheek horror movie imagery of \u201cChain Saw.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The iconic photograph that adorns the cover of<i> Ramones\u2014<\/i>a black and white shot of the band in jeans and leather jackets, backs against a brick wall\u2014was never originally intended to be an album cover. The photographer Roberta Bailey initially took the photo for a music fanzine created by John Holstrom, Ged Dunn, and Legs McNeil named <i>Punk. <\/i>This fanzine is often credited with naming the punk rock genre. When the band was unhappy with the work of the expensive, professional photographer hired by Sire, they turned to Bailey and bought the classic album cover for just $125.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The album leads off with one of the defining anthems of the Ramones\u2019 entire career, \u201cBlitzkrieg Bop.\u201d The song was written primarily by Tommy, who initially titled it \u201cAnimal Hop.\u201d Dee Dee made several contribution to the song that gave it a significantly darker edge, renaming it \u201cBlitzkrieg Bop\u201d and changing the line \u201cThey\u2019re shouting in the back now\u201d to \u201cShoot \u2018em in the back now.\u201d The song\u2019s iconic opening chant \u201chey, ho, let\u2019s go\u201d was inspired by a somewhat unlikely source: the Bay City Rollers\u2019 hit song \u201cSaturday Night.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The album\u2019s humor and pop sensibility stands at a contrast with lyrical themes that are at times shockingly dark. For one thing, Dee Dee\u2019s memories of collecting World War II artifacts during his childhood in Germany led to songs like \u201cToday Your Love, Tomorrow the World\u201d containing Nazi imagery. While it is tempting to write off Joey Ramone\u2014who was Jewish himself\u2014singing lines like \u201cI\u2019m a shock trooper in a stupor\u201d as nothing more than a tasteless joke, both Tommy and Seymour Stein expressed discomfort with the lyrics, though not to the extent that they were willing to censor Dee Dee. Another particularly dark lyric from Dee Dee was \u201c53rd and 3rd,\u201d a song about male hustling that was supposedly inspired by Dee Dee\u2019s own experiences with sex work as a means of funding his heroin habit. These moments are juxtaposed against the lighthearted pop of \u201cLet\u2019s Dance,\u201d a cover of the 1962 hit by Chris Montez, the Spy Vs. Spy humor of \u201cHavana Affair,\u201d and the cartoon violence of \u201cBeat on the Brat.\u201d Tommy later commented, \u201cWe were all very frustrated. We escaped from our anger with humor.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>THE RAMONES ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK AND <i>LEAVE HOME<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Both the band and Sire Records were disappointed that the Ramones debut was largely ignored by radio stations. In spite of this, the band made plans to start playing gigs beyond the bounds of New York City. Soon the Ramones were traveling around the United States to play shows. The band\u2019s first real chance to see the kind of impact their music was having came during their first visit to England. The Ramones played their first show in London at the Roundhouse on the American bicentennial, July 4, 1976, sharing the bill with the Flamin\u2019 Groovies . These shows were attended by members of some of the most prominent bands in the up-and-coming British punk rock scene, including the Clash and Johnny Rotten, singer for the Sex Pistols. The Ramones followed up their highly successful English dates with another double bill with the Flamin\u2019 Groovies at the Roxie Theater in Los Angeles, where another important early punk scene was springing up. As the music promoter Howie Klein later put it, \u201cThe Ramones were like the Johnny Appleseeds of the whole new wave movement. Wherever they\u2019d go, a local new wave scene would start. They\u2019d come to town, leave, and two weeks later there were ten bands that had started.\u201d The Ramones were like the living embodiment of a famous image from an early British punk fanzine called <i>Strangled: <\/i>\u201cHere\u2019s a chord. Here\u2019s another. And here\u2019s another. Now go away and form a band.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In October of 1976, the Ramones entered Sundragon Studios to begin work on their second album, <i>Leave Home. <\/i>One of the most noticeable differences from the first album is the improved sound quality. Tommy, who once again served as co-producer, said, \u201cWe had a better studio with better engineers, and we also had more time.\u201d More time for the Ramones meant a couple months as opposed to a couple weeks. Most of the tracks were still laid down live by the band, and overdubs were kept to a minimum.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i>Leave Home <\/i>was released on January 10, 1977. The album features fourteen songs coming in at a tight 31 minutes and contains some of the band\u2019s most beloved tunes. <i>Leave Home <\/i>is another showcase of the band\u2019s sweet-and-sour mixture of twisted humor, punk energy, and pop sensibility. The band\u2019s love of Sixties bubblegum pop is on full display in tracks like \u201cI Remember You,\u201d \u201cOh, Oh, I Love Her So,\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cSwallow My Pride,\u201d and their joyous cover of the 1960 surf rock classic \u201cCalifornia Sun.\u201d The album\u2019s second track, \u201cGimme Gimme Shock Treatment\u201d is the beginning of a running theme in the Ramones\u2019 catalogue: tongue-in-cheek songs on the topic of mental health. Below their comical surface level, these songs have a certain poignant resonance with Dee Dee\u2019s longstanding issues with addiction and Joey\u2019s lifelong struggles with mental health conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">One of the album\u2019s strongest songs also caused the Ramones some of their biggest headaches<i>. <\/i>\u201cCarbona Not Glue\u201d is the undeniably catchy follow up to \u201cNow I Wanna Sniff Some Glue\u201d off the band\u2019s debut. While there\u2019s a good argument to be made that the song is really more about mind numbing teenage boredom than ranking the effects of dangerous inhalants, the subject matter was still taboo enough to prevent the song from being released as a single or heard on the radio. The more serious problem was the fact that Carbona was a corporate trademark, which could have led to a lawsuit. As a result, the song was pulled off the album shortly after it was released and replaced with \u201cSheena Is A Punk Rocker\u201d in the USA and \u201cBabysitter\u201d in the UK. The track was eventually restored to its original place on the expanded 2001 rerelease of <i>Leave Home. <\/i>The album was another commercial disappointment for the band, though it did land at no. 45 on the British charts. The band\u2019s lack of mainstream success was a continued source of frustration for the band, and was even expressed on the first single released from the album, \u201cSwallow My Pride,\u201d which Joey said was inspired by the lackluster performance of the Ramones\u2019 first album.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i> <\/i>One of the album\u2019s most memorable tracks is \u201cPinhead,\u201d which would close the band\u2019s shows for years. The song was inspired by a screening of Todd Brown\u2019s 1932 cult classic horror film <i>Freaks, <\/i>which<i> <\/i>the Ramones caught after a show in Ohio was canceled.<i> <\/i>The movie tells the story of a group of sideshow performers who get revenge on a treacherous strongman and trapeze artist. In one of the film\u2019s most famous scenes, the sideshow performers accept a new member into their group by chanting \u201cgooble gobble, gooble gobble, we accept her, one of us.\u201d As Tommy later explained, \u201cWe simplified \u2018Gooble gabba\u2019 to \u2018Gabba gabba\u2019 and \u2018We accept you, one of us\u2019\u2014meaning that all the freaks were welcome to join the Ramones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>PUNK ROCK EXPLODES AND <i>ROCKET TO RUSSIA<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In spite of the disappointing commercial performance of the Ramones second album, 1977 was a crucial year for punk rock. Many of the bands the Ramones would play with like Talking Heads and Blondie were receiving major record deals, and shows at NYC punk venues like CBGB and Max\u2019s Kansas City were drawing bigger crowds. Across the Atlantic Ocean in England, however, punk rock was turning into a major cultural movement. Bands like the Clash, the Damned, and especially the Sex Pistols were redefining punk in terms of both its fashion and its politics, but their music bore the obvious influence of the Ramones. By May of 1977, the Sex Pistols were achieving the kind of commercial success the Ramones found so elusive with their early groundbreaking singles \u201cAnarchy in the UK\u201d and \u201cGod Save the Queen.\u201d The Pistol\u2019s success was aided in no small part by the high-profile media outrage the band was able to provoke. They didn\u2019t become a household name until December of 1976 when they shocked the British public by swearing on a live broadcast of the <i>Today <\/i>program hosted by Bill Grundy. Punk was now associated with safety pins, spiky hair, radical politics, and rudeness.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Punk\u2019s explosion in the U.K. was not entirely welcome news to the Ramones. While the band enjoyed some well-deserved credit for their work when touring and releasing records in England, it was difficult for them to watch bands they felt had copied their style reach levels of mainstream popularity they themselves could only dream of. Even worse, punk had taken on a new image the Ramones weren\u2019t entirely comfortable with. They never embraced what we now think of as punk fashion, pioneered in no small part by the designer Vivienne Westwood and popularized by the Pistols, favoring instead their trademark look of long hair, leather jackets, and ripped jeans. And while the Ramones sometimes veered toward the shocking in their lyrics, they never engaged in the provocative public behavior that made the Sex Pistols so notorious. In spite of that, they were inextricably tied to punk rock, and though they never got to enjoy the commercial fruits of the filth and fury stirred up by the Sex Pistols, they were now associated with all the negativity and moral outrage that had come to be linked with punk. In some ways, they were becoming outsiders in a genre they had helped pioneer. Still, the band looked to the U.K. and hoped that the stage was set for the Ramones to finally achieve their goal of dominating the American airwaves with a hit record. There were some hopeful signs when the Ramones released \u201cSheena Is a Punk Rocker\u201d as a single in May of 1977. The song\u2014which would turn out to be the Ramones\u2019 most successful single\u2014climbed to number 22 on the UK Singles Chart and number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">All these factors helped set the mood when the Ramones once again entered Media Sound in August of 1977 to lay down tracks for their third and perhaps finest record, <i>Rocket to Russia. <\/i>Although the band was now working with a budget between $25,000 and $30,000\u2014a major step up from their first two albums\u2014they still made a point to get the songs down as quickly as they could. According to Johnny Ramone, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to sit there and bullshit: it\u2019s your money they\u2019re spending.\u201d As Tommy later recalled, \u201cWe were on a roll, in high gear, touring and everything. We thought we were gonna make it, that we were on the launching pad. Even if it was a little difficult to write the songs because we had to write \u2018em in hotel rooms, once we got into the studio, we felt we were in control\u2014that we were in our prime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i>Rocket To Russia <\/i>once again showcases the Ramones distinct brand of humor and pop sensibilities. The album features more songs on the theme of mental health, including \u201cI Wanna Be Well\u201d\u2014one of Joey<span class=\"s2\">\u2019<\/span>s earliest songs\u2014and \u201cTeenage Lobotomy\u201d (which features the fantastic line \u201cGuess I\u2019m gonna have to tell \u2018em\/That I got no cerebellum\u201d). The album\u2019s sound engineer Ed Stasium would later say he felt \u201cTeenage Lobotomy\u201d was the best Ramones\u2019 song he ever recorded. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s a mini-Ramones symphony. It has every element of what\u2019s great about them, in one song: the big drum intro and the \u2018Lobotomy\u2019 chant; the little background-harmony oohs; the subject matter.\u201d The Ramones\u2019s twisted sense of humor is also on full display in songs like \u201cCretin Hop\u201d and \u201cWe\u2019re a Happy Family.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The album is full of surf-inflected callbacks to the bubblegum pop of the early 1960s, and features two fantastic covers. One was Bobby Freeman\u2019s 1958 hit \u201cDo You Wanna Dance,\u201d which had also been recorded by such luminaries as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Beach Boys, and even Bette Middler. The other was \u201cSurfin\u2019 Bird,\u201d the hypnotically repetitive ear worm first recorded by the Trashmen in 1963. <i>Rocket to Russia <\/i>also features some of the Ramones\u2019 finest original pop efforts. \u201cRamona\u201d is a sweet ballad with an espionage twist, and \u201cLocket Love\u201d is a fun, upbeat number. The real standout is \u201cRockaway Beach,\u201d Dee Dee\u2019s infectious tribute to summer days in Queens that wouldn\u2019t have sounded out of place on an early Beach Boys album.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones finished the record confident that it contained a few hits. Although the album was the high point of the band\u2019s chart success, it ultimately proved to be another disappointment. <i>Rocket to Russia<\/i> went to forty-nine on the <i>Billboard <\/i>200 and sixty on the UK Albums chart. \u201cRockaway Beach\u201d turned out to be the highest charting American single of the Ramones\u2019 career, peaking at number sixty-six on the <i>Billboard <\/i>Hot 100. The band partially blamed the album\u2019s lack of sales on the negative publicity punk rock had received in reaction to the Sex Pistol\u2019s antics.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The tour to support the album also proved to be difficult, though the Ramones also played a fantastic gig at the Rainbow in London on New Years Eve, 1977 that was preserved on video and later made up the bulk of the band\u2019s excellent 1979 live double album <i>It\u2019s Alive. <\/i>In October of that year, the band\u2019s truck was stolen, which cost the Ramones about $30,000 worth of equipment. Just a month later, Joey was badly burned before a show in Passaic, New Jersey, when a tea kettle he was breathing steam from exploded in his face. The singer was rushed to the hospital where cream was applied to the burns before returning gamely to the theater to perform. He spent time at a burn center afterward, where he used the painful incident as partial inspiration for one of the Ramones\u2019 best known songs, \u201cI Wanna Be Sedated.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>LINE UP CHANGES AND <i>ROAD TO RUIN<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i>Rocket to Russia <\/i>was the final album to feature the Ramones\u2019 original lineup. Disappointed by the band\u2019s failure to land a big hit and worn down by the grind of touring, Tommy played his last show with the band on May 4, 1978 at a CBGB benefit for Dead Boys drummer Johnny Blitz. Although Tommy stepped away from the drum stool, he remained actively involved with the Ramones and helped to produce their next album. The Ramones considered a variety of replacements for Tommy, including the Sex Pistols\u2019 Paul Cook, Blondie\u2019s Clem Burke, and Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls and the Heartbreakers. Ultimately, though, the role was filled by Marc Bell, the drummer for Richard Hell\u2019s band the Voidoids. As Marky Ramone, he would serve the longest tenure of any of the Ramones\u2019 drummers. Once he landed the gig, Marky had just three weeks to learn the band\u2019s forty song set.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Less than a month after Tommy played his final show, the band reentered Media Sound to begin work on their fourth album, <i>Road to Ruin. <\/i>In spite of the disappointing performance of <i>Rocket to Russia, <\/i>the Ramones were once again determined to record a hit. The album took over three months to produce and saw the band consciously trying to write longer songs, which for the Ramones meant longer than two minutes. <i>Road to Ruin <\/i>has noticeably higher production value than earlier Ramones records and includes far more overdubs. As Ed Stasium recalled, \u201cMe and Tommy played on all those songs, absolutely all of them\u2026 Johnny would come in every day to hear what we did. He\u2019d say, \u2018Eddy, you and Tommy finish that stuff up, put some good guitars on, and I\u2019ll come and listen to it when you\u2019re finished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">One of the album\u2019s standouts is the song inspired both by Joey\u2019s accident and the drudgery of constant touring, \u201cI Wanna Be Sedated.\u201d The song shows off the slicker production heard on <i>Road to Ruin, <\/i>with its double-tracked guitar part and one-note solo. As Tommy later remembered, \u201cWe spent a little time making \u2018Sedated\u2019 more produced. We were trying to get a single. Which was bittersweet, because we knew it wasn\u2019t going to get played with the word \u2018sedated\u2019 in it.\u201d The album also continued a trend that began on <i>Rocket to Russia <\/i>with its inclusion of prominent acoustic guitar on several tracks, such as their cover of the Searcher\u2019s \u201cNeedles and Pins,\u201d an early Dee Dee song titled \u201cQuestioningly,\u201d and the album\u2019s first single, \u201cDon\u2019t Come Close.\u201d The decision proved to be divisive amongst Ramones fans, who were split between appreciating the band\u2019s versatility and a desire for them to stick to the stripped down punk style they pioneered. In spite of the album\u2019s slicker sound, the album only peaked at number 103 on the <i>Billboard <\/i>200, failing to match the modest success of <i>Rocket to Russia.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b><i>ROCK \u2019N\u2019 ROLL HIGH SCHOOL <\/i>AND <i>END OF THE CENTURY<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><i> <\/i>In August of 1978, the Ramones were approached by first-time director Allan Arkush about appearing in a film. That film was <i>Rock\u2019N\u2019Roll High School, <\/i>produced by the B movie legend Roger Corman. <i>Rock\u2019N\u2019Roll High School <\/i>is a low budget, over-the-top tribute to 1950s rock movies like <i>The Girl Can\u2019t Help It. <\/i>The band cut two new songs for the movie, the title song and \u201cI Want You Around.\u201d The Ramones apparently weren\u2019t natural actors. Dee Dee struggled to remember his only line in the film, \u201cHey pizza!\u201d The film was largely ignored when it was released in April of 1979, though it has since garnered a cult following.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones continued to tour relentlessly and still had their eyes set on producing a hit record. This would soon lead them to the most unusual collaboration of their career. On May 1, 1979, the Ramones entered Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles to begin working on their next album with none other than Phil Spector. Phil Spector was the legendary producer of 1960s girl groups like the Teddy Bears and the Ronettes, as well as albums by former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. Spector had been a fan of the Ramones since seeing them in 1977 and had tried to talk them into working with him for years.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Although the band was initially reluctant, Joey was thrilled to work with one of his musical heroes. Joey would later say, \u201cTo me Phil\u2019s music was always kind of like, early punk rock in its own kind of way because Spector was always cutting edge.\u201d Spector was likewise a huge fan of Joey, who\u2019s vocal style owed so much to the girl group singers Spector had worked with. By some accounts, this led Spector to treat the other band members as little more than Joey\u2019s sidemen. This was far from the Ramones\u2019 only problems with Spector\u2019s unorthodox working methods.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Johnny, who was skeptical of Spector to begin with, was especially frustrated by the producer\u2019s near-obsessive perfectionism. Spector made Johnny record and rerecord the opening chord of \u201cRock\u2019N\u2019Roll High School\u201d for hours on end, a far cry from the band\u2019s usual rapid-fire work in the studio. The band was also exposed to some of Spector\u2019s darker habits. At one point during the album\u2019s production, Spector reportedly pulled one of his many guns on Dee Dee. While this story has been disputed by some of the band, it is very much in line with other violent incidents involving the producer that eventually culminated in the murder of Lana Clarkson in 2003, for which Spector would spend the rest of his life in prison.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The final result was <i>End of the Century, <\/i>which was released on February 4, 1980. The album is a unique entry in the Ramones\u2019 catalogue that was divisive among fans as well as the band members. It was the first album not to involve Tommy in any way. Its sound is far more produced than any of the band\u2019s other releases, not only featuring layered guitars and a much bigger drum sound, but also saxophone, piano, and even orchestral strings on some numbers. In addition to \u201cRock \u2019n\u2019 Roll High School,\u201d the album also features the anthemic \u201cDo You Remember Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Radio?\u201d Another standout is \u201cChinese Rock.\u201d Dee Dee had cowritten the song with Richard Hell years ago, though the Ramones initially turned it down because the lyrics were about scoring heroin. Spector\u2019s production particularly shines on slower numbers such as \u201cDanny Says,\u201d one of the band\u2019s most tender love songs. The title \u201cDanny Says\u201d was both a nod to the Ramones\u2019 original manager and the naming convention of Lou Reed songs like \u201cCaroline Says\u201d and \u201cCandy Says.\u201d Spector\u2019s \u201cWall of Sound\u201d production style is also used to great effect on the album\u2019s only cover, \u201cBaby I Love You,\u201d originally made famous by the Ronettes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">During the recording of <i>End of the Century, <\/i>Spector repeatedly said his goal was to make the biggest album ever. Although <i>End of the Century <\/i>missed this target by a wide margin, it was the Ramones\u2019 highest charting album, reaching a peak position of number forty-four on the <i>Billboard<\/i> 200. \u201cBaby, I Love You\u201d was released as a single and while it reached number eight in the UK, it failed to make an impression in the United States. Johnny would later cite the disappointing sales of <i>End of the Century <\/i>as the point at which he accepted that the Ramones would never cut the hit record they had dreamed about for so long. Although their next few albums contained more attempts at finding that elusive hit, they would never make a more concentrated effort to break into the mainstream than they did on <i>End of the Century.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>THE RAMONES IN THE EIGHTIES<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones continued their relentless touring schedule throughout the 1980s, and they still put out albums at a steady rate. Although these later albums are not generally held at the same level of esteem as the band\u2019s first five LPs, this era saw the release of some of the Ramones\u2019 best-loved songs. In 1981, the band released their sixth album, <i>Pleasant Dreams. Pleasant Dreams <\/i>was produced by Graham Gouldman, best known for his work with the British band 10cc. The album once again featured slicker production than the earlier albums with Tommy, as demonstrated on the opening track and leadoff single \u201cWe Want the Airwaves,\u201d yet another unsuccessful effort by the band to break through with a hit. <i>Pleasant Dreams <\/i>also features an all-time Ramones classic, \u201cThe KKK Took My Baby Away.\u201d The song\u2019s catchy, singalong chorus and offbeat lyrics are amongst the band\u2019s best, though rumors have persisted that it was inspired by the growing tension within the Ramones.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Joey and Johnny had never been on the best terms. Johnny was a staunch conservative where Joey was a lifelong liberal. Joey\u2019s songs leaned more toward pop while Johnny wanted the band to stick to their punk roots. Johnny, who took a leadership role within the band after Tommy departed, tried to get everyone to stick to a strict schedule, which was often difficult for Joey who struggled with OCD. The major turning point in their relationship, however, was a love triangle. When the Ramones began recording <i>Pleasant Dreams, <\/i>Joey was dating Linda Daniele, who had served as the inspiration for a number of his finest love songs. Over the course of the album\u2019s production, Linda left Joey for Johnny, whom she would later marry. Joey took this very hard and though the band would stay together for fifteen more years, the two would never again be on speaking terms.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The rift between the Ramones deepened as they recorded their seventh studio album, <i>Subterranean Jungle <\/i>in 1983 with producers Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin. <i>Subterranean Jungle <\/i>features the band performing three covers. The lead track, \u201cLittle Bit \u2018O Soul\u201d a song made famous by the Music Explosion, makes this the only Ramones album not to start with a Ramones original. In many ways the album shows the band getting back to their punk rock origins. That being said, the album was influenced by the production trends of the 1980s, particularly in terms of the drum sound. One of the album\u2019s highlights is \u201cPsycho Therapy,\u201d co-written by Johnny and Dee Dee as a callback to the raw, quirky songs of the band\u2019s early years. By this point all the Ramones other than Johnny were struggling with substance abuse problems. Marky\u2019s alcoholism became serious enough that he was kicked out of the band before the album was released. He was quickly replaced by Richie Ramone, originally known as Richard Reinhardt, who would go on to play over 400 shows with the band.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Richie\u2019s first album as a Ramone was 1984\u2019s <i>Too Tough to Die. Too Tough to Die <\/i>was a deliberate effort to get back to the raw sound of the band\u2019s earliest albums. As such, production was handled by the band\u2019s old collaborators Tommy Erdelyi (aka Tommy Ramone) and Ed Stasium. This is not to say the album was strictly an attempt to get back to 1976. The band, and particularly Johnny, were also influenced by the burgeoning hardcore subgenre that pushed punk<span class=\"s2\">\u2019<\/span>s fast tempos and chaotic energy to new levels of intensity. There were also some departures from strict punk rock. \u201cChasing the Night\u201d features a full-blown guitar solo, a rarity in the Ramones\u2019 catalogue, while \u201cHowling at the Moon (Sha-La-La)\u201d sees the band taking a stab at synth-pop. While the album marked a low point in the band\u2019s commercial performance, critics and fans appreciated the Ramones getting back to their roots.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Richie would stay with the Ramones for another two albums, <i>Animal Boy <\/i>in 1986 and <i>Halfway to Sanity <\/i>in 1987. One of his most notable contribution to the band was the song \u201cSomebody Put Something in My Drink,\u201d off<i> Animal Boy, <\/i>which was inspired by an incident in which the drummer was given a drink in a San Fransisco bar spiked with LSD. Joey was particularly appreciative of Richie. He encouraged the drummer to write songs and said Richie \u201cput spirit back into the band.\u201d Richie ultimately left the Ramones in 1987 after a financial dispute. He was very briefly replaced by Blondie drummer Clem Burke, who played two ill-fated shows as Elvis Ramone before departing. This led to the drum stool once again being filled by a sober Marky Ramone, who would remain with the group for the rest of their career.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones\u2019 line-up underwent a drastic change in 1989 when Dee Dee decided to leave the group. He said the decision was based around his struggle to stay sober during this period, which the Ramones\u2019 constant touring schedule made difficult. Dee Dee also wanted to indulge his burgeoning interest in hip-hop, which led to a brief and bizarre foray into the genre. Dee Dee took the rap moniker Dee Dee King and released his lone rap album <i>Standing in the Spotlight <\/i>in 1989. Dee Dee would later reflect on the album, saying \u201cI don\u2019t think it was worth fighting over, it wasn\u2019t so good anyway.\u201d His departure left a major hole in the Ramones, not only because of his stature as a bass player and punk rock icon, but also because he was one of the band\u2019s principal songwriters. Indeed, he was such a core part of the band there was some debate within the group about whether they should continue on without him. Marky later stated that he felt Dee Dee leaving the Ramones was akin to Paul McCartney leaving the Beatles. The band ultimately decided to soldier on once again, replacing Dee Dee with a young ex-marine who took the stage name C. J. Ramone. C. J. made his first appearance on the band\u2019s 1989 album <i>Brain Drain. <\/i>Though Dee Dee would never rejoin the band he cofounded, he would still write songs for the Ramones until the group finally broke up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><b>THE FINAL YEARS<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The Ramones stepped into the 1990s as a fixture of punk rock. While not many would dispute that most of the band\u2019s classic songs and albums were behind them by this point, they still put on a captivating live show and were beloved by a dedicated fan base that recognized them as the classic American band that they were. The Ramones put out three studio albums in the Nineties: <i>Mondo Bizarro <\/i>in 1992, a collection of covers titled <i>Acid Eaters <\/i>in 1993, and their farewell album <i>Adios Amigos <\/i>in 1995.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The 1990s was a dramatic time for rock music. Beginning with Nirvana skyrocketing to stardom in 1991 with the unexpected success of their major label debut <i>Nevermind <\/i>and the hit single \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit,\u201d the road was finally paved for American punk and grunge bands to break into the musical mainstream. Soon bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Rancid, and many others were publicly name checking the Ramones as a major influence. The Ramones may never have scored the hit record they wanted so badly, but by the 1990s they were acknowledged as a fundamental part of rock music\u2019s DNA. The band also received recognition from some less expected corners. In 1993, they made a brief but hilarious appearance on the hit animated sitcom <i>The Simpsons <\/i>performing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d for Homer\u2019s evil boss Mr. Burns. The band also received a lovely musical tribute from their friends in the groundbreaking heavy metal band Mot\u00f6rhead, who wrote and recorded the song \u201cR.A.M.O.N.E.S.\u201d in the Ramones\u2019 own unmistakable style. The Ramones themselves would often perform the song live and even recorded a cover. The Ramones final touring years were also some of their most successful. This was especially true in Latin America, where the Ramones were treated like rock gods and played to 50,000 seat stadiums.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In spite of this newfound appreciation, the Ramones were finally running out of steam. In 1995 they released their final album, <i>Adios Amigos, <\/i>which featured a number of contributions from Dee Dee. That same year the band went on a farewell tour, though they also accepted an offer to play at the Lollapalooza festival in the summer of 1996. After this final run, the Ramones played their last show on August 6, 1996 at the Palace in Hollywood. The show featured a number of guest musicians, including Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd, Tim Armstrong, Lars Frederiksen, Eddie Vedder, and Lemmy. After years on the road, secure in their place as one of the most influential rock bands of their era, the Ramones finally hung up their leather jackets for good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Sadly, Joey was diagnosed with lymphoma the same year the Ramones released their final album. He kept the diagnosis to himself and continued making music after the Ramones broke up. In 1999 Joey produced an EP for one of his great musical influences, Ronnie Spector. The EP was titled <i>She Talks to Rainbows <\/i>and received critical praise. On April 15, 2001, Joey Ramone passed away in New York City at the age of 49. His only solo album, <i>Don\u2019t Worry About Me, <\/i>was released the following year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In 2002 the Ramones achieved one of Joey\u2019s dreams, being inducted into the Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, the ceremony turned out to be one of Dee Dee\u2019s final public appearances. A few months later, Dee Dee was found dead of a heroin overdose. Johnny died of prostate cancer just a few years later in 2004. Both Johnny and Dee Dee were laid to rest at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The final founding member, Tommy, passed away from cancer ten years later in 2014. While the musicians that started one of the most influential punk bands of all time have sadly passed on, their impact on rock music is still being felt today.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGVVBlUk5hRHdlZzQlMjIlMjB0aXRsZSUzRCUyMllvdVR1YmUlMjB2aWRlbyUyMHBsYXllciUyMiUyMGZyYW1lYm9yZGVyJTNEJTIyMCUyMiUyMGFsbG93JTNEJTIyYWNjZWxlcm9tZXRlciUzQiUyMGF1dG9wbGF5JTNCJTIwY2xpcGJvYXJkLXdyaXRlJTNCJTIwZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhJTNCJTIwZ3lyb3Njb3BlJTNCJTIwcGljdHVyZS1pbi1waWN0dXJlJTNCJTIwd2ViLXNoYXJlJTIyJTIwYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNF[\/vc_raw_html][vc_column_text] Written by Thomas Hanslowe The Ramones were one of the most influential bands to emerge from New York City in the 1970s. Hailing from the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, the Ramones helped to define the sound, style, and attitude of a new musical genre that came to be known as punk rock. With&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":57782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[532,62],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-57780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-interviews","tag-recording"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ramones: Artists Who Changed Music - Produce Like A Pro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Gnozzi\u2019s marvellous course \u201cRecording, Mixing, and Mastering Metal.\u201d In this excerpt David teaches us all about his techniques for mixing metal drums!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/producelikeapro.com\/blog\/the-ramones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ramones: Artists Who Changed Music - 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