NIGHT OF THE RAMONES

"The Ramones were loud and fast. Everyone knows that, even the poor, blind saps who never loved the band. But The Ramones were many other things, and gloriously so, from the moment of their inception in Forest Hills, New York, in 1974, until their final concert, #2,263, in Los Angeles on August 6, 1996.

They were prolific—releasing 21 studio and live albums between 1976 and 1996—and professional, typically cutting all of the basic tracks for one of those studio LPs in a matter of days.

...The Ramones were also first: The first band of the mid-70's New York punk-rock uprising to get a major-label record contract and put an album out; the first to rock the nation on the road and teach the British how noise annoys; the first new American group of the decade to kick the smug, yellow-bellied shit out of a '60s superstar aristocracy running on cocaine-and-caviar autopilot."

—excerpt from The Ramones...Loud and Fast by David Fricke

I'm a pinhead and proud of it. When Joey died, I got really depressed. Cause: no Ramones reunion tours, no possiblity. Also it reminded me forcibly that time passes and the song don't fuckin' remain the fuckin' same. Fuck it. With the passing of Dee Dee and Johnny my depression grows. I'm such a big fan. Ramones music, to me, is the heart of Rock n Roll and American pop culture, along with such greats as Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. They were all originals.

So, I've made a decision to do a series of Ramones posts exploring their history and contributions to the genre of Punk Rock called Night of The Ramones. I hope you don't get bored but there it is. Maybe you'll learn something new. I don't know how long this will last—and I will post on other subjects—but get ready for a shitload of The Ramones.