THE RAMONES
JOHNNY RAMONE
JOEY RAMONE
DEE DEE RAMONE
TOMMY RAMONE
MARKY RAMONE
RICHEY RAMONE
CJ RAMONE
The Ramones
Joey – Lead Vocals
Johnny – Lead Guitar
Marky – Drums
CJ – Bass
Out of the boring, musty atmosphere of the seventies when disco was big, and cheap mechanical dance rhythms were thing happening in music, the Ramones were born. Original Band Members, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy could explode onto the stage with fists in the air and blast through a set of twenty songs so fast it ll make your heads spin.
The Ramones come from Forest Hills, New York. They started to play as a trio in March 1974. Ritchie was soon replaced by Dee Dee, and four months later, Manager Tommy became a drummer and let Joey sing. The original members: Joey Ramone – singer Johnny Ramone – Lead Guitar, Dee Dee Ramone – Bassist, and Tommy Ramone – Drummer.
The Ramones were first noticed on the New York Rock scene in August 1974. They recieved complete approval from the audiences at the CBGB. Because the Ramones were loved by the people there they played there many times and all around New York. In late 1975, They had already signed a record deal with Sire records.
Many of the people were sure the Ramones were a passing fad, they would die out, never last, and boy were they ever wrong, that was over twenty years ago and the Ramones are still jamming hard today, in and around New York.
The Ramones first TV appearance was in Radio City Studios in New York in 1975, and by early 1976 they were already touring. Their concerts included a summer visit to London, during their stay they saw the Clash, and the Damned. Their second album, Leave Home, was released in early 1977, it was a smashing, hit with classic songs – “Gimme Gimme Shock treatment” , “Suzy is a head Banger”, “Sheena is Punk Rocker”, and “Pinhead”. After this they went to Finland while they were in they played in Helsinki and Tampere. Afterwards they hit England.
Rocket to Russia was released in late 1977, with some of their best songs ever recorded, “We re a happy family”, “Teenage Lobotomy”, “Rockaway Beach”, and “Sheena is a punk Rocker”. In May 1978 Tommy left the band and took over the job producer, and Marc Bell from Richard s Hell Voivods replaced Tommy.
Road to Ruin released in 1978. Featuring the new drummer Marky Ramone who preferred a more heavy beat than Tommy s robotic beat and because of him it is their most versatile record. They thought they were just one step away from being as good as Kiss s stardom and so they started to rely on some of the more weak numbers like “Go Mental” and “Bad Brain”. But they failed at it for some reason they thought the fans just didn t like them that way and they never got over it. “End of the Century” suffers from the dreary lyrics and weak guitar and drum beats, they were never accepted as being a “wussy” band.
They recorded the historical live album at It s Alive at London s Rainbow Theatre on new years eve 77. They were featured in the Rock N Roll high school-film at the end of the century in 1980. The movie recorded in five different studios. And this separated a lot of the songs from the groups seventies releases. The Critics loved them and firmly supported them.
In 1983 they released Subterranean Jungle, professionalism for most bands is an honorable thing but professionalism for the Ramones is an undercut. “Too tough to die” revived the Ramones fortunes by moving on to the early 80 s fads like metal and hard-core punkrock. “Too tough to die” was perceived as the turnaround point but it is actually just professionalism played smart. “Subterranean Jungle” Received full support from the critics because of the unforgettable hits, “Psycho Therapy”, “What d Ya Do”, “Time Bomb”, and “Every time I eat vegetables it makes me think of you”. The album was so good in fact they compared it with Ramones early work.
In late 83 Joey and Johnny were health problems and Marky left the group. They were replaced by Richard Beau ex – Velveteen. They completed Too tough to die in 1984, with some small, not as popular, songs “Too tough to die”, “Warthog” , and “Endless Vacation”.
Then in 1986 they released “Animal Boy”. “Animal Boy” was not their most popular album and many of the fans and the critics were not happy with it. The song “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” an anti-Reagan theme on the “Animal Boy” album was loved and applauded by the critics it was reference to a subject to contestable visit by President Ronald Reagan to a nazi war grave. When this album was released the people who had thought “Too tough to die was” the beginning of a new Ramones were mistaken, the music was terrible and a lot of people lost hope in the band.
Half way to Sanity was released in 1987 with songs even more dull and boring, followed up by a collection album with all of the songs, Ramones Mania. Ramones Mania was jam packed full of thirty of their greatest hits and some thing from each pre-released album, here s the line up – I wanna be sedated, Teenage lobotomy, Do you remember Rock N Roll radio, Gimme Gimme shock treatment, Beat on the Brat, Sheena is a punk Rocker, I wanna live, Pinhead, Blitzkrieg bop, Cretin Hop, Rockaway beach, Commando, I wanna be your boy friend, Mama s boy, Bop til you drop, We re a happy family, Bonzo goes to Bitburg, Outsider, Psycho therapy, Wart hog, Animal Boy, Needles and Pins, Howling at the moon, Somebody put something in my drink, We want the air waves, Chinese Rock, I just want to have something to do, the KKK took my baby away, Indian Giver, and Rock N Roll high school. After Ramones Mania Ritchie had left and Marky Ramone came back to the drums, and soon after they released a new album.
Brain Drain was released in 1989 with thirty three smashing hits Dee Dee had then left the group to become a rap performer, (Dee Dee King) and his replacement was young Christopher Ward, Ramones being his first big band.
Sire records released All the stuff and more volume I which joined the albums Ramones and Leave Home with two demo tracks, one other, and three previously unreleased tracks. All the stuff and more volume II joined Rocket to Russia and Road to ruin with three previously unreleased tracks. Loco live is the second live album from the Ramones. It was recorded in Barcelona, Spain. In 1992 they released Mondo Bizarro containing the Doors Cover Take it as it comes. It held some of the best songs since “Road to Ruin” and “Acid Eaters” and it turned the band into a positive strength with songs like “Have you ever seen the rain” and “Out of Time”. “Acid Eaters” made Ramones sound more like professionals and less like “pansies”.
Ramones appeared in the cartoon program, the Simpsons. They did more and more cover tracks and finally the whole Acid Eaters album, Pete Townshend , Sebastian Bach and Traci Lords appear in this album.
Adios Amigos hit the fans in the summer of 1995. That was one of the strongest performances from the Ramones and the latest Studio Album. 1996 was a very busy year and the had a lot of attention and became very famous. They released Greatest Hits Live, that featured two studio tracks, R.A.M.O.N.E.S. and “Any way you want it.” The Ramones Played their last show on August sixth 1996 in Los Angeles, California. There were several guest appearances, my guess is that the most note worthy one was Dee Dee
Ramone s appearance he joined in on “Love Kills” there was also several other guest appearances. Lemmy Kilmeister from Motorhead joined in during “Ramones”. Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam joined in on “Any way you want it”. Ben Shepard from Soundgarden joined in on Chinese Rock, and Tim Armstrong and Lars Fredrickson from Rancid joined in on 53rd and 3rd.
Marky adds “the idea is to quit while we re still ahead and quit while you re still good. “I mean you have got bands like the Rolling Stones who are nowhere near as good as they were fifteen years ago, and their still going and they still draw a lot of people and they still sell a lot of albums but I don t think they want to be remembered like that. I was asked to join the band, and I came in to replace an individual member – Tommy Ramone – and that was it. I never thought the band could go on forever.” Marky is working on a project called No Brain featuring Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederickson of Rancid and Mark Newman of Hard-core giants Sheer Terror as well as a band of his own band called Static Cling putting together some songs Marky says – ” Its real good punk stuff like the seventies meets the nineties”
There may be many bands in time but none have or will ever have sparked or influenced Rock N Roll so much as the Ramones. And no band will ever come as close to perfecting the punk rock theme as the Ramones, the Ramones are an incredible band and they never once stopped producing records in all of their twenty-one years of Music.