THE RAMONES: Start Of The Century

This piece appeared in the Remember The Lightning Vol. 3, which was cover-dated Spring/Summer 2024 and is still available for you to purchase here.

The article was commissioned by RTL's S.W. Lauden, aka Steve Coulter. Steve lost his home in the L.A. fires, and he writes movingly about the numbing ache of that loss here.

A GoFundMe was set up to help Steve and his family rebuild their lives. That effort met its goal, but remains in place to try to help other affected families. If you're looking for a way to help, this a good option. Please give what you can.

THE RAMONES: Start Of The Century

by Carl Cafarelli

It's the end, the end of the '70s

It's the end, the end of the century

And only the Ramones could save us.

2024 marks the Ramones' 50th anniversary, five decades since that introductory 1-2-3-4!, that first whiff of Carbona, that initial beat on the brat with a baseball bat. They were misfits, outside of everything. Over the course of the ensuing half a century, the Ramones somehow become icons.

Yeah, we overuse words like "icon." But I tell ya, if we can't call the Ramones iconic, there ain't no such thing as "iconic." 

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio? Howzabout alternative radio? Alternative radio was built upon the basement blueprint etched by Forest Hills' finest. The very idea of alternative as pop music was all but invented outright by the Ramones. As I've written elsewhere: If you doubt the pervasiveness of the Ramones’ influence on pop music, look at the top of the pops. Sure, you’ve never seen “I Wanna Be Sedated” or “Judy Is a Punk” in the Top 40 listings, but consider the differences between some of the chart-toppers of 1974 and the popular music of the end of one century and the start of another. Some things may have remained unchanged, but there’s simply no way to get from “(You’re) Having My Baby” and “I Honestly Love You” to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and—God knows!—Green Day without at least considering the Ramones as a significant contributing factor. 

And now? It wouldn’t surprise me if you saw some random kid today, someone far too young to remember the Ramones first-hand, nonetheless sporting a Ramones T-shirt. It doesn’t even matter if such kids really know the Ramones or if they just think the damned shirt looks cool. It’s evidence of the Ramones’ assimilation into the greater pop culture. In the seventies, they were outsiders, square pegs. Today, the Ramones are the Beatles, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, AC/DC, Nirvana, Batman. The Ramones are everywhere.

It sure is a long way from the Ramones’ secret origin in 1974. What, fifty years ago? Man, it was a million years ago.

Do you have any recollection of how goddamned blah 1974 was? Rock 'n' roll, once a vital explosion of vibrance and energy, had become bloated; it had even shortened its name to something called "Rock," as if "rock 'n' roll" were too long, man, and saying it in full would distract its self-consciously progressive practitioners from their instrumental wanking. Such verbal economy stood in stark contrast to rock stars' inability to be succinct in any other regard: eight-minute songs, endless solos, double-albums, triple-albums...brevity had become a lost art in the seventies. If you went to see, say, Yes in concert circa 1974, and you left early during a keyboard solo, you may believe that same interminable solo is still going on right now.

If rock had become dull and complacent, Top 40 pop was no better, embracing an increasingly mellow, whitebread vibe devoid of passion and excitement. And things were only gonna get worse. 

In retrospect, we can see all sorts of cool things happening at the fringes, under cover, out of sight, out of mind. At the time, it felt like all the oomph in the world was smothered, a crib death perpetrated by the laid-back and the shallow. Welcome back, my friends, to a show that never ends.

Until:

HEY!WE'RETHERAMONES!THISONE'SCALLED"ROCKAWAY BEACH!"

According to On The Road With The Ramones by Monte A. Melnick and Frank Meyer, the Ramones played their first-ever gig (at NYC's Performance Studio) on March 30th, 1974. They were a trio at first--Johnny on guitar, Dee Dee on bass and lead vocals, Joey on drums, their legal surnames surrendered to group identity--but expanded to a fully fab four when Tommy became their drummer and Joey found a microphone tall enough for him at the front spot. New York's phenomenal pop combo. The American Beatles. Meet the Ramones.

The 3/30/74 show was for friends. The Ramones debuted at CBGB's a few months later, August 16th. And if it's fair to presume audience members had no friggin' clue what the hell they were witnessing, hindsight allows us to provide the answer:

They were witnessing history. The end of the century, decades ahead of schedule.

Forming in a straight line: The Ramones signed to Sire Records in 1976. The group's first four albums--Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, and Road To Ruin, let slip like dogs of war in a rapid-fire span from 1976-1978--are classics. Rocket To Russia and Road To Ruin are masterpieces, AM Top 40 pop music disguised as (and filtered through) DIY punk. The LPs are stuffed with imaginary hit singles, the cartoon depravity of songs about pinheads, teenage lobotomies, murder, commandos, and sniffin' glue delivered like the sweet-n-sassy sound of an amphetamine-fueled Shangri-Las. 

It was obvious that the Ramones inspired the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and others. The Ramones were inspired by the Bay City Rollers, the Rollers' S! A! T-U-R! D-A-Y! NIGHT! spawning the Ramones' Hey-ho, let's go! The Ramones drew from the Who, Herman's Hermits, the New York Dolls, girl groups, bubblegum, and everything that was ever great about rock 'n' roll. Their allegiance and devotion to pure rockin' pop is plain...now. In the moment, though, in that 1970s milieu and malaise, it was revolutionary.

The Ramones never made a bad album, but some Ramones records weren't as great as others. Those first four LPs are nonpareil, with not even a beat missed when Tommy left and Marky joined in between Rocket To Russia and Road To Ruin. It's Alive (with Tommy) is an incredibly exciting in-concert document, and their 1979 jukebox flick Rock 'n' Roll High School is a B-movie triumph. The Phil Spector-produced End Of The Century is a mismatch that transcends most of its own flaws, and both Pleasant Dreams and Subterranean Jungle are seriously underrated.

Things got heavier as the '80s wore on. Too Tough To Die. Animal Boy. Halfway To Sanity. Brain Drain. An awful live album called Loco Live. Hey, let's amend that "Ramones never made a bad album" statement above to "Ramones never made a bad studio album." Each of these had its moments, even Loco Live. But the unique purity of the Ramones' pop felt at risk of succumbing to a bludgeoning anonymity. It did succumb occasionally...but not completely. 

Not ever completely.

And there were revolving Ramones. Marky was fired, Richie came in. Richie split, Marky came back. Dee Dee--one of the band's principal songwriters--quit, but continued to write for the Ramones. A young bass player dubbed C.J. enlisted as a brand-new brudder, ready and willing to count off to four from Day One.

In the nineties, I do think C.J. (and a switch from Sire to manager Gary Kurfirst's Radioactive label) revitalized the Ramones to some degree. I'm not saying their nineties work was on the level of "Rockaway Beach" or "I Wanna Be Sedated," but there was a renewed sense of zip. 1992's Mondo Bizarro and 1993's all-covers Acid Eaters were solid, and their farewell album, 1995's ¡Adios Amigos!, opened with a supercharged cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up" that is among the Ramones' best-ever tracks. And the title "I Don't Want To Grow Up" further served as one last blitzkrieg manifesto on behalf of the Ramones. 

Grow up...?! 

Don't wanna. Won't need to. Ain't gonna.

As a band, the Ramones did not survive into the brave new world of this newfangled 21st century they helped build. Their last show was in 1996; other than an autograph session in 1999, they never regrouped. Joey died in 2001. Dee Dee checked into that great methadone clinic in the sky in 2002, mere months after the Ramones were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Johnny passed in 2004. Tommy left us in 2014.

Our heroes are just as mortal as we are. But if the flesh is weak, the legend remains too tough to die. The HEY-HO, LET'S GO!! of the Ramones' signature tune "Blitzkrieg Bop" will echo in stadiums and movie soundtracks for as near to eternity as our finite souls can comprehend. "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" will always be the one record that changed my life, the 45 rpm revelation that demonstrated that my love of 1960s British Invasion rock 'n' roll was destined to be joined in hot connubial bliss with the forceful approach of punk rock. Pop with power. Equal emphasis on POP and POWER. 

On a road to ruin, your mileage may vary. For me? The Ramones. Again: The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll group of all time. This rockin' pop century would be poorer, slower, quieter, and just plain duller without the Carbona-huffing impact of the Ramones. Fifty years on, our Century of the Ramones is just getting started.

Gabba Gabba Hey? Yes. Absolutely yes.

A writer because he's not much good at anything else, CARL CAFARELLI is also the co-host (with Dana Bonn) of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern at sparksyracuse.org. Carl's book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published by Rare Bird Books in 2023. You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at carlcafarelli.blogspot.com

My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.