R.I.P., Johnny, Joey & Dee Dee

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"You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable"

quote:

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We're a happy family
We're a happy family
We're a happy family
Me mom and daddy

Sitting here in Queens
Eating refried beans
We're in all the magazines
Gulpin' down thorazines

We ain't got no friends
Our troubles never end
No Christmas cards to send
Daddy likes men

Daddy's telling lies
Baby's eating flies
Mommy's on pills
Baby's got the chills

I'm friends with the President
I'm friends with the Pope
We're all making a fortune
Selling Daddy's dope

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man, those were some good times

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"You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable"

RIP.

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Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be "cremated."

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I will play my favorite Ramones cd today: HALF WAY TO SANITY

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quote:

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Originally posted by schroeder:
I will play my favorite Ramones cd today: HALF WAY TO SANITY

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Great pick, think I'm playing this one as well.

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I hope we won't get one of the (Monty) Pythons dead next.

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I got to meet Johnny one time. They'd done two nights at the Metro in Chicago, and we'd been in the first couple rows, stage right, both nights. We were still somewhat shell-shocked from the show, and were busy trying to round up our friends for the drive home. Johnny was walking down Clark Street as we were on our way to the car. We didn't notice him until we were virtually face-to-face. He stopped, recognizing us from the crowd, thanked us for coming both nights (unbelievable!), and shook hands with my brother. Very, very cool.

WE'RE OUTTA HERE

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Yes indeed ladies and gentlemen, tis a very sad thing which happened the other day out there in the world of Rock 'N Roll... I'm at the moment kind of at a loss for words but, having said this, I must state right here that I have long admired the amazing Ramones phenomenon and looked at Johnny in particular as being one hell of a cool dude and no fooling either! I always used to get a real kick out of watching Johnny in action, he had some really funny mannerisms; almost a kind of a charming naivete which, from my perspective, made him all that much more remarkable and enjoyable to watch and listen to...

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Sad to See You Go

Johnny Ramone, 1948–2004

Johnny Ramone was a guitar hero who hated guitar solos. He’d go entire decades using only two barre-chord formations in concert, up and down the neck with curt precision, slipping in a sneering half-second string bend every few years. The guitarist, who died at his Los Angeles home September 15 after a battle with prostate cancer, didn’t even play most of the scattered licks — they were too short to be called solos — that were overdubbed on the Ramones’ 14 studio albums. Yet his morbidly relentless down-stroke philosophy — just a Mosrite strummed impossibly fast, plugged into a fortress of Marshall stacks — instigated virtually every other punk rhythm guitarist, and acted as the louder-faster starting point for countless aggro-rock and metal groups, from Bad Brains and the Misfits to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica.

Born on Long Island, John Cummings eventually replaced his teenage-hoodlum tendencies with the guitar, encouraged by the swaggering, anyone-can-do-it simplicity of Slade and the New York Dolls. He took the hardest power-chord elements of the Stooges, the Who, the Stones and the early Kinks, sped them up and basically ditched everything else. Although Johnny Ramone was an admittedly limited musician, he was the primary architect of the Ramones’ mesmerizing wall of sound; most bands need two guitarists to approximate the endless sea of distortion he churned out with such deceptive nonchalance. His militaristic approach to touring, rules and dress codes may have frustrated lead singer Joey and main songwriter Dee Dee when they wanted to go in different directions, but Johnny generally had the band’s best (and most punk) musical instincts. He recognized that there were a million great tunes hidden in that mind-clearing blur of fuzz; you just had to keep ’em to jukebox length.

—Falling James

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"You have the option to drill additional holes in the label,
causing the record to rotate off the side of the turntable"

But, as we all know, the guy left his mark in rock's history and this is a privilege of few.

I must confess that I was fonder of Joey and Dee Dee, but Johnny was the main force behind the Ramones. He was the one who kept the band touring relentlessly for 2 decades and I was lucky enough to saw them live twice (first time in 1990 and the other one in the farwell tour).

Johnny's Statue

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