Tag Archives: The Ramones

The Ramones – 40 Years of Punk Rock & the Blitzkrieg Bop

Posted in Bands & Music Artists, Music, Songs by
The Ramones Album Cover - 1976

The Ramones Album Cover – 1976

The Ramones are legendary!  Formed in New York City in 1974 where they received limited commercial success.  Joey (lead singer), Johnny (guitarist), Dee Dee (bassist), and Tommy (drummer) were major influences on the Punk Movement in the 1970s in both the United States and United Kingdom.  In 1974 the band was formed. The Ramones had their first performance on March 30, 1974 at Performance Studios.  The Ramones had timing and luck on their side as a new music (punk rock) scene was emerging in Manhattan at two clubs – Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s.  CBGB’s is known for the birth of punk rock and if the walls of that club could talk we would hear the stories of the B-52’s, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Blondie, and the Ramones.

In 1975 the band was signed to a deal with Sire Records by Seymour Stein.  The band was unique with songs built on rhythms and guitar riffs that makes the audience want to jump up and down as well as the lack of lyrical complications it was easy to just fall into the music.  The 70s become the age of music segregation – the hippy music that was all about the lyrics and the punk rock scene that was all about the rhythms, riffs, and bass beats.

The Ramones at CBGB in NYC

The Ramones at CBGB in NYC

The Ramones recorded their debut album which was released in April 1976 with a list of fourteen songs.  Dee Dee Ramone was the primary songwriter, even though credit was given to the whole band.  The album was produced by Craig Leon and Tommy Ramone with a low budget of $6,400.  When I saw that number I was in shock.  Try making a record that has the impact the Ramones have I would say you are crazy, but today I think there are more capabilities to make a cheap record than there were in the 1970s.  Today, you have computers that can be used to record and mix an entire album and release it, while back in the day you needed monstrous equipment to even develop and create a song; let alone a manufacturing company that had the ability to make physical records to be sold.

The band received glowing reviews from rock critics everywhere for the album “Ramones”:

Paul Nelson of Rolling Stones Magazine said, “Constructed almost entirely of rhythm tracks of an exhilarating intensity rock n’ roll has not experienced since its early day.”

Robert Christgau of the Village Voice said, “I love this record…For me it blows everything else off the radio.”

Unfortunately, even though they received love from every critic that listened, they did not receive the same welcoming by the public.  The album only reached 111 on the Billboard charts and the two singles “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” never charted.  Now, “Blitzkrieg Bop” is one of their most recognized songs with guitar riffs that repeat, drums beats that carry the lyrics, and rhythms that makes the awkward kid in me just want to bounce.

“Hey ho, let’s go
Hey ho, let’s go

They’re forming in a straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop.

Hey ho, let’s go
Shoot’em in the back now
What they want, I don’t know
They’re all reved up and ready to go”

It wasn’t until a brief tour in England in July 1976 when they began to gain popularity.  The Ramones performed 2,263 concerts and toured non-stop for 22 years.  In 1996 the band disbanded due to a slew of problems with various band members including drugs, drinking, OCD, and bipolar disorder.  In 2002 they were inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame while in 2011 they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  By 2014 all of the original band members had passed away and all we have left now is their legacy and the punk rock music that started it all.  In April 2016 we celebrate 40 years of the Ramones giving the public music that made head banging appropriate in the car to lyrics you could never understand.

Click here for the album that started it all!

The Runaways – Inspiration to Female Rockers

Posted in Bands & Music Artists, Music Business by

The Runaways redefined music with their all girl punk rock band.  A sound full of guitar solos, slamming bass, rebellious runawaysdrumming, and raw lyrical powerhouses Cherie Currie and Joan Jett.  The girls were fifteen and sixteen years old.  Young, full of hope, and new to the music scene. Kim Fowley (music producer/ manager) met Sandy West (drummer) and Joan Jett (guitarist/ singer) who ultimately got together to form what would become The Runaways in 1975.  Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Sandy West, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox, and Vicki Blue broke the status quo of male dominated rockers and led the path for other female artists to push boundaries in the industry.

Recently, I watched “Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways.”  The film had interviews with the girls in the band, family members, and Kim Fowley who was the band’s producer and manager 1975-1978.  The Runways signed to Mercury Records in 1976.  They released four albums.  The band was not popular in the state during the time of their release in 1976, which I feel is due to the fact that they were a female rock group (society loves change).  They were heckled by male fans who called them sluts and rejected by a male dominated music industry who believed they were going to be a flash in the pan because they didn’t have that “hot girl” look.  Fowley was constantly using the lead singer Cherie Currie to push the “hot girl image.”  In the beginning, even though they weren’t big in America, overseas they were huge, especially in Japan; “Cherry Bomb” launched them into fan frenzy overseas and brought on new success.  Soon the girls were headlining sold out shows with opening acts like Cheap Trick, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as well as played a three month tour with The Ramones.  Bands that are permanently in the history books of music.

The Runaways had a sad story.  They were brought together by the love of music, but they fell apart because of people in the industry who took advantage of them and didn’t protect them.  When I was 15/ 16 years old I spent my free time in dance classes at the studio, played with my brothers, spent time with family, and were around adults who looked out for my best interest, but these girls wanted to write history; they left home and Fowley promised them the moon and stars.  Instead, they were exposed to the lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, sex, emotional and verbal abuse, hole in the wall motels, and inappropriate men who had a tight grip on their careers.  The girls were encouraged to be jealous and competitive with each other.  There was separation in the band among the girls.  Joan Jett seemed to be the peacemaker in the band, trying to keep everyone together; to be focused on the music.  The official statement was that the girls ultimately disbanded in 1979 over musical differences, but I think it was more than that.  It was four years of turmoil, anger, verbal abuse, multiple changes of band members, and music industry execs exploiting these young kids.

Without The Runaways we may not have had Sleater-Kinney, The Bangles, The Raincoats or The Donnas.  All girl rock groups that have taken that punk rock sound and continue to push the boundaries of music today.  In the music industry their are millions of dollars being tossed around which can change people.  People can become greedy and take advantage of others for their own benefit.  Maybe The Runaways were destined to fall apart.  You can’t really be a runaway once you are an adult.  The rebellious nature has to grow out of you at some point.  Without the disbanding of The Runaways, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts would have never been formed, Blackheart Records may not exist, society would have lost out on songs like “Bad Reputation” and “I Love Rock n’ Roll,” and the better bond and forgiveness that has formed among the girls may have never happened.  The Runaways changed history.  I hope one day they are inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame because they deserve to be there for not only being the first all-girl rock band, but because their music created a revolution that any girl can pick up a guitar and be a rockstar.

Click here for some of my favorite music by The Runaways.  Below are some great interviews with Joan Jett and Cherie Currier.

Interview with Joan Jett & Cherie Currie – CNN

Interview with Cherie Currie – HitFix Blog