3 minute song

[gurdonark]

Dee Dee Ramone's death mattered to me. I don't own any Ramones records, never saw them live, have only seen Rock n Roll High School in fits and starts. Dee Dee hadn't even been a Ramone for years and years. Yet there's something about people who flicker out at 50 from self-defeating behavior that affects me. The candle burns so quickly no matter what one does, and one's own personal road accident could be around any corner. But losing oneself to a drug overdose--the idea saddens me. The Ramones understood that rock music had become in essence a parody by the late 1970s. The Ramones accentuated the self-parody--gimmicky common surnames, retrograde leather jackets and sunglasses, a sound like a dental drill with lyrics from the graffiti on a high school desk. Whether they were recording their first album for $ 6,000, or making a B movie in which mice explode, the Ramones got something about life that can only be said with cheap amps played over 90 second spans. Now they're leaving us, one by one.

Comments

"ladies and gentlemen, the ramones!!!"

[geisa.livejournal.com]

very nice!!! everyone who appreciates the power of music and loves rock and roll should own atleast their first album. they brought FUN back into rock and roll at a time when it seemed most "rock" music had gotten too serious and over-produced. they really rocked and really made you smile, laugh and go nuts...that is pure rock and roll to me. no effects, no solos, 3 min. per song tops and amps turned up to 11 while joey sang over the top so sugary and softley, yet in total command, what a great contrast and compliment, pure chemistry and fun, fun, fun!!!;)i love the ramones.

people don't beleive me when i tell them this, but the first time that i ever saw the ramones was when i was a kid watching one of those 70's saturday afternoon "rock" kiddie shows. it was probably some don kirshner produced show, but it came on every saturday after cartoons were over. they would show people like the bay city rollers, etc. bubble gum stuff mostly. well, one saturday i was watching it, this had to have been 73, 74, 75 maybe, and i hear "ladies and gentlemen, the ramones!!!" and there they were, torn up blue jeans, t-shirts, black leather jackets and "mop top" haircuts. i remember just being stunned!!! i loved them so much. they were just fascinating to watch and the music was brilliant. even as a kid i knew i was seeing and hearing something special...this was definitely not the bay city rollers, this was the REAL thing. i always wanted to see them again, but it would be some years later before i would get my precious vinyl copy of their first album, and i knew EXACTLY who they were. and they will always be special to me, always.

Re: "ladies and gentlemen, the ramones!!!"

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I've been racking my brain. What was the name of that 70s teen rock magazine which Lisa Robinson did which featured black and white photos of the Ny Dolls, as well as a buncha unsigned acts like the Ramones, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, and
the Voidoids? I picked that up religiously in the grocery store in Gurdon, Arkansas when I was 14.

Re: "ladies and gentlemen, the ramones!!!"

[geisa.livejournal.com]

if i'm not mistaken, lisa robinson wrote for 'hit parader'. i used to get those and 'cream' magazine also. actually, i still have all of the issues of those magazines that i purchased back then stashed away, beleive it or not. i should dig them out and post some pictures.

of the bands that you mentioned above, besides the ramones, i am a HUGE television fan...many bootlegs, video, everything i can find. they are another one of my all-time favorites, i have so many, i know!!!;) what can i say, i love music!!! especially from that era.

Re: "ladies and gentlemen, the ramones!!!"

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes, it WAS Hit Parader. What a pulp visionary she was...
virtually all those bands she put in b & w grainy cheap pix in a teenybop oriented mag before they were EVEN SIGNED....no starmaker machinery, just because she could *see* it all coming.....

My personal moment of pride is that the 1981 Creem Readers' poll has the quote from me that "America still has not Discovered Compassion, Literacy or Bill Nelson". My friend Donnie helped me get chosen, by putting a marshmallow in the envelope with the poll.

[gloriajn.livejournal.com]

My husband introduced me to the Ramones. I was a fundamentalist Christian during the punk era, so that's why I never listened to the Ramones until a couple of years ago. When Joey Ramone died last year, we listened to their CDs. But when I found out Dee Dee Ramone died yesterday, I got tears in my eyes, mainly because the whole day was crappy anyway, and that was the last straw for me.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I know just what you mean...it was a disturbingly punctuation to the day yesterday.

[scott-m.livejournal.com]

My favorite Ramones line (it's a Dee Dee song):

Now I guess I'll have to tell 'em
That I've got no cerebellum

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes. What a band. I would like to live my life aware of what a gimmick it all can be....