You can sum up the entire musical output of Ramones in just a few chords. But, like so many other purposefully dilettante musicians from the seventies and eighties, their music speaks volumes behind the stage.
While the punk scene has been famously antagonistic and politically explosive, Ramones are featured in commercials and on t-shirts worn by children. If you hear a new band copying their style, you can feel safe that they’ll be radio friendly in content and lyrics. How can this be the case with one of the so-called founders of punk?
The band
Most of the interest in Ramones: End of the Century comes from fans of the band. It’s hard to summarise a band that played, toured and fought for over twenty years, but luckily most people have heard parts of this story before:
Ramones was founded in 1974 by Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone, at that time going by their real names, John Cummings, Jeffrey Hyman and Douglas Colvin. But even their first lineup was bound to change rapidly.
Their first bassist, Riche Stern, was booted quickly because he couldn’t play. Dee Dee took over the bass, but couldn’t sing at the same time, so Joey took over singing. Drumming and singing turned out to be even harder, and so Joey took center stage while Thomas Erdeliy, who wanted to manage the band, took over drums.
This might seem like unnecessary details, and something many new bands go through, but gives an insight into the two perceptions of the band: Either a band with a vision and need for expression that was more important than their musical abilities. Or a band more focused on image than content.
Joey and Johnny were the only constant members of the band, as Tommy went on to focus more on producing and Dee Dee quit to become sober. For most casual listeners, it’s the years with these core members that define Ramones sound. Songs like “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” are instantly recognisable.
At the time, this music was considered brutally raw, and they were an underground sensation in New York. The close connection between the legendary punk hideout CBGB and Ramones is no myth. They did play there over seventy times in their first year of gigging.
Even though we tend to think of the eighties as the big decade for punk rock, Ramones was starting to become more mainstream at that point. After a few full-on pop albums, they did eventually try to get back to their original sound. However, that sound was no longer considered particularly subversive.
Retrospectively describing the band’s success is a dichotomy between their success at the time and how they are remembered. They had several big hits in the eighties and even nineties that receive very little recognition today. But their first, self-titled, album certified gold in 2014, almost thirty years later.
A little context
As Ramones has come back into popularity and ebbed out again many times since their actual end, the 2003 documentary about this iconic New York band keeps getting new viewers – and the title is as apt as ever.
End of the Century is both the name of the documentary and their fifth (official) album. For many fans of the emerging punk scene at the time, End of the Century did signal the beginning of the end of Ramones inclusion in the scene, at the very least. The Phil Spector produced album made it clear that Ramones belonged to the pop world now.
While the documentary doesn’t focus specifically on this change in the band’s direction or the socio-political or even philosophical landscape behind the band, it does help to show any new fan the raw truth of its members.
Documentary
Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia finalised and released the documentary the year that original member Johnny Ramone died.
The style of Ramones: End of the Century brings to mind the classic rockumentaries about legends like The Rolling Stones or Nirvana. Interviews of varying quality interspersed with footage of the band both on and off the stage. It does form a narrative of troubled artists in a continuing downward spiral, but brings levity and context where appropriate.
Interestingly, like Ramones itself, the documentary promotes no single argument about the bands intentions. If you’re a fan that believes Ramones to be a band that was taken over and forced by record company executives to produce more pop, you can find something new to inform you.
And if you believe Ramones to be an insincere cash grab by its own members, you’ll find plenty of evidence to fuel your belief. Even for the most die-hard fan, having a punk band with a republican conservative on guitar does sound a little odd. What the documentary does best is to give a broad spectrum of opinions – by those closest to the band and the members themselves.
The most important insights about the band comes from their contemporaries and artists who were inspired by the band. Comments from artists like Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth and members of Red Hot Chili Peppers bring a larger perspective on the band.
New slot sites with Ramones games
New online slot sites could in theory have a Ramones-themed slot in its game portfolio. Sadly, this is possible only in theory, as none of the game providers have yet produced a branded slot dedicated to the Ramones. It is a pity, but our team firmly believes that this will not be the case for a long time: other iconic bands, such as Guns ‘n Roses, Kiss and Motörhead have already gotten their own slots. Ramones will be a natural choice in this game section! In fact, it is only a matter of time before we will be introduced to an incredible, punk themed slot that has all the elements inspired by the Ramones.
Soundtrack
Luckily, the soundtrack of Ramones: End of the Century consists of mostly Ramones. For this particular style of documentary, a composed orchestral soundtrack or even a more modern electronic sound would feel out of place. Using Ramones’ own songs and a few of their contemporaries feels more diegetic, even if it’s not setting the mood in the same way.
Legacy
Although the two primary views on Ramones seem to clash – one side hailing them as revolutionaries of music, the other deeming them posers – they can be brought together as we keep bringing back their legacy.
When Ramones started their musical journey, musicianship had been reduced to a formula for hit records. Hit factories had been a fact since Motown, and the seemingly free hippies were the most cynical hitmakers of their time. Dissolving the music into what was a simplistic parody of the pop hits, but playing with a frustrated aggression, added a layer beyond the music itself.
In a way, this can be described as “posing”, because the music itself, even lyrics, contain only a fraction of the whole. The way they look and act, the cover art and the style, provide the necessary context to understand the music. This was the beginning of music you really have to understand the culture of to get. That the music was catchy came almost as a surprise.
It’s hard to pinpoint what bigger influences Ramones may have had on the age of postmodernist pop music, but they certainly had their share of punk and hardcore bands starting because of them. From Black Flag and Bad Brains to Misfits and even Green Day. But they are also credited with influencing the thrash metal genre.
In the end, unless you were growing up at the same time as Ramones and could see their mediocre success while they were active, it’s hard to understand their impact. Today, we see them as band t-shirts sold by H&M and hear them in mainstream movies, but to see them in Ramones: End of a Century makes us feel closer to them.