A very sad day. Tommy Ramone has just died. The last original Ramone. Joey, Dee Dee, not quite ten years ago Johnny, and now Tommy. For me – and many many others - the Ramones were the ones. They were band that changed my life in 1979 when I was 13 going on 14 and heard ‘It’s Alive’ for the first time. They shaped my idea of what rock’n’roll was about, they shaped my idea of what punk was about; hell, they shaped my idea of what life was about. And they led me back to so much other great life affirming music too – like the New York Dolls, Flamin’ Groovies, Stooges, Velvet Underground, MC5 and all the Nuggets bands – as well as sideways to so many other great bands who were basically their contemporaries – Radio Birdman, the Real Kids, the Saints, Dictators, the Cramps and so many more. And they informed so many of the bands I loved subsequently too, especially in the ‘80s – bands like the Barracudas, the Eastern Dark (whose classic ‘Johnny & Dee’ perfectly summed it up even though it only told half of it), Redd Kross (who Tommy would produce), the Hard-ons and the Lazy Cowgirls. The Ramones didn’t just give me themselves, they gave me a whole world of music.
The Ramones were like the Jesus Christ of rock’n’roll in ‘70s. The saviours. They probably didn’t die for our sins, but rock’n’roll can I think be pretty clearly dated in pre- and post-Ramones terms. They started in 1974, so this year is 40 AR. And Tommy wasn’t just the creator and the keeper of the beat; he was, it now really seems, the architect and the glue that held it together. The Ramones’ genius was in stripping rock’n’roll back to its raw basics and building it up again using new materials, creating a new rock’n’roll for the ‘70s. That’s what punk was really. Johnny’s overdriven buzzsaw guitar was the key material, but it always seemed in interviews that Tommy was the one who understood the effect of what they were doing. Hearing Tommy talk it was obvious that the band’s music wasn’t just a happy (or cool) accident. I think he was the one who made it so much more than a sum of its parts. Joey had the pop smarts, Dee Dee has the street smarts and Johnny has the fierce aggression, but it was Tommy I think who had the musical brain. And the influence of this music cannot be overestimated.
The basic Ramones template might sound commonplace now thanks to the likes of Green Day and Offspring, but in the mid-to-late ‘70s it was like a bolt out of the blue. The English punk sound wasn’t just a Ramones rip-off as has been claimed, but the Ramones did hugely influence the Brits and all who followed in the name of punk. And also grunge: no Ramones, no Nirvana. As for how that bold hit me - I can still hear the opening bars of ‘Rockaway Beach’ – track 1 , side 1 of ‘It’s Alive’ – when it came on over the headphones at Brashes Doncaster Shoppingtown. I can still hear the tone and the colour and electricity and the beat and the energy and the hook. Seriously; although it became overly familiar over the years, if I put my mind in the right space I can still hear it sounding like it did that first time. Like something from another world. A more exciting world. It rewired my brain instantly. That moment was one of the defining moments of my life, and I’m sure there are thousands if not millions of people who have a similar story. And if it wasn’t the Ramones, chances are, if they were born in the early ‘60s or later, it was someone that the Ramones directly or indirectly inspired, which could be the Clash or Black flag or the Replacements or Metallica or Sonic Youth or the Beastie Boys or Bikini Kill or The Living End or Pennywise or Thee Oh Sees or so many others…
So Tommy’s gone now and with him all the original Ramones are gone. The whole band, done and dusted. Unbelievable. And tragic. At least Tommy got to enjoy the recognition and hopefully the t-shirt sales in recent years. And at least I got to say thanks, when my wife Kellie and I recognised him in the crowd at SXSW some years ago and nervously approached him to say hi. He seemed uncomfortable to be recognised, and it was just a fleeting 'thanks for the music’ type thing, but he was the only Ramone I got to say it too…
R.I.P. Tommy, and again, thanks for the music.
- Dave Laing
