The Ramones - Part Two: The Style - An Interview with Linda Ramone
When it comes to the timeless look of leather jacket, white T-shirt and scuffed denim jeans, three pop culture icons stand above all other comers. Sitting somewhere on the rebellion scale between Marlon Brando’s scowling biker Johnny Strabler in The Wild One and Henry Winkler’s family-friendly charmer The Fonz in Happy Days, New York misfits The Ramones took the look of these ne’er-do-wells and doggedly made it a lifetime uniform. Celebrating 40 years since its release, the iconic sleeve for The Ramones’ self-titled debut features four sullen, cocksure punks practically perfecting the black leather jacket look.
Johnny Ramone, who died from prostate cancer in 2004, wasn’t always so rigid in his choice of garb. His widow, Linda Ramone, admits the guitarist born John Cummings went through a mid-‘70s phase which included a slinky alternative to his standard ripped Levi’s.
“When Johnny went into the city at night to see the New York Dolls he would wear spandex,” Linda reveals. “Once he was in The Ramones that was over though - he was Johnny Ramone every day!”
Speaking from Ramones Ranch in Los Angeles, the home she shared with Johnny after their move from New York in the 1990s, Linda says it was Ramones drummer Tommy who originally proposed the punk act’s indomitable stage garb.
“Tommy Ramone saw glitter rock was on its way out and there had to be something new. Tommy said Middle America wouldn’t go for glitter rock, so they decided to wear what they’d wear every day. Since Johnny was a construction worker he’d just wear ripped jeans and the leather jacket. Now look how many years later and everyone wears ripped jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket. It’s so funny.”
In the posthumously-released autobiography Commando, Johnny suggests he only ever had three Ramones leather jackets, two which were stolen. Even with a strict cleaning regime, you’d have to imagine they had quite a musk to them.
“They did. And actually Joey’s jacket at one point you could put it down in the corner and it would stand up on its own – you didn’t even have to hang it! Johnny had more like five leather jackets, so I don’t know how he came up with three, but that’s Johnny for you. It is true though that once a leather jacket was stolen he’d have to go back to Hudson’s to buy a new one. No one ever, the whole entire time of The Ramones, ever gave them a free leather jacket.”
By the time Johnny and Linda moved to California in the 1990s, The Ramones were finally enjoying some financial security after years of slogging it out on the touring circuit. A respite from the one bedroom New York apartment they’d shared for many years after their 1984 wedding, Ramones Ranch soon became a shrine to the couple’s memorabilia collections.
“When we first walked in it had the kidney-shaped pool Johnny had always envisioned. For Johnny to ever think he could make enough money from The Ramones to retire and sit by his very own pool, it was a real accomplishment in his life. I’ve left most of the rooms the same and Ramones Ranch is like a museum – every room is a different theme. I still have the horror room, the Elvis room and the Disney bathroom.”
Perched at the top of San Fernando Valley neighbourhood Sherman Oaks, Ramones Ranch provided Johnny a chance to get away from his Ramones mindset and enjoy a private life away from punk.
“Johnny never really picked up the guitar much at home,” Linda reveals. “He felt The Ramones was his job and when he was home he preferred to spend time on his hobbies, including baseball and movie poster collecting. Johnny felt hobbies kept you focused when you had downtime. He always loved collecting and before he was in The Ramones he saw bands all the time. He saw The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan – everyone! When he was in The Ramones, because he was so competitive, he wouldn’t go to see the rock shows anymore because now it was a competition with other bands! He collected movie posters and baseball memorabilia instead.”
A 17-year-old Johnny was one of the 55,600 fans who witnessed The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1966. His iconic punk band would later take their name from Paul Ramon – a vintage Paul McCartney nom de plume – as well as adapt The Beatles’ early love of punchy verse-chorus-verse singles for their own output.
“Johnny was a huge Beatles fan and so was Joey,” Linda says. “Johnny kept all his ticket stubs from all the concerts he ever went to, so I have his Beatles ticket stub in the Ramones Museum in Queens. I guess he felt he wanted The Ramones to be as big as The Beatles. We would listen to music all the time around the house and even when we were in Manhattan in a small apartment we had a jukebox. In LA the jukebox was in the Elvis room, so it was always half Elvis and half other music, such as Frankie Laine, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Conway Twitty and I put girl groups in it.”
A jukebox without a hint of punk music? Linda suggests Johnny had little interest in the genre away from the stage lights.
“Johnny didn’t listen to as much rock’n’roll when he was home, because he basically liked to listen to the crooners such as Bing Crosby and stuff.”
Johnny also had no time for those who’d spruik a rigid take on what ‘punk’ truly meant. When the frugal guitarist treated himself to hard-earned spoils, those who dared call him out on it would be put in their place by the scowling legend.
“A kid said to him one day as we got out of our Cadillac, ‘Oh, a Cadillac? That’s not punk!’ and Johnny says to him, ‘I wrote the book on punk!’,” Linda says. “So no, Johnny didn’t think having nice things meant you’re not punk.”
Despite celebrating 40 years since its release, Ramones remains one of the most pivotal albums of rock‘n’roll, a touchstone for every underdog band who ever dreamed of making it out of the dive bars. Four decades since she saw these songs debuted at CBGBs as an underage music fan, Linda Ramone still feels strongly about the eponymous debut.
“It sounds like it could come out today and change the world!” Linda laughs. “The Ramones will always be the coolest band, because if you put it on now and listen to it, it will still sound different to anything else ever released.”
The 40th anniversary deluxe edition of Ramones, featuring the original album, live tracks, demos and unreleased material, is released on September 9. It's available to order now.
Read part one of this interview with Linda Ramone here.
- Scott McLennan
