Musical Chairs

A hopefully weekly feature on this site. Tesco and I have decided to have an interactive discussion about guitar gods, and likely other music related things as time goes on. What you'll see is a post about a guitarist by me, with rebuttals/responses to the post from other bloggers. This week's feature...

Johnny Ramone

ONETWOTHREEFOUR!!!!

And so it began. If you’ve ever seen the Ramones live, you know what I’m talking about. 30 songs in 90 minutes, with that shout as the only pause in between. I almost got trampled in the pit at a Ramones show, but that’s another story for another day.

The Ramones were, by all accounts, Johnny’s band. Johnny was angry, Joey stole his woman and got all the attention, but everyone knew it was HIS band. As a guitarist, he was mediocre; how good do you have to be, really, to play three chords at breakneck speed? But it was never about technical brilliance. It was about being loud, and fast, and playing for whoever would listen. It was as much about the notes that weren’t played, as evidenced by so many bands of the late 70’s, with the bloated guitar sounds. And egos. And pretentious album covers. The Ramones were real--real guys, who could barely stand each other, let alone play together. But they did, for almost 30 years, stopping literally for death (Joey first, then DeeDee, and finally, Johnny).

Beneath the fuzz and the speed, the Ramones wrote, dare I say it, catchy, hooky pop-rock songs. Think about “Beat on the Brat” or “I Wanna Be Sedated” or “Blitzkrieg Bop”. Your head’s bopping back and forth, and you’ve probably just spilled your beer on your black leather and Converse All-Stars. If you could understand the words, you could probably sing along. They were fantastic to see live, just noise and sweat and energy. And Johnny, standing legs a mile apart, guitar hanging almost below his groin, pounding on those strings like there was no tomorrow, and every ninety seconds or so, shouting, “ONETWOTHREEFOUR”. If Johnny could do it, we all could do it. And that’s what made him one of the best.

Tesco 'sez...

What can I say? I have to fully agree with you. I've always felt the same about the Ramones, that it was Johnny's band. When I was in my early teens I was so heavy into Hardcore that when the opportunity arose to see them, I ended up just hanging outside the show bashing up cars (that the owners of so stupidly parked in the back of the driveway) and drinking... unfortunately, I never got to see them - *ducks*. That's huge that you saw them live.

But Tesco really wants to talk about Adam Jones. Click here to read more.


Andrew 'sez:

My thoughts on Johnny Ramone:

Johnny Ramone, the Minimalist's Minimalist. The man who focused on boiling rock and roll guitar perfection to its pure, base essence. He thought Jimmy Page was the greatest guitarist of all time, yet he embraced a style that was the polar opposite of Page's bluesy, intricate leads. Johnny Ramone was the purist -- the man who probably thought the three-chord punk anthem was a waste, a use of one chord too many. Johnny epitomized punk rock's stripped-down, no-frills, heavy-on-the-power-chords style.

Johnny's musical style could be criticized as conservative. But that label fit him just fine. He was a conservative through and through. As Steve Beard of Thunderstruck wrote after Johnny died last fall (see "Johnny Was a Punk Rocker"), "Having rock stars snatching cash for liberal
causes is not really news. ... The more intriguing stories, of course, revolve around independent rockers who do not tow the party line. ...

"While the Ramones were being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Johnny took his opportunity at the microphone to make his allegiances known. 'God bless President Bush,' he said, 'and God bless America.' Bedecked in his trademark torn jeans and black leather
motorcycle jacket, he understatedly thumbed his nose at he lockstep orthodoxy of the rock establishment. Now, that is punk rock."

Johnny Ramone is one of the founding fathers of punk, and he always will be. He was to his grave.

P.S. - Tesco, I posted about Tool on my site. I didn't have much to
say, unfortunately.

Andrew wants to talk about Billy Zoom. Click here to read more.