07.12.2014 07:58 AM

Tommy Ramone, RIP

I woke up to the bad news, and I immediately felt like going back to sleep for good. I tell ya: if there ever was news that I am going to kick off sooner than later, it’s the news that Tommy is gone. (And his death is the top story on the CBC web site; back in 1976, when I got the first record, the best record ever, the likes of CBC couldn’t have cared less.)

Some of the news reports aren’t exactly fair or accurate: he was the original lineup drummer, but not entirely the original drummer – Marky, still alive, was, too. You can read about all of that stuff in the interview I did with Joey, or Fury’s Hour, etc.

Anyway. Here they are at the height of their powers, in London, with Tommy on skins.  In that Brit audience were bands-to-be who would recreate the Ramones’ sound or approach, and enjoy far more success than Da Brudders ever would.  Not fair, still.

Anyway. Me? I’m heading in to the office. I’ll be wearing the tee of them doing a benefit for Johnny Blitz at CBGB in May 1978, shortly after they changed my life forever.

.

26 Comments

  1. Marc-Andre Chiasson says:

    Sorry to hear that, Bud. Always sucks to lose friends and other people you looked up to in your youth and beyond. At my age (68), that is sadly becoming more frequent. I played in a small band in the 60s doing mainly Beatles stuff. I was devasted when Lennon and later Harrison died,

  2. Domenico says:

    Sad news indeed. I was lucky enough to see them in concert exactly once.

  3. Granny Smith says:

    Okay, I sorta accepted rock’n roll but punk rock was just over the top.

    Both were just agitating noise intended to stimulate the immature child brainlet as per the audiences. It wasn’t just sexual rebellion, it was loud raucous noise that turned on the youth from their childish funk. R’n r was somewhat musical, but punk was just slightly rhythmic high decibel noise plus visual nonsense.

    True music soothes the savage soul and resonates with deep emotional feelings that are within the mature developed mind. Rock’n roll and punk are just noise that insults the decent mind, and it’s proponents are cynical manipulators of the youth and adults with still childish minds. Amen.

    • Granny Smith says:

      Okay, smartypants, beat this with your punk puke!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ros66y1aZ-E#t=43

      I have more too.

      • Kaspar Juul says:

        Ha it’s like a PBS pledge drive got all drunk and belligerent.

      • Gary says:

        Troll this. Should be right up your alley.

        http://www.allmusic.com/song/sheena-is-a-punk-rocker-mt0003188723

        RIP Tommy!

      • debs says:

        lol, nothing like classical to remind me of my bugs bunny cartoon watching days. Sorry Granny the classics theses days for a couple of generations worth, tend to be Rock, punk and if you grew up in the eighties, ska:)

        • Granny Smith says:

          debs, but you must admit that those brought up on classical music or even big band music of the 40’s and 50’s have superior brain capacity because that music required one to think to appreciate it.

          Now “music” is only raucous noise that stimulates the yet undeveloped child’s mind and that stimulation only provides instant gratification. The human brain does not fully mature until the 20’s and prior to that age it is still in a primitive state of impulsiveness…… because thinking hurts and punk rock exemplifies that hurt!

          To prove my point, just look at the modes of social connection nowadays…… iphones where children interact without human contact, only tapping in text into a screen in short bursts of inane words, or twittering in 140 characters or less to express their immature feelings. At this rate, their minds will never mature into a cogent corpus callosum and a thinking adult.

          I shudder to think what humanity will devolve into.

        • Kaspar Juul says:

          Oh man.

          Granny has gone into Crazy Nurie territory

        • debs says:

          honestly Granny, I can appreciate classical and all, but the pt being that music strikes a mood for people, and its all about personal interpretation. Judging one music superior over another, when its about the emotions people feel, on a very personal level, well its similar to saying colours are not like they used to be, damn, red was appreciated, now all people like is blue, its just sort of narrowminded.
          so if I want to study, classical it is, but if I want to feel riproaring great and off to a party, loud punk is the best. Now me personally im not a fan of country and western but I just chose not to listen to it, I dont call it an inferior music only appreciated by toothless hillbillies, as that would indicate that im a prejudice twat:)

        • sezme says:

          Too bad the study you cited shows nothing close to what you’re arguing. So much for your add(l)ed brain capacity!

    • Kim says:

      “Rock’n roll and punk are just noise that insults the decent mind,…” – Granny Smith’s comment is just noise that insults the decent mind… There, fixed that for you.

      • Granny Smith says:

        Punk is just a jungle noise not much more advanced than a drum beat. It just makes use of electronics to create blaring amplified music noise.

        Most of humanity retain their primordial genetic jungle past and that’s why punk rock attracts a large audience, particularly the neanderthal youth.

        Hey, it’s no secret in the music business. Blow their minds and they will keep coming back because they are musical primitives.

    • Domenico says:

      As a general rule I try not to generalize or feed trolls. To say one genre of anything is all crap only exposes ones own ignorance. Back under the bridge Granny.

  4. Warren says:

    And most of them gone, before they ever got to see how huge they’d become. Unfair.

  5. John Daly says:

    Doing my best Archie Bunker impression: Granny, you are using a what-a-ya-call strawberry man type argument! The piece of music you linked is beeutifull. So is the piece by the Ramones. The one does not what-a-ya call detractorate from the other. Music does not exist to just soothe a savage’s breasts. If that was the case you would be pokin’ holes in Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon. Anyone who does not like Sinatra is a what-a-ya call…#@%hole!!

  6. nez1 says:

    Fave albums from the brudders Ramone:
    Rocket to Russia, them self-tit;ed, then Subterranean Jungle.
    And, may Brooks Wackerman beat a mighty tattoo on Granny’s Tory-votin’ head!

  7. Monte A. Melnick says:

    Tommy was my dearest and oldest friend.
    We grew up together in Forest Hills Queens New York.
    I went to Stephen A Halsey Jr High and Forest Hills High school with him.
    He got me to pick up the bass guitar and enter into the crazy world of rock music.
    We played in several bands together (Triad & Butch) here in NYC over the late 60’s and early 70’s.
    We built and managed Performance Studios in NYC, a recording/rehearsal studio the Ramones started in. I worked with him when he was in the Ramones and well after he left.
    He had an advanced musical foresight, well ahead of the times in forming and being part of the Ramones. He was a great musician on the guitar, then the drums, later on the mandolin, banjo, fiddle and many more instruments. His musical expanse bridged from Punk to Indie Bluegrass.
    I mourn the passing of the last of the original Ramones, my friend and a true musical visionary.

    Monte A. Melnick

  8. sezme says:

    Sad. At least he lived (and played) fast.

  9. Iris Mclean says:

    There are only two kinds of music. Nestor Pistor, and garbage.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6awTlWABo4

  10. sezme says:

    And the legendary Horace Silver died late last month as well.

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