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The band that accidentally invented punk
- 7 hours ago
- 7 min read
There’s a lot of argument for who ‘invented’ punk. Some people point at the Kinks, when they slashed their amps with razor blades and started playing power chords. UK fans would probably tell you the Pistols or The Clash.
But the thing is, both those bands came up watching The Ramones, and you can definitely hear the Ramones blueprint in their music. The Clash have directly credited them for helping to form the UK Punk scene.
So it’s funny that it kind of happened because they weren’t really good enough to play the music they wanted to.
I can almost hear some of you at home saying ‘nobody invented punk, punk is a mentality’. And you’ve got a point. But for the sake of argument, let's agree that it had to start somewhere. And for that, we’re actually going to go way back before even the Ramones: Back to the 50’s and 60’s.
This was the era that influenced the Ramones. They were into pop music and girl groups like the Beach Boys and The Ronettes. Simple, hooky songs that made you dance.
And of course the Beatles were around - it was impossible to escape their influence. Not only were the Ramones fans of their music, they even took their name from an alias Paul McCartney used when checking into hotels - Paul Ramone.
They also borrowed some Beatles recording techniques on their first album.
But there was also the massive movement of early rock’n’roll. Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Hendrix. It was an incredible time of musicianship and a new freedom of expression - with attitude.
And then there was the ‘proto - punk’ thing happening in the timid ‘60s to 70’s. Bands like MC5, The Stooges, Velvet Underground and of course The Kinks. It wasn’t quite punk yet, but it was laying the foundation. Simple song structures and a raw, aggressive sound.
The members of the Ramones - Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee - took all these influences and set out to emulate their idols. But there was one problem.
Guys like Jimmy Hendrix were very, very good at playing guitar. Elvis was a charismatic frontman. All the bands they listened to could play their instruments to a pretty high level, even if some of them played deliberately stripped back music.
The Ramones guys had all the ambition… but they weren’t exactly writing the next Voodoo Child.
DeeDee couldn’t even play a C chord, which is pretty essential to playing... any song ever. Richard Hell told the Guardian in 2018:
“Television needed a second guitarist so we advertised for a “narcissistic guitar player – talent not necessary”. Dee Dee Ramone was one of the people who showed up. He was cute and made an impression, but we needed someone who could play a C chord, so he didn’t make the cut.”
He ended up switching to bass, but Joey had to take over vocal duties when they realized DeeDee couldn’t play and sing at the same time.
Problem was, Joey was their drummer: And he couldn’t play and sing either. So they needed a new drummer. Their friend/manager Thomas would show prospective drummers the parts, and they soon realised he could play them better than anyone else. So he became Tommy Ramone, and their drummer.
You’ve got to admire the spirit: Not the most convincing start for a band, but they were determined to play music and put themselves out there. That’s punk.
So now you’ve got this sort of mishmash of a band, but what are they going to play? Well they didn't want to do what everyone else was doing.
This is around 1974. The rock scene was flooded with what we’d call brilliant musicians. The prog scene was in full swing, as was the glam scene and heavy metal.
Everywhere was grand compositions, massive stage shows, ripping solos and OTT personalities.
It was great, but it was the opposite of what the Ramones were. They wanted to strip everything back to the basics of Rock’n’roll: Feeling, emotion, sweaty gigs and a bloody good time.
And that’s exactly what they did. They threw away anything that could be considered even vaguely flashy or show boating. Johnny played almost exclusively with a fast, downpicking pattern. That would come to be the standard punk guitar sound.
Aggressive downstrokes, play it fast, three chords. Maybe four if you considered yourself a bit smart.
There were no solos and definitely no 20 minute suites - looking at you, Genesis and Yes.
It was power chords, lots of distortion, and a 1-2-3-4. Some people back then might have considered it reductive, and it was. But that was the point.
Because rather than just not being good enough to play something better, they were doing this with intent. And they were doing it well.
Cleverly stitched in with the noise and the speed were these poppy hooks that became their signature, and got them stuck in people's heads.
They had this intuitive knack for it. If you say to you ‘Sheena is’... you finished it didn’t you? And if I asked you to hum the tune of Blitzkrieg Bop, just any part of the song. You can, can’t you? This is the genius of the Ramones. It was enough for one of their proto punk peers, Richard Manitoba, to call them in 2016:
“The smartest dumb band you ever heard”
With some songs written, like I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You:
And Blitzkrieg Bop:
So they approached Hilly Kristal, owner of the now famous CBGB. Hilly let bands play original material, which wasn't that common in the area at the time. If you brought your own gear and played your own songs, you could book a slot.
And so the Ramones started playing at CBGB’s.
Those early shows were a whirlwind. They played their songs back to back at breakneck pace - the whole set was usually done in 20 minutes. There was no crowd engagement or long winded speeches between songs- Joey would shout 1-2-3-4, and off they’d go.
It was raw and unapologetic, the opposite of what rock bands were doing at the time.
And they had something else: An image. Johnny Ramone told Commando in 2012:
“We got the uniform defined. We figured out it would be jeans, T-shirts, leather jackets and the tennis shoes, Keds. We wanted every kid to be able to identify with our image.”
Early gigs were small, but the buzz soon got around about this new band, and soon they were playing CBGB regularly to a growing fanbase. CBGB would of course go on to become an integral part of the US Punk scene. I bet they never saw that coming. CBGB stands for Country, BlueGrass, and Blues. Definitely not whatever the hell the Ramones were.
They soon grew, got a manager and a record label, and in 1976 dropped the bomb that started it all (depending who you ask). The self titled 'Ramones'. By this time, they were already seen as the leaders of this new movement people were calling ‘punk’. Now they had a record to show you what it sounded like.
In typical punk style it was recorded fast, on a low budget, and without frills. It was a good thing they already had most of the songs written before they went into the studio. Everything about this album is just fast.
It’s got 13 tracks, but is less than 30 minutes long. The longest song is 2:35, and the shortest is just 1:32 - 'Judy is a punk'.
‘Buzzsaw’ is a word often used to describe Johnny’s guitar style. And on the song Chainsaw, they literally open with the sound of a circular saw.
The album stood for everything the punk movement was - abrasive and unconventional.
Whatever ‘it’ was, punk wasn’t it.
But they had some clever little touches as well. I said they borrowed a Beatles technique in the studio - this was channelling the guitars and bass into left and right, which again not everyone did back then.
They were quietly, secretly more clever than they appeared.
It’s almost fair to say that they actually invented pop-punk, rather than punk. The punk bands that came after them, like the Pistols, were even harder and much less catchy - the poppy hooks of the Ramones music were banished.
But here's why I say the Ramones invented punk: One, they came before those bands, even if it was only by a year or two. And two, guys like Joe Strummer of the Clash directly credit the Ramones as encouraging them to record their album. And so does just about everyone who was playing punk at the time, or after.
To support the album, they went over to the UK for the first time, and it was a pivotal moment in the story of punk rock. Danny Fields told the Guardian in 2016:
“We’d never seen so many people as at those July 1976 shows. They were all there: the Sex Pistols, the Damned, Chrissie Hynde, Vic Goddard, Adam Ant, the Buzzcocks, the Stranglers – but we didn’t know who any of them were! They’d come over and say: “Hello, we’re in a band called the Clash!”
It seems almost inevitable that such an influential band eventually split up. It just seems to be the way, doesn't it? But why?
Well, for a start, they actually hadn’t got along for years. In fact, most sources claim that Joey and Johnny hadn’t spoken since 1982. That was because Joey’s girlfriend left him for Johnny, and actually married him. That’ll do it.
But there was tension elsewhere in the band. The music world was moving on from the first wave of punk, but the Ramones didn’t want to let it go. As the years went on , members dropped out, until eventually it was just Joey and Johnny left from the original line-up.
This was probably awkward, seeing as they hated each other. In fact, Johnny refused to reconcile even when Joey was dying of lymphoma. He didn't even attend the funeral. Ultimately, in 1996, the Ramones hung up their jackets and called it a day. Sadly, they’ve all since passed away.
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