The bands Joey Ramone said were absolutely terrible: “Watered down”
Harbingers of the punk rock revolution, the Ramones certainly have a lot to answer for within the rock and roll history of the United States, but their blitzkrieg output was inspired, not just by an inescapable burst of artistic inspiration but also by the complete stagnation of the American rock landscape.
Once the dust had settled on the wild ride of hippiedom, the anarchic figures which had typified that era in rock expression had largely died off – Jimi Hendrix was no more, nor was Jim Morrison, and even Grace Slick was attempting to clean up her act, too. Instead, the charts were dominated by a litany of middle-of-the-road soft rockers aimed at the middle-aged and middle-class. For young kids living in the rather depressing surroundings of Queens, there wasn’t much to relate to.
In that sense, punk rock’s emergence was something of an inevitability. Sure, you can point to the likes of The Stooges or The MC5 planting the seeds of punk years prior, but ultimately, something had to give way eventually, and it turned out that the Ramones would be at the epicentre of that attempt to take rock back to its raw power roots.
“The kids got really tired of being told what to like, and what to listen to, and what to buy,” Joey Ramone shared, reflecting on the rock scene of the early 1970s, during a 1992 chat with MTV. Seemingly, punk was the antidote to that, breaking down musical barriers and platforming a DIY ethos rather than the commercialised soft rock populating the charts.
When the Ramones first emerged onto that CBGB stage back in 1974, of course, punk’s cultural relevance wasn’t quite as big as it would soon become. In fact, throughout their existence, mainstream attention continued to evade the Ramones. Nevertheless, their output certainly had an impact on the musical landscape going forward. “I feel like we initiated an exciting new form of music in 1974 that’s finally been accepted in America right now,” the singer shared.
“America has always played it safe,” he continued. “They’ve always gone for the watered down version.” Hence why those aforementioned titans of the hippie age, like Hendrix or The Doors, rarely troubled the singles charts, and hence why punk was such an essential movement during the early 1970s.
Explaining the desperate need for punk, Ramone added, “When we started out, music was horrible.” Namedropping a select few outfits. “We had Boston and Journey and Toto, and Disco Duck, and it was one chart really.” While those arena rock outfits certainly had their merits, it is easy to see why the Ramones, along with countless other budding young punks of the early 1970s, were desperate for an alternative.
It is not that those groups were inherently bad – despite what Ramone might think – but more so that they were the only option, and they tended to appeal more to older listeners, with enough disposable income to spend on stadium rock shows. The Ramones, on the other hand, were equally as skint as their audience, and felt right at home on the damp, rat-infested stage of the CBGB club.
Interestingly, Joey Ramone went on to praise Nirvana in that same MTV interview, seemingly unaware of the fact that Boston’s ‘More Than A Feeling’ played at least a little role in inspiring the sound of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the (arguably) definitive anthem of the grunge years. So, perhaps the world of rock and roll isn’t always quite so black and white.
