Joey Ramone’s favourite punk album
As the leader singer of the Ramones, Joey Ramone is one of the defining figures of New York’s punk scene. Complete with biker jackets, blue jeans and long, dark hair, the Ramones embodied the spirit of punk in many ways. Although, admittedly, the six-foot-five frontman was not the most gifted lyricist, he made up for this in energy and image.
Arising from Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974, the Ramones soon became synonymous with the punk rock haven of CBGB. The East Village club acted as the catalyst for the punk explosion in New York, providing a home to the likes of Talking Heads, Blondie and Television, among countless other iconic groups.
Interestingly, the Ramones often get a bad rep within punk circles, talked down upon for their apparent lack of originality, favouring more palatable bubblegum-punk tracks as opposed to some of the more abrasive acts of the New York scene. Nevertheless, the band were a pioneering force in the genre’s early days.
One of the leading figures of this anti-Ramones dissent is the ex-Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten. The brainchild of Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols formed out of the employees and customers of ‘Sex’, a clothes shop run by McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. Rotten cites the Ramones as one of the reasons why the punk scene devolved into a substanceless fashion sense, once saying, “But I didn’t like what it turned into with all that uniformed, studded leather jacket nonsense. I blame the Ramones!”
Reportedly, the feeling was mutual. By the time Sex Pistols released their debut single ‘Anarchy in the UK’, The Ramones had already established themselves as being at the forefront of the punk generation, releasing their eponymous debut album in April 1976. The advent of their transatlantic cousins seemed to annoy the Ramones. During the recording of Rocket to Russia at Media Sound Studios in Manhattan, Johnny Ramone produced a copy of ‘God Save the Queen’ before exclaiming, “These guys ripped us off and I want to sound better than this”.
Famously, Johnny and Joey never particularly got along. Their conflicts over music, relationships and seemingly everything under the sun caused the pair to not speak to each other for years. It seems as though their disagreements extended to Sex Pistols, too. In a 1990 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the frontman revealed his favourite albums of all time, a list which featured the Sex Pistols only studio album Nevermind the Bollocks.
Although he did not expand upon his appreciation for the album, Nevermind the Bollocks changed the game of punk entirely. Much like the Ramones themselves, the Sex Pistols often get criticised for their manufactured quality, yet they remained incredibly influential in the early years of the genre.
