The perfect “model garage band”, according to Joey Ramone
Punk rock is not merely another musical genre, it is an attitude and a way of life. Whichever way you spin it, that attitude has been around for a lot longer than the leather jacket-clad blitzkrieg delivery of the Ramones.
As far as origin stories go, punk’s early roots are endlessly disputed. While some claim that the defiant attitude and abrasive sound of the scene can be traced back to the shock rock of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, or even the countercultural boom of the Beat Generation, while others cite the Ramones’ 1976 debut album as the moment that punk truly hit the airwaves. Either way, it was the garage rock boom of the 1960s which played an essential role in inspiring the sound, attitude, and DIY ethos of the punk rock revolution.
Taking inspiration from the surf rock and subsequent British Invasion period, countless budding young musicians across America decided to form their own groups during the early to mid-1960s. With no money, limited musical skill, and little hope of reaching the levels of stardom afforded to folks like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, the groups of the garage rock age were in it for the love of the game. As such, the scene produced a wealth of endearingly anarchic, youthfully rebellious, and unwaveringly fun records.
Before long, pretty much every college town and major city across the US and Canada had its own take on the garage sound. A few bands managed to rise above their local scenes, but most never got much recognition beyond their patch. Even so, the cult buzz around groups like The Kingsmen, The Sonics and The Seeds proved crucial, helping to spark the punk movement that followed in the next decade.
With their outspoken appreciation for the pop sensibilities of the 1960s, the Ramones were particularly indebted towards the landscape of garage rock. In fact, the Queens outfit covered a multitude of garage anthems throughout their performing career, with The Riviera’s ‘California Sun’ and The Trashmen’s ‘Surfin’ Bird’ being two of the most memorable examples. As it turns out, though, frontman Joey Ramone’s favourite garage rock group didn’t hail from the USA at all, instead hailing from the unlikely surroundings of Sidcup in Kent.
Originally formed in 1962, from the ashes of the Blue Boys, a short-lived group which once featured the likes of future Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, The Pretty Things were an essential – if criminally underrated – aspect of Britain’s rock fabric during the 1960s. So much so that Joey Ramone once dubbed them a “model garage band”. High praise indeed, but one which guitarist Dick Taylor is quick to downplay.
“I don’t know where the term garage band was invented,” he once shared in an interview with Strange Brew.
“That’s almost something that’s retro,” frontman Phil May added. “People say that’s garage. At the time there wasn’t any talk of garage. In the same way we played in his dad’s sitting room they played in their dads’ garage.”
Or, as Taylor so eloquently put it, “We couldn’t afford a garage. We didn’t have a car.”
Whether Pretty Things were a part of the garage rock age or not, their impact on the scene was colossal. So much of the American garage which was subsequently soaked up by the harbingers of the punk sound, like the Ramones, was informed by British beat rock and invasion groups like the Stones or Pretty Things, so it is easy to see why Joey Ramone held them so close to his heart.
