Watch the Ramones perform ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ at CBGBs in 1977
When the Ramones first set foot on the perpetually sticky stage of CBGBs back in 1974, the four young punks from Queens were complete unknowns, carrying their instruments in plastic shopping bags and stinking of the New York subway. It didn’t take long for them to return, however, as the defiant upstarts at the very forefront of the punk revolution.
No matter which way you spin it, and despite how much John Lydon might protest, it is difficult to overstate the importance of either the Ramones or that dingy East Side club, not just on the development of punk rock but on the cultural history of American music on the whole.
Although abrasive, confrontational music was hardly a new invention – having roots going back as far as the first rock and roll age back in the 1950s, and stopping along the way to visit Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, The Stooges, and the entirety of the 1960s garage rock scene – punk had never had a name, an image, or a cultural identity until the misfits, outcasts, and freaks of New York City started congregating at CBGBs.
The Ramones were among the first to transform Hilly Kristal’s once-biker-bar into the city’s de facto punk hangout, and by the time that their self-titled debut album hit the airwaves in 1976 – arguably becoming the first official punk record to hit shelves – they had already amassed a dedicated following in their native New York.
Inevitably, the following few years would take the leather jacket-clad quartet far and wide across the globe, preaching the gospel of their blitzkrieg punk revolution to the masses. With that ever-expanding reputation and the intense excitement and unpredictability which surrounded their gigs, the rooms that the band played started to grow steadily in size. During their 1977 visit to the UK, for instance, they were treated to the illustrious surroundings of Leeds Polytechnic, the University of Strathclyde, and Birmingham’s Barberella’s.
Nevertheless, the Queens outfit always seemed to return home – like homing pigeons in ripped jeans – to where it all began, within the rat-infested walls of CBGBs. In fact, the band played a total of 11 gigs at the club over the course of 1977, supporting the likes of Suicide and The Cramps on a few of those occasions and thereby completing a dream line-up for legions of punk obsessives.
Luckily for those budding punk historians, though, somebody had the foresight to record their June 10th performance, alongside The Cramps, for posterity. Admittedly, the footage and sound quality are of the level that you might expect from a mid-1970s punk home video, but it does nevertheless capture the trademark intensity of the Ramones’ live shows.
Joey Ramone’s preamble about the band’s then-new LP Rocket To Russia is quickly cut off by Dee Dee demonstrating his infallible ability to count to four very quickly, and the band erupt into one of the stand-out tracks from that legendary record, ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’.
At just over two-and-a-half minutes in length, the performance is akin to a direct shot of punk adrenaline, and it captures the New York heroes at the arguable peak of their performing career, when Tommy was still behind the sticks and the group were still most comfortable in the confines of small, dark, and presumably incredibly sweaty rooms.
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