The Ramones’ weird legend grows 50 years after accidentally sparking punk revolution
nypost.complayed CBGB’s on Aug. 16, 1974 – one of the moments now viewed as the birth of punk – the band’s “Blitzkrieg Bop” and its chant of “Hey Ho!
Let’s Go!” is blasted into stadiums at every sporting event, the leather-and-jeans uniform is instantly recognizable, and T-shirts with the band’s presidential-seal logo are so popular they’re worn by people who couldn’t tell a pinhead from a parrothead.If the pioneering original members – vocalist Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, bassist Dee Dee Ramone and drummer Tommy Ramone – were alive and in playing shape today, they could sell out arenas after spending most of their careers headlining clubs and theaters, longtime tour manager Monte A.
Melnick told The Post.Key to their staying power is that their stripped-down rock sound with three-chord simplicity and singalong hooks has served as an instruction guide for hordes of punks while inspiring everyone from U2 to Soundgarden, said Melnick, author of the 2003 book “On the Road with The Ramones.”“They were kind of like Johnny Appleseed, where he went around all over the place planting apples,” Melnick said. “These kids would come to see them and say ‘hey that’s not too complicated’ and all these bands started after seeing the Ramones.”The four original Ramones were four guys from Forest Hills just trying to make catchy rock music cut from the same cloth as the early Beatles or 60s garage rock – simple, two-minutes long and without indulgent flashy musicianship.“I got tired of watching these guys doing guitar solos making all those strange faces,” Joey’s brother Mickey Leigh said last month. “I loved hearing these songs with no guitar solos at all.
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