The definitive American punk rock group, The Ramones, were formed in 1974 in Forest Hills, New York, by high school friends Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman, 1951–2001), Johnny Ramone (born John Cummings, 1951–2004), Dee Dee Ramone (born Douglas Colvin, 1952–2002) and Tommy Ramone (born Tom Erdelyi, 29 January 1952). Gabba Gabba Hey They ...
Alternative guitarist Bob Mould (b. 1960) was born in Malone, New York. Mould was 16 when, inspired by The Ramones, he took up the guitar. While attending college in Minnesota in 1979, he founded Hüsker Dü, originally a hardcore punk/thrash band, with drummer Grant Hart and bassist Greg Norton. The band’s third album, Zen Arcade ...
Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) was born John Cummings in Long Island, New York. As a teenager, Johnny played in a band called The Tangerine Puppets alongside future Ramones drummer Tamás Erdélyi (better known as Tommy Ramone). Johnny worked as a plumber with his father before The Ramones became successful. He also attended military school and briefly attended college in Florida. ...
four albums and hits including ‘Cherry Bomb’, ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Queens Of Noise’, the band’s factions split on musical direction, with Jett preferring the path of punk rockers like The Ramones and Blondie, while Ford and West wanted to continue with their hard rock/metal approach. The Runaways finally disbanded in 1979. After the breakup, Ford’s solo debut, Out ...
(Producer, b. 1939) Phil Spector devised a studio recording technique he called ‘symphonies for the kids’, which had considerable success in the 1960s and became known as the Wall of Sound. Characterized by mono production, it had fantastically rich choral and orchestral layering (sometimes as many as 300 musicians) behind the vocals of the titular performers he worked with. ...
Game, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ 1984 ‘Radio Gaga’ 1986 A Kind Of Magic, ‘A Kind Of Magic’ Styles & Forms | Seventies | Rock Personalities | The Ramones | Seventies | Rock ...
to play New York dives like Max’s Kansas City and the Country, Bluegrass & Blues Club (CBGB’s for short). The sounds of these bands, and others like The Ramones, Talking Heads and Blondie, were radically different, yet united by an exciting undercurrent of subterfuge. In the words of Smith, ‘I was wondering what I could ...
, brought low by contradictions of their own. They never quite reconciled the purity of their image with the realities of global success. And others would probably point to The Ramones, a New York act who inspired the British scene into being and whose stripped-down musical minimalism remains the essence of the genre. Like Motörhead, a band from the ...
origins can be traced to CBGB’s, a small, smelly bar that became a gig venue on New York’s Lower East Side. While Richard Hell, Television, The Ramones and Patti Smith were forging punk’s template, fellow CBGB’s regulars Blondie and Talking Heads were creating a punk-related, pop-styled sound that would conquer the world. Former Andy Warhol ...
No one had ever produced records like Phil Spector. There had been lavish orchestrations and raucous sounds, but until the early 1960s, the elements were clearly defined in recordings, with a fair amount of separation allotted to a limited number of rhythm and percussion instruments within the confines of a mainly monaural medium. Spector changed all that. Applying ...
in the early 1970s. The American punk scene developed around New York clubs like Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs in the mid-1970s, where The Heartbreakers, Television and The Ramones all played, bands who would become the iconic sight and sound of punk rock. In Britain it was the defiant stance of 1960s bands like The Who and The ...
played a note in public but were directly responsible for the formation of The Clash and Generation X, and indirectly responsible for many more. In New York, The Ramones raised the flag with their ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ single and debut album. In London they fanned the flames of the emerging punk scene, and then did the same in Los ...
there was something for almost every taste, from the cerebral Television and Talking Heads to The Dead Boys’ outrageousness, with Richard Hell somewhere in between. Meanwhile, The Ramones refined their garage/surf/punk style to the point of commercialism. The West Coast scene was hotting up in Los Angeles with The Weirdos and The Germs, and in San Francisco ...
to form The Smiths, members of Buzzcocks, Mark E Smith (The Fall) and Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook (Joy Division and later New Order). July London Loves The Ramones When The Ramones arrived in London for their first visit in July 1976 they were greeted like punk royalty. They supported The Flamin’ Groovies at the Roundhouse (a venue that ...
of EMI’s reputation should ‘forgo the doubtful privilege of sponsoring trash like The Sex Pistols’. However, the band got to keep their £40,000 advance. Second Serving For The Ramones Just eight months after their first album, during which time they’d spread the word across North America and the UK, The Ramones unveiled more of the same on ...
AUTHORITATIVE
An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
CURATED
Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.