Punk's Only Reaganite? Johnny Ramone is
dead. (Long live Johnny Ramone.) He pretty much invented the punk guitar attack -- two fuzzed-out minutes of blister-popping power chords in a progression melodic enough to work for a girl group -- and was violently opposed to guitar solos, especially guitar solo wankery. Very little can be done in rock and roll today that doesn't filter through Johnny. He was the anti-prog rock holly stake, the coup de grace to monsters like Yes and ELP.
My favorite Johnny story is about him meeting the very young members of an unknown group called the Clash in London. They told Johnny they felt they need time to polish their sound before they tried to take their act out publically. "Come see us tonight," Johnny supposedly replied. "We can't even play our f*cking instruments."
1 comment:
I'm not sure you can parse it out that fine, Razor. Off the top, I would say that the lyrics mattered the least, though much of the Ramones' attitude was indelibly stamped into their lyrics (viz. the numerous paeons to glue sniffing). And the attitude was huge. But one can't discount the music itself. It was punk before the term was really current. It slashed ornamentation to the bone, focusing attention on the riff, the hook. Lots of bands have hooks. Even Yes had hooks ("Roundabout," for instance). But so many bands of the 70s buried their hooks under layers of sonic shaving cream, rococco frills, and wanky virtuosity. The Ramones shoved the hook in your face for two minutes; the only thing ostentatious was their refusal to adorn it at all.
Upshot? It was the music, in its diametrical opposition to the larded pretension of prog rock, that made you take notice. But the attitude closed the deal.
Post a Comment