Ramones

published in I Like Your Old Stuff blog, Warner Music UK, July 2017

May ‘77. New York monthly “Rock Scene” carries a ‘New York Rock Report Special’ (though Ted Nugent was on the cover). A picture spread has The Ramones awkwardly posed around CBGBs and Washington Square Park. Their hair is only slightly longer than on the cover of their first album. Everything looks suburban. This was the Ramones greatest achievement: making Manhattan seem like Queens. “Rock Scene” kept living in a NY-Glam hangover, with David Johansen and Cyrinda Foxe forever drinking with Richard & Lisa Robinson. Put the first Ramones LP cover next to the New York Dolls’ same: both B&W, sneering & grubby, speed & ludes. Yet a wafer-thin fissure splits Johnny Thunders into Deedee Ramone. The bouffant becomes a pudding bowl. The sound of hairspray becomes steamrolled power chords. The Ramones pave the way for many to come.

Text © Philip Brophy. Image © Rock Scene.