The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first band to define the punk rock sound. Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was a major influence on the 1970’s punk movement in both the United States and United Kingdom. All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname “Ramone”, although none of them were related. On March 18, 2002, the original four members and Tommy’s replacement on drums, Marky Ramone, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. (More from Wikipedia)
Writing for the Rolling Stone Record Guide, David McGee states: “To get an idea of his indelible contribution to rock & roll, consider the critic Lester Bangs’ citation of [Ritchie] Valens as the prototypical punk guitarist whose signature ‘La Bamba’ riff links Valens to a hard-edged, no-frills style of rock & roll later advanced by the Kingsmen, the Kinks, the Stooges, and the Ramones.” The thrilling Ramones call “Hey Ho, Let’s Go” – from the opening song “Blitzkrieg Bop” on their first album, Ramones – might have been lifted directly from Ritchie Valens’ “Come On, Let’s Go”.
The frontwoman for Fur is Holly Ramos, a musician and actress from New York City. As revealed in a 2003 interview with Glitzine – a glam/punk/pop online fanzine that has evidently been around for 40 years – Ramos was into the New York punk scene at an early age: “In grade school I started to get interested in 1977 type punk, the Ramones, Blondie, Patti Smith. And in high school I got into hardcore (Black Flag/Bad Brains, etc). I am interviewed for the book American Hardcore, a book about the history of that music.” The book was written by Steven Blush and was the basis for an acclaimed 2006 documentary by the same name, American Hardcore that was directed by Paul Rachman.
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Fur was founded in about 1991 and featured Holly Ramos (guitar and vocals) and Danuta Gozdziewicz (bass and backing vocals). Evidently there were a succession of drummers but never more than three bandmembers; on the CD, the drummer is Michael McDermott. About the CD, Ramos continues from her 2003 interview: “We had a CD on Blackout Records and singles and some college radio attention. It was poppy Ramones style, melodic and aggressive, had a lot of great press and terrible distribution.”
(June 2013/2)
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Several years back, I picked up a cool album released in 2006 by a Spanish band called Suzy & los Quattro called Ready to Go!; I guess you could call a tribute to Suzi Quatro and the Quatro family. As with the Ramones and the Donnas – where, respectively, the last name of all of the bandmembers is given as “Ramone”, and the first name of all of the bandmembers is “Donna” – the bandmembers are shown as having the surname “Quattro” with the exception of bandleader and vocalist Suzy Chain.
(October 2013)
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Patti Smith Group was signed by Clive Davis to a major-label contract with Arista Records; and their debut album Horses was one of the first punk rock albums, being released in December 1975 (four months before the Ramones’ first album came out). Actually, through most of the 1970’s, punk rock was mostly found on 45’s and an occasional EP; except for the biggest punk rockers, LP’s were pretty rare.
(February 2014)
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Allmusic gives The Richmond Sluts 4 stars and says of the Richmond Sluts that “they explored the glam-slam-thank-you-ma’am side of punk”. Jo-Ann Greene comments about their inventiveness on the album in ways that are a little beyond my capacity to figure out: “Since categorization is a necessity in this age of overspecification, punk rock will do nicely, but doesn’t begin to encompass just how cleverly the group churns other genres through its blender. The Sluts connect the dots between ’60s garage punk and old school ’70s style, then toss just a dash of new school into the mix. Variations on this recipe reverberate across the album, and answer a slew of niggling questions along the way. Ever wonder what the [New York] Dolls would sound like covered by a psychedelic band? Kept up at night trying to imagine a cross between the Cramps and the Velvet Underground? Curious what the result would be if a time warp sent Richard Hell circa 1978 a decade into the past? And what if Eddie & the Hotrods were really the Ramones with English accents? The Richmond Sluts answer all these brain teasers and more you’ve yet to even imagine, and they do it without an ounce of pretentiousness or braggadocio.”
Phil Gammage is from Houston and went to college at the University of Colorado. He was walking through one of the classroom buildings early in the school year in 1977 and heard some raucous music being played. It seems that a fine arts professor at the college, Jerry Kunkel had been to the CBGB club, the punk-rock mecca in New York City; there he had heard Ramones, Television and some other early punk bands. He came back to the university inspired to start a rock band himself.
The practice session that Phil Gammage heard was Jerry Kunkel on lead vocals, his new wife Marsha Vann Kunkel on bass guitar, and Jerry Budwig on guitar. Phil picked up a guitar and plugged in; by the end of the night, he was asked to join the band. Drummer Peter Roos was originally from New England and had also seen Television; he joined the band shortly afterward.
Joey Vain and Scissors played early punk rock classics like the Ramones’ “Beat on the Brat” and Jonathan Richman’s “Pablo Picasso” but soon began writing their own songs with titles like “New Tattoo”, “Why Do I Have to Wear This Collar”, and “That’s What I Like”. They put together a six-song demo and started playing local clubs.
In early 1978, Joey Vain and Scissors had the good/bad fortune to play as the opening act for Elvis Costello on campus at the Glenn Miller Ballroom. This was the biggest crowd they had ever played for, but the audience evidently was expecting Ramones clones and were hostile during their set. The discouragement from that experience soon led to the band breaking up. Jerry Kunkel would shortly be appointed head of the Fine Arts Department at the University of Colorado, Jerry Budwig moved to San Francisco, and Peter Roos became the drummer for the Nightflames, whose first concert was opening for Joey Vain and Scissors at their final performance in March 1978.
(March 2015)
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