TOMMY RAMONE
Tommy Ramone (born Tamás Erdélyi, later Thomas Erdelyi; January 29, 1949 – July 11, 2014) was a Hungarian American record producer, musician, and songwriter. He was the drummer for the influential punk rock band the Ramones for the first four years of the band’s existence and was the last surviving original member of the Ramones. (More from Wikipedia)
The emergence of punk rock in the 1970’s was in large part a reaction to progressive rock and also the tamer musical styles of that time. Punkers felt that rock music had strayed far from its roots and wanted to bring back the energy and excitement of the earlier years of rock and roll. As quoted in Wikipedia, drummer Tommy Ramone of Ramones summarized these feelings in a January 2007 interview: “In its initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of [Jimi] Hendrix started noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere. By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bulls--t rock ’n’ roll.”
(December 2016)
