August 6: On This Day in World History … briefly

1996:  Rock band ‘The Ramones’ performs live for the last time

American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighbourhood of Forest Hills, Queens in 1974 ‘The Ramones’ are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving only limited commercial success initially, the band was highly influential in the United States and the United Kingdom. All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname ‘Ramone’, although none of them were biologically related. They performed 2 263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By 2014, all four of the band’s original members had died – lead singer Joey Ramone (1951 – 2001), bass guitarist Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948 – 2004) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949 – 2014).

Recognition of the band’s importance built over the years, and are now mentioned in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as number 26 in Rolling Stone magazine list of the ‘100 Greatest Artists of All Time’ and number 17 in VH1’s ‘100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock’. In 2002, The Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin, trailing only the Beatles. 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 on their first year of eligibility, though Joey had died by then. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tension between Joey and Johnny colored much of The Ramones’s career. The pair were politically antagonistic, Joey being a liberal and Johnny a conservative. Their personalities also clashed: Johnny, who spent two years in military school, lived by a strict code of self-discipline, while Joey struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder and alcoholism. In the early 1980s, Linda Danielle began a relationship with Johnny after having already been romantically involved with Joey. Consequently, despite their continued professional relationship, Joey and Johnny had become aloof from each other. Johnny did not contact Joey before the latter’s death, although he said that he was depressed for ‘the whole week’ after his death.

Dee Dee’s bipolar disorder and repeated relapses into drug addiction also caused significant strains. Tommy would also leave the band after being ‘physically threatened by Johnny, treated with contempt by Dee Dee (who was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward – CJ Ramone), and all but ignored by Joey’. As new members joined over the years, disbursement and the band’s image frequently became matters of serious dispute. The tensions among the group members were not kept secret from the public as was heard on the Howard Stern radio show in 1997, where during the interview Marky and Joey got into a fight about their respective drinking habits.

A year after The Ramones’ breakup, Marky Ramone made disparaging response against CJ in the press, calling him a ‘bigot’, a statement he would reiterate a decade later. CJ would later respond that he was unsure as to why he would make negative comments against him in the press though he denied that it had anything to do with his marrying Marky’s niece. He also denied being a bigot. Many years later, CJ mentioned that despite being the two surviving members of arguably The Ramones’s most commercially successful era, and despite reaching out a few times to join him on stage, he and Marky were no longer in contact.

Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.

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