The Essence. Distilled. Ramones.

The last Ramone is gone. I did a r&r diary about the Ramones awhile back over here. The Ramones are an essential band. Primitive, fun, funny too. They played short songs really, really fast. They looked like brothers, but they weren't. Or maybe really they were -  brothers in r&r.  They kind of kicked open the door to the whole Punk thing.

I saw as many Ramones shows (3 shows!) as I have seen Rolling Stones shows. I do think you had to really see the Ramones live to really "get them."  The records were good, but they didn't capture the live thing. I play my Stones records more often that I play any of the Ramones records (I own nearly all the original Ramones releases on vinyl!), their records were a part of their thing, just a small part.

I loved the idea of the Ramones as much as their music. Four goofballs who liked to sniff glue and rock out. Joey was a long-string bean; kind of girlish, soft, and you could kind of relate to his shy awkwardness. And the band was just an incredible pile-driving, buzz-saw. Their shows were raucous fun. Glorious, raucous, unbridled fun. The essence. Distilled.