Hey, Ho, Let's Go -

Hey, Ho, Let's Go - As I've noted often in this space, it's sometimes very strange being a conservative rock and roller.

That's why I periodically throw my hands to the heavens and thank my creator for the National Review's Kevin Cherry. This week; his review of the new Ramones tribute album:

The Ramones were unlike other punk bands in that they, especially Joey, had a real sense of melody. Their favorite artists included Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Phil Spector's stable of groups, and the Beatles...(Spector would also produce the album, End of the Century, when he shot at Dee Dee, a fact noted repeatedly this year.) This separated them from the other raucous bands of the time, like the MC5, the Velvet Underground, Iggy, and the Stooges. The Ramones were tough, but they were hummable, too. In addition, they had a sense of humor about themselves and about their lives. Their early material was a reflection of the times in which they lived: songs about mental illness, apathy, boredom, drugs, and girls were the norm. They would have the occasional political outburst — conservative Johnny vetoed Joey and Dee Dee's attempt to release a song called "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" (it was retitled, "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down") — but for the most part, their songs were simply about life in America, as dysfunctional as the nation had become. They were, in a way, rock journalists: neither approving nor decrying, always describing, in very short bursts of melodic energy.

It's hard to describe to people today exactly what the Ramones were to someone growing up in the late seventies, especially in a place like North Dakota, where only the most commercial, commercial radio fare ever saw airplay. Fun, liberating, utterly un-"Rock".

"Like Green Day, only fun", I used to tell my stepson.

Posted by Mitch at March 8, 2003 09:00 AM