![]() ![]() Instead of taking over the airwaves, they became a cult band, but always seemed too big for such a diminutive label. Their desperate hopes for mainstream popularity, which showed through in their professionalism and dogged work ethic, were dashed when the Sex Pistols made the new style a four-letter word. Unfortunately, the movement the Ramones helped to jumpstart quickly got away from them, turning their practiced naivete into impractical nihilism. In the process, they tapped the essence of rock music in its purest form. The band was self-aware, sure, but the Ramones always seemed genuinely invested in what might seem like the shallowest eddies of pop culture. ![]() Therein lies a large part of the Ramones' charm: they made rock music with bored kids in mind, with short-attention-span song lengths, blunt guitar riffs, and unsophisticated lyrics. When Johnny stole his girl, Joey didn't fight him at the lockers, but wrote "The KKK Took My Baby Away". Eventually some of the brothers-in-arms became bitter enemies. Four guys from down-and-out Queens adopted a common surname and the same juvenile delinquent uniforms as they blasted short, simple, sublime pop songs from cramped stages. The tale of the Ramones is as sad as it is weird. ![]()
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