The dates first
The Ramones did not exist in 1967. They formed in Forest Hills, a neighbourhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, in 1974, and their first album, Ramones, was released in 1976. The link to 1967 is one of influence: many of the records and ideas that shaped their sound, and the wider New York punk scene around them, can be traced back to the mid- and late 1960s. This article sets out that line of descent, and where it is uncertain, says so.
Who the Ramones were
The group’s four original members adopted the shared stage surname Ramone. They were Joey on vocals, Johnny on guitar, Dee Dee on bass and Tommy on drums, and Tommy was later replaced behind the kit by Marky. Their approach was deliberately stripped down: short songs, fast tempos, simple chords and a loud, buzzing guitar sound. Much of their material was over in about two minutes. They wore matching leather jackets and jeans and, by their own account, wanted to return rock and roll to something direct and fun after what they saw as the bloat of 1970s stadium rock.
The garage rock inheritance
The Ramones loved the pop and rock of their teenage years, which meant the 1960s. Girl-group singles, surf music, bubblegum pop and the early Beatles were all part of what they absorbed. The most direct ancestor of their sound, though, was American garage rock, the term used for the mid-1960s bands, often teenagers, who copied the British Invasion groups with limited skill but great energy. Songs such as the Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction” and “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians, both from 1966, are often named as examples. A 1972 compilation, Nuggets, helped later listeners and musicians to see the genre as a coherent tradition.
The key idea that carried forward was that technical polish was not a requirement. A band that could play three chords with conviction could be heard, and that view was an essential foundation of punk.
The Velvet Underground and the Stooges
Two groups from the late 1960s have a particularly clear place in the story. The Velvet Underground, a New York band associated with Andy Warhol, released its first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, in 1967. Its songs dealt frankly with city life, drugs and sex, and its sound was raw by the standards of the time. It sold modestly at the time, but its example was taken up by many later musicians.
The Stooges, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, formed in 1967, with their first album following in 1969. Their primal, repetitive style and the wild stage presence of singer Iggy Pop were a major influence on punk. The MC5 from Detroit were also part of the same lineage. The Ramones’ sound was cleaner and poppier than that of either group, but they shared the idea that rock should be forceful and immediate.
New York, 1973 to 1976
By the early 1970s a local scene was forming in New York. The New York Dolls, with a glam-influenced and brash style, released their first album in 1973. A little later, several groups started performing at CBGB, a small club on the Bowery in Lower Manhattan run by Hilly Kristal. The Ramones played there from the summer of 1974, and CBGB was home to other acts such as Television, Patti Smith and Talking Heads, though each of those bands had a very different sound.
The Ramones were signed by Sire Records, and their debut album appeared in the spring of 1976, containing songs such as “Blitzkrieg Bop”. It was a modest seller at first, and chart success in the United States came slowly. Their influence was felt first through live performance and word of mouth.
Crossing the Atlantic
British audiences responded more quickly. The Ramones played in London in July 1976, and their shows are widely said to have inspired young musicians who then formed their own bands. The Sex Pistols and the Clash are the best-known British groups of the period, but it would be wrong to say that they simply imitated the Ramones, since British punk had its own roots, its own politics and its own look. The Ramones were one influence among several.
Assessing the legacy
The Ramones’ influence has been wide: their short, fast, melodic songs and visual consistency have been copied by pop-punk, hardcore and alternative rock bands. They were never a major commercial success during their own career, and their reputation grew mainly afterward. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Calling their work a legacy of 1967 is therefore partly a figure of speech. Some of the inspirations were recorded in that year, and it was an important one for rock, but the Ramones belong to the mid-1970s. What they took from the 1960s was an attitude: that rock music works best when it is simple, loud and honest.