Johnny Ramone

Fox News: It’s been said you stayed in touch with ex-boyfriend Joey Ramone until his death.

Fox News: How important has it been for you to keep the legacy of your late husband Johnny Ramone alive?

Linda Ramone: Very important. When Johnny was dying, he would talk about his legacy all the time. It was very important to him. So for him to put me in charge of his legacy – that was always the biggest thing he could ever do for me. He would always say, "I would rather be here keeping my own legacy alive. But if there’s one person I’m picking, it’s you."

“I started doing down strumming, basically to keep time and to play fast. As time went on, I started realizing other guitar players couldn't do it. I always went against the grain.”

- Johnny Ramone

"When I'm done with the Ramones, that's it for music for me. Nothing will ever be as good as going on stage with the ramones. I know it's got to stop at some point, but our live show still more wild and exciting than most of these other ones around."

"I mean, as long as Joey was still there, there was always the feeling like […] I'm not doing anything without him. He's my partner. Me and him.”

- Johnny Ramone, 2004

Johnny Ramone’s 10 favourite punk bands:

The Ramones

The Clash

The Sex Pistols

The Heartbreakers

The Dead Boys

The Damned

The Cramps

The Buzzcocks

The Dickies

The creative force behind much of the imperious work with the Ramones, the controversial guitarist Johnny Ramone created a career by thrashing out three chords to his last moment of adolescent discontent. It was a sign of things to come, and, following the band’s rise out of the murky depths of New York City, the group flourished under the spotlight of punk— something that Johnny Ramone had a considerable hand in.

"It bothered me when I first saw it,” said Johnny, “but it makes no difference. The only reason we did it to begin with was, really, we didn’t want to tax anyone’s thinking to have them remember our last names. We figured they’d have a hard-enough time learning our first names. We figured no one would want to learn our last names so we’d call ourselves ‘Ramones’ and make it really easy.”

"If a man can tell if he's been successful in his life by having great friends, then I have been very successful."

"Your life is what you remember. I mean, some things I wish I still had. But it doesn't matter."

Just a few quotes from this amazing book that I just finished reading. This book made me sad, happy, amazed. It really was a amazing book. It was good to know all those Johnny's histories. From his trips to Europe to him getting beat up by a guy on the street. This book made me admire even more this legend and this band. Thank you guys for everything.

New York music writers like Danny Fields of the Soho Weekly News began devoting passionate columns to the four Forest Hills rockers. Mop-haired and sickly looking, with faces so acne-caked they resembled pink peanut brittle, the Ramones were as appealing as their hasty repertoire of head splitters: “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Chain Saw,” “Loudmouth,” “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,” etc.

So when the needle hit "Blitzkrieg Bop," I was more than ready. Yet I still recall the shock that shot through me as the blare pummeled throughout the store. Every song was blurs and slurs, stopping and starting, sneering and leering, one after the other, and right away they gave me that exhilaration that other radical new music took repeated plays to glean. That gloriously flawed '70s NYC they were singing about, and, more crucially, that joyful squall of sound that suggested cheerleaders with chain saws, was a home I wanted to live in. It moved faster; my brain thought quicker while engaged with it. I'd already tried pot, but felt nothing. This was my new drug, and like the other record clerks, I jonesed for more, and so we'd flip the record over and over again.

- Barry Walters

Johnny wasn’t thinking the Ramones were at the forefront of any revolution at the time. “You never think about it. We didn’t have any conception when we started. We had nothing to do. We weren’t liking any of the music and we just decided to start a group. When we started off, we were going to play other peoples’ [songs] but I don’t know, we couldn’t figure them out or something, so we sat down and started writing right away.

“We knew CBGB, which no one was playing at, and we just went down and asked if we could play and they said “Yeah”, and we just played there. We worked a lot playing there regularly – more or less as much as we wanted.”

- Jim Sullivan

"The tall, gawky, forever in sunglasses, long-hair-in-his-face singer Joey was the focal point (and the subject of the aforementioned tribute songs) as singers so often are. He wrote their hit, “Sheena Was a Punk Rocker,” “We’re a Happy Family” and “Cretin Hop.” However, drummer Tommy and bassist Dee Dee were the primary songwriters.

Johnny, he played guitar. Irreplaceable guitar. Often imitated, but, somehow never surpassed. Lots of people back then thought, “It’s seems so simple, why can’t more bands get crunchy sound?”

I asked my friend, guitarist/writer/radio host Johnny Angel, about his style. (Johnny Angel was a friend of the Ramones and played in the Boston bands Thrills and Blackjacks.) “He couldn’t really play, but what he knew and did, he mastered,” Angel said. “But really, it’s very simple. His style was barre chords played all wrist downstroke. What that means, power wise, is that the two low strings are hit on every strum. That emphasizes the ‘sonic middle.’"

"I didn't want the Ramones being told what to be doing, and I wanted the Ramones being presented in the right light - the remaining Ramones."

- Johnny Ramone

"I had a good career. I've been very fortunate"