All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", though none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By a little more than eight years after the breakup, the band's three founding members—lead singer Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone—had died. Drummer Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member, died in 2014.
Their only record with enough U.S. sales to be certified gold was the compilation album Ramones Mania. However, recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now cited in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as the Rolling Stone list of the 50 Greatest Artists of All Time and VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin magazine, trailing only The Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the Ramones—including the three founders and drummers Marky and Tommy Ramone—were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Formation: 1974–1975
Forest Hills High School, attended by the four original members of the Ramones
The original members of the band met in and around the middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. John Cummings and Tamás Erdélyi had both been in a high-school garage band from 1966 to 1967 known as the Tangerine Puppets. They became friends with Douglas Colvin, who had recently moved to the area from Germany, and Jeffry Hyman, who was the initial lead singer of the glam rock band Sniper, founded in 1972.
The Ramones began taking shape in early 1974, when Cummings and Colvin invited Hyman to join them in a band. The initial lineup featured Colvin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Cummings on lead guitar, and Hyman on drums. Colvin, who soon switched from rhythm guitar to bass, was the first to adopt the name "Ramone", calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by Paul McCartney's use of the pseudonym Paul Ramon during his Silver Beatles days. Dee Dee convinced the other members to take on the name and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones. Hyman and Cummings became Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone, respectively.
A friend of the band, Monte A. Melnick (later their tour manager), helped to arrange rehearsal time for them at Manhattan's Performance Studios, where he worked. Johnny's former bandmate Erdélyi was set to become their manager. Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he could not sing and play his bass guitar simultaneously; with Erdélyi's encouragement, Joey became the band's new lead singer.
Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!" Joey soon similarly realized that he could not sing and play drums simultaneously and left the position of drummer. While auditioning prospective replacements, Erdélyi would often take to the drums and demonstrate how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was able to perform the group's music better than anyone else, and he joined the band as Tommy Ramone.
The Ramones played before an audience for the first time on March 30, 1974, at Performance Studios. The songs they played were very fast and very short; most clocked in at under two minutes. Around this time, a new music scene was emerging in New York centered around two clubs in downtown Manhattan—Max's Kansas City and, more famously, CBGB (usually referred to as CBGB's). The Ramones made their CBGB debut on August 16. Legs McNeil, who cofounded Punk magazine the following year, later described the impact of that performance: "They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they counted off this song...and it was just this wall of noise.... They looked so striking. These guys were not hippies. This was something completely new."
The band swiftly became regulars at the club, playing there seventy-four times by the end of the year. After garnering considerable attention for their performances—which averaged about seventeen minutes from beginning to end—the group was signed to a recording contract in late 1975 by Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Stein's wife, Linda Stein, had seen the band play at CBGB; she would later co-manage them along with Danny Fields. By this time, the Ramones were recognized as leaders of the new scene that was increasingly being referred to as "punk". The group's unusual frontman had a lot to do with their impact. As Dee Dee explained, "All the other singers [in New York] were copying David Johansen [of The New York Dolls], who was copying Mick Jagger.... But Joey was unique, totally unique."
Rock
Ramones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Say hey hey hey it's Arty home
You want to take a walk, you want to go cop
You want to go get some Chinese rock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
All my best things are in hock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
The plaster fallin' off the wall
My girlfriend's cryin' in the shower stall
It's hot as a bitch, I should've been rich
But I'm just diggin' a Chinese ditch
I'm living on a Chinese rock
All my best things are in hock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
Everything is in the pawn shop
The plaster fallin' off the wall
My girlfriend's cryin' in the shower stall
It's hot as a bitch, I should've been rich
But I'm just diggin' a Chinese ditch
I'm living on a Chinese rock
All my best things are in hock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
Everything is in the pawn shop
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I'm living on a Chinese rock
The lyrics of the Ramones' song "Chinese Rock" depict a grim and desperate reality of heroin addiction in New York City during the late 1970s. The singer, after getting a visit from his friend Arty, is offered drugs and a stroll around town to go cop. The chorus of the song "I'm living on a Chinese rock, all my best things are in hock" illustrates the rock-bottom state of the singer's life, where he is consumed by the addiction and has had to pawn off all his valuable possessions to sustain it. The line "I'm just diggin' a Chinese ditch" brings forth a bleak image of the singer's fate as he continues to struggle on this path.
The song portrays the gritty, urban reality of life at the time, where heroin addiction was rampant, and people found themselves caught in its vicious cycle. It shows the despair, desperation and bleakness of the life it brings. However, the song also became somewhat of an anthem for the punk rock movement in New York City, showing the realistic grittier side to punk rather than the more commercialised side.
"Chinese Rock" was originally written by Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell, who used to play with the Television group before he quit due to artistic differences. Hell introduced the song to Debbie Harry of Blondie, but she changed the lyrics, and the song became "Cocaine" instead. The song is a staple of the Ramones' concerts and can be heard on the Live album 'It's Alive' recorded in 1977 at the Rainbow Theater in London.
Line by Line Meaning
Somebody call me on the door
Someone knocked on my door
Say hey hey hey it's Arty home
Arty is at my front door
You want to take a walk, you want to go cop
You are trying to find drugs
You want to go get some Chinese rock
You want to buy heroin
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I am addicted to heroin
All my best things are in hock
I have pawned all my valuables to buy drugs
Everything is in the pawn shop
I have nothing left to sell
The plaster fallin' off the wall
My living conditions are poor
My girlfriend's cryin' in the shower stall
My relationship is suffering because of my addiction
It's hot as a bitch, I should've been rich
I am unhappy with my current situation
But I'm just diggin' a Chinese ditch
I am stuck in my addiction and can't dig myself out
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I am still addicted to heroin
All my best things are in hock
I have nothing left of value
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I am still addicted to heroin
Everything is in the pawn shop
I have nothing left to sell
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I am still addicted to heroin
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I am still addicted to heroin
I'm living on a Chinese rock
I am still addicted to heroin
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., BMG Rights Management
Written by: DEE DEE RAMONE, DOUGLAS COLVIN, JEFFREY HYMAN, JOEY RAMONE, JOHN (RAMONE) CUMMINGS, JOHNNY RAMONE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Lucas Santos Costa
Lyrics:
Well, I don't care about history
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
'Cause that's not where I wanna be
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
I just wanna have some kicks
I just wanna get some chicks
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Well, the girls out there knock me out, you know
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Cruisin' around in my GTO
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
I hate the teachers and the principal
Don't wanna be taught to be no fool
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, oh baby
Fun fun, oh baby
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
I don't care about history
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
'Cause that's not where I wanna be
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
I just wanna have some kicks
I just wanna get some chicks
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, rock 'n' roll high school
Fun fun, oh baby
Fun fun, oh baby
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school
courtneyfshane
Funny how they sing about not liking history cause that's not where they wanna be... But they are! They are part of our Rock history! Wish more bands were like them now
Angel's ASMR Channel
Hell yea they are...
Brian Roberson
The meaning of the line is that to be history, or be in history you have to be dead. Unfortunately that has also come true.
NEW ROCK ORDER
And they used an a-bomb explosion.
Anto
Lol
ENDLESS NAMELESS
What's the 3 chords to this shit super talented 🥴😴
Pedro lucas Cancela
Ramones, nunca irá ser esquecido no Brasil 🇧🇷🤘
itsurmombruh
This kinda has some 50s/60s vibes to it and I love it
itsurmombruh
Red Scorpion I read that too fast and thought you said RnB
la_mia_banca
Red Scorpion very surf rock sound