Johnny Ramone

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Johnny Ramone at a live performance by the Ramones in Toronto in 1978 , here atypically with a Rickenbacker electric guitar

Johnny Ramone , actually John Cummings , (born October 8, 1948 in Long Island , New York , †  September 15, 2004 in Los Angeles , USA ) was the guitarist of the punk band Ramones . In addition to the singer Joey Ramone , he was the only member of the formation from its founding in 1974 to its dissolution in 1996.

life and work

youth

John Cummings grew up as the only child of a working class family in the New York borough of Queens . The authoritarian upbringing of his father, a construction worker, had a special influence on his development, whose work ethic, which is characterized by unconditional discipline, was later adopted by Johnny in his leadership role at the Ramones.

Johnny made his first musical experiences around the mid-1960s at Forest Hills High School in Queens - as the bass player in the school band "Tangerine Puppets" . It was here that he met Thomas Erdelyi for the first time, who played guitar in the band, and who later became known as Tommy Ramone as the drummer and producer of the Ramones. Also at this high school (where he said he didn’t miss a single day of school) he made friends with Douglas Colvin, later known as Dee Dee Ramone , and came into contact with Jeffrey Hyman (later Joey Ramone ), whom he initially thought to be " Hippie “declined.

After graduating from school at the latest, Johnny maintained a behavior that was exactly the opposite of his later qualities for several years - that of a drifter and juvenile delinquent . About this time he later confessed in interviews: "I was bad - every minute of the day, from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed." (German: "I was bad - all day long, from waking up to going to bed"). At the age of twenty, however, he made a radical U-turn in almost one day, renounced alcohol and other drugs , began a self-disciplined life - and became a construction worker like his father.

A few years later he met Douglas Colvin again, and the two bought guitars to start a band - the band that formed the Ramones in February 1974.

Musical influence

Johnny Ramones Mosrite Ventures II electric guitar , played by him from 1977 until the band split up in 1996, exhibited in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2014). The signs of wear and tear resulting from years of playing the instrument are clearly visible

Johnny Ramone shaped the sound of the Ramones significantly through his playing technique. Characteristic of him was the almost exclusive use of Barre handles with and the limitation to the tee ( "down stroke") when playing chords. Ramones bassist Dee Dee was also instructed by him on the straight tee game. By skipping the impact, he renounced a full, heavy sound (such as in hard rock ) and achieved a rather transparent sound with a driving character, which could give the impression of hectic nervousness at high speeds. The music press compared the sound to that of a chainsaw.

The use of Mosrite electric guitars, which became popular in the 1960s primarily through surf bands such as Ventures , was also decisive for the sound . In the course of his career, Johnny almost exclusively played guitars of the same model, modified according to his needs - the Mosrite Ventures II, whose characteristic asymmetrical body shape became his trademark - and renounced any use of sound filters and effect devices . Solo play was also largely rejected by him and is not to be found on the first three studio albums or on live recordings of the Ramones. Playing techniques that he himself did not or only inadequately mastered, he had other guitarists play in studio recordings and put the result above his ego.

Over the decades, Johnny Ramone pursued the concentration on a purist and minimalist guitar sound. He has always criticized the occasional use of keyboards and synthesizers in the Ramones' studio recordings.

In the list published in 2003 by the US music magazine Rolling Stone , 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (German: “ The 100 best guitarists of all time ”), Johnny Ramone was ranked 16th - on the grounds that he had “the punk - Invented rock guitar ". In a more recent list from 2011, he was in 28th place. One of his nine Mosrite electric guitars was auctioned in January 2015 by a US auction house for almost 72,000 US dollars.

Role in the band

Within the group, Johnny took on the role of artistic director, at the latest since Tommy Ramone left in 1978, who decisively determined the career and success of the Ramones. He himself compared the band to a baseball team in which he played the role of an authoritarian coach.

Linda and Johnny Ramone

In the early 1980s, the fact that Johnny Joey Ramone hitched up his girlfriend and great love Linda Danielle (who Johnny also married in the late 1990s) caused conflict within the band . Since that event, Johnny and Joey Ramone have hardly spoken to each other, although they continued to tour as a band. The incident was themed by Joey Ramone in the lyrics of The KKK Took My Baby Away , with KKK ( Ku Klux Klan ) he alluded to Johnny's politically conservative attitude. Despite or because of this animosity, the song was part of the band's repertoire.

A similar constellation arose when US President Ronald Reagan visited the Bitburg military cemetery on a state visit to Germany and triggered the Bitburg controversy there; In the USA in particular, it was criticized for choosing a memorial where members of the Waffen SS were also buried. In response, Joey wrote the lyrics Bonzo Goes to Bitburg , a reference to the 1951 comedy Bedtime for Bonzo , in which actor Reagan appeared next to a chimpanzee. At Johnny's insistence (“You can't call my president a monkey!”) The title of the song had to be changed to My Brain is Hanging Upside Down . Despite his personal appreciation for Reagan, Johnny also played this song - according to his self-image, he had to subordinate his personal feelings to the demands of the Ramones.

Private life

As a fan of the New York Yankees baseball team , Johnny Ramone determined the band's tour schedule so that trips outside of the United States would only take place after the end of the baseball season. When there was no other option, he would watch the games during the Ramones performances on a television set on the side of the stage without affecting his guitar playing.

Johnny Ramone was a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and - atypical for a musician from the punk rock environment - a supporter of the US Republican Party.

On June 16, 2004, Rolling Stone magazine announced that Johnny Ramone, who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer four years earlier , would lose the battle against the disease because the cancer had now spread throughout the body. Johnny Ramone died of his illness on September 15, 2004 in Los Angeles with friends and family. Johnny Ramone was cremated and the ashes remained with his wife, Linda. In honor of the guitarist , a cenotaph and a bronze statue with a base and a memorial plaque were erected in Hollywood Forever Cemetery , where Dee Dee Ramone was also buried ; the larger than life statue depicts him in a typical stage pose.

Honors, awards

Others

  • John Cummings' personal musical preference was Elvis Presley .
  • The personal trademark was wearing T-shirts with highly controversial and provocative messages or statements. Example: “Kill a Commie for Mommy” .
  • In 2001, the Japanese guitar manufacturer Fillmore Company Ltd. launched a licensed Mosrite Johnny Ramone Signature special model - an authorized and faithful replica of the Ventures II modified by Johnny Ramone .
  • Eddie Vedder was close friends with Johnny Ramone.
  • The Austrian singer and songwriter Der Nino from Vienna dedicated the single Johnny Ramone to him .
  • In 2001 he played the role of Lowell in the film Náufragos - Stranded .

literature

  • Monte A. Melnick, Frank Meyer: On the Road with the Ramones. Sanctuary, London 2003, ISBN 1-86074-514-8 (English).
  • Johnny Ramone: Commando. The autobiography of Johnny Ramone. Abrams Image, New York NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-8109-9660-1 (English).
    • German by: Gunter Blank and Simone Salitter: Commando. The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone , ed. by John Cafiero et al. Tropen / Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-608-50317-3 .
  • Everett True: Hey Ho Let's Go. The story of the Ramones. Bosworth Musikverlag, Berlin et al. 2005, ISBN 3-86543-039-2 .
  • Michael Gramaglia, Jim Fields (producer, director): End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones . DVD video documentation, Warner Music Vision 2005, 0349 70399-2 (English).

Web links

Commons : Johnny Ramone  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Ian Harper: The guitars of Johnny Ramone - Natural Rickenbacker on rockometer.com (accessed July 27, 2016)
  2. ↑ End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones . DVD-Video, counter 00:05:50.
  3. ↑ The pickup in the neck position (above in the picture) has been deactivated; Johnny Ramone only played with the pickup in the bridge position (below). The tremolo system was replaced by a fixed tailpiece of the stop-tailpiece type . The volume potentiometer received a non-standard rotary knob of the speed dome type , in order to be able to mute the guitar more quickly during breaks in playing. Source: Ian Harper: The guitars of Johnny Ramone - The white Mosrite (1977–1996) . Article on rockometer.com (accessed July 27, 2016)
  4. ^ Monte A. Melnick, Frank Meyer: On the Road with the Ramones, p. 52
  5. ^ Ian Harper: The guitars of Johnny Ramone - The white Mosrite (1977-1996) . Article on rockometer.com (accessed July 27, 2016)
  6. ↑ Johnny Ramone in Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists list (accessed March 1, 2011)
  7. ↑ 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 18, 2015, accessed August 8, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Item 2173 - Johnny Ramone's Longtime-owned and Stage-used Guitar. Catalog 445 (Jan 2015) . Description of the guitar on the website of the auction house RR Auction (English; accessed on July 27, 2016)
  9. ^ Daniel Kreps: Rare Johnny Ramone Guitar Brings $ 71,000 at Auction . Article on rollingstone.com from January 23, 2015 (accessed July 27, 2016)
  10. ↑ “A lot of times Johnny would watch a baseball game on TV off to the side of the stage, literally, without even looking at his guitar. Just playing like a machine. " Howie Pyro, quoted from Monte A. Melnick, Frank Meyer: On the Road with the Ramones, p. 43
  11. ↑ usatoday30.usatoday.com: Johnny Ramone immortalized in bronze article from January 7, 2005 (English)
  12. ^ Johnny Ramone: Commando. The autobiography of Johnny Ramone, p. 145
  13. ↑ knerger.de: The cenotaph by Johnny Ramone
personal data
SURNAME Ramone, Johnny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cummings, John (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American guitarist and founding member of the Ramones
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Long Island , New York
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 2004
Place of death los Angeles