Monday, July 14, 2014

The Ramones

Moi ICI:

No one was better at covers than the Ramones. The first time I tried to get permission to go to a Ramones show, my parents, who had been born in 1576, said "hellz no." A few days later I brought my mother a cassette I had made of all the old songs The Ramones had covered, including Let's Dance, California Sun, Do You Wanna Dance, Needles & Pins, Baby I Love You, Little Bit of Soul, Indian Giver and Palisades Park. This led to my mother thinking "oh, it's an oldies group, great!" and allowing me to go.

Ha!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tommy was my dearest and oldest friend.
We grew up together in Forest Hills Queens New York.
I went to Stephen A Halsey Jr High and Forest Hills High school with him.
He got me to pick up the bass guitar and enter into the crazy world of rock music.
We played in several bands together (Triad & Butch) here in NYC over the late 60's and early 70's. We built and managed Performance Studios in NYC, a recording/rehearsal studio the Ramones started in. I worked with him when he was in the Ramones and well after he left. He had an advanced musical foresight, well ahead of the times in forming and being part of the Ramones. He was a great musician on the guitar, then the drums, later on the mandolin, banjo, fiddle and many more instruments. His musical expanse bridged from Punk to Indie Bluegrass.
I mourn the passing of the last of the original Ramones, my friend and a true musical visionary.

Monte A. Melnick
"On The Road with the Ramones"