Joe and I woke this morning to the strains of "I Wanna Be Sedated."
Now, this is not standard morning-drive-team fare in any case, but given that our morning station of choice is WAMU, a local public station, and we were expecting Morning Edition, it was more than a little confusing.
We didn't learn why we had experienced this strange, brief format change until two hours later, when they repeated the story during the 9:00 hour. Joey Ramone, front-man for that king of American punk bands The Ramones, died yesterday at age 49, of cancer.
The Ramones never had a hit in the U.S., but their sound was unmistakable. Imagine if you took the Beach Boys' eternal-teenager themes and surf-tinged melodies, but traded in the intricate close harmony and dorky matching shirts on heavy drums, four basic bar chords, and a shitload of attitude. That's "Rock 'n Roll High School" in a nutshell. They weren't packaged for mass consumption, and that's what made them irresistable. Every kid who wanted to start a garage band had to learn "Teenage Lobotomy" or "I Wanna Be Sedated" or at the very least "Rockaway Beach."
US Magazine wrote in 1981, "In the midst of a movement of groups such as Talking Heads, Television and The Patti Smith Group, the Ramones had the fewest pretensions and the most fun." I don't think I can really improve on that statement.
Adios, Joey. Have fun.
posted by Alison @ 10:51 AM
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