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Johnny Ramone died last night at age 55 in L.A., after a struggle with prostate cancer. Johnny, born John Cummings, co-founded the Queens band with Joey Ramone in 1974 and the Ramones brought punk to NYC. Reports say that Eddie Vedder, John Frusciante and Rob Zombie were at his bedside along with Johnny's wife.
Here's the Ramones' official website. Joey died in 2001, Dee Dee died in 2002, and now drummer Tommy is the only surviving original Ramone (Coolfer pointed out to us "second drummer Marky is still alive, as is second bass player CJ"). The Ramones were boys from Queens, and there was an NPR piece about John Langford going to Queens to find Joey's ghost. A street in the East Village is named "Joey Ramone Place" - we'll see if another part is named after Johnny. And there's a Ramones documentary, End Of The Century, out now [read a review from Salon].
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"End of the Century" is great. And Johnny's great in it. I highly reccommend seeing it if you like rock music at all, even if you're not a Ramones fan. After you see it, you will be.
RIP Johnny.
the ramones were the best band to come out of new york in the 20th century- i'm going to go pour out a 40 in front of CBGB tonight.
I saw the documentary a few weeks ago, and honestly, I was amazed about how few regrets he had. It's ironic how conservative he was in life and how cold his relationship with Joey ended.
No way; the Velvet Underground blow those clowns away.
The Ramones are simply the Go-Gos injected with testosterone.
K,
Your comment is steeped in ignorance. Both bands had a huge impact on any decent band that came after them.
Thanks for being so civil and stating the obvious...
I was merely expressing a preference.
i too love the velvets- and an argument could be made that they are as least as influential (over a different sphere- pop/alternative). but i will express my own preference for the ramones.
i hope that the johns from TMBG get this kind of press when they die- they are my other nomination for undersold overinfluential nyc band.
Why do we insist on referring to cancer as a struggle?
You get sick. You get treated. The treatment is usually difficult, but you have no choice but to ride the tiger. You puke. You lose weight. You lose your hair. And, at the end, either you get better for a while, or you don't.
For me, looking at life as a survivor, struggle is getting up every day and going to a job you hate, working for people who don't like or respect you, paying your bills, keeping your dignity, and enjoying and remaining optimistic about your life.
That's struggle.