Who Can Really Say?

R.I.P

Johnny Ramone, lead guitarist of the Ramones, died earlier this week. This, from the NYT obit:

By stripping rock guitar of its ornamentation and playing almost every note in a violent, accelerated downstroke, Mr. Ramone helped create the sound of punk. His style — fast, repetitive and aggressive, though always tuneful — influenced, directly or indirectly, almost every punk guitarist since, from the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and contemporary players like Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Tom Delonge of Blink-182.

*****

Mr. Ramone's guitar style was basically sui generis, though he did not use those words to describe it; it was "pure, white rock 'n' roll, with no blues influence," he once said. "I wanted our sound to be as original as possible. I stopped listening to everything."

Well this explains why I never liked the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Nirvana, or Blink-182. And tuneful? Well, it may indeed have been "always tuneful", but the problem is the style of playing denied anyone's ability to, well, actually hear the tune!

Via Outside the Beltway.

Posted by Peter at September 17, 2004 06:55 PM