Why were the Ramones smart

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I hear it said and I don't know why because I wasn't around then, but I can guess that it is because of context and a self-aware posture of dumbness compared to lots of pretentious music around then. Would someone care to actually explain what was so smart about them at length?

― Queen Electric Cop Smacker SLAPPITY SLAP! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Friday, 17 September 2004 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

self-aware posture of dumbness

Is this accurate? Do you think the Ramones were aware of the perceived dumbness about their music?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 17 September 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

They kinda *had* to know, and not just 'cause of things like "Cretin Hop." I mean, it's not like they were the Shaggs (who really were as naive, etc., as they seemed) or something.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 17 September 2004 01:24 (twenty-one years ago)

"Things sure have changed since we got kicked outta high school."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 17 September 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Simply because their music was good.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 17 September 2004 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

dee dee wrote the definitive textbook on quantum electrodynamics under the name "richard feynman"

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Ramone

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

and joey wrote sexual personae by "camille paglia" as an elaborate prank

the give-away: a reference to "the beach boys' immortal 'california girls'"

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Joey's mum ran an art gallery; ergo: The Ramones was a "performance". Or so the logic might go.

― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Friday, 17 September 2004 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

they weren't. therein lies the supposed genius.

― drew, Friday, 17 September 2004 04:34 (twenty-one years ago)

The Ramones was a performance. The whole black leather/blue jean/bowl-cut thing, the everybody-being-a-Ramone thing, it was all totally self-conscious. I don't know if that makes them geniuses, but everything they did was deliberate and choreographed. They had an art director from early on who stuck with them the whole time, they were very clear about their image.

What I think is most interesting is the Joey-Dee Dee-Johnny dynamic, the whole sum-is-greater-than-the-parts of it all. Johnny was a punk rockist, Joey was a goony girly pop guy and Dee Dee was the wild card gonzo guy who somehow ended up as the secret genius of the band. It still boggles my mind that you throw all those guys plus Tommy together and you get "Blitzkrieg Bop" or "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment." You have to go pretty far into complexity theory before you come up with any kind of explanation for that. So anyway, why were they smart? I don't know why. I don't know how they did what they did. But they sure as hell did it.

― spittle (spittle), Friday, 17 September 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Why were the Ramones smart?

A constant intake of B-Movies and half-forgotten garage rock.

Better for you than Kabbala, or whatever it is in LA this week.