Ramones v. Sex Pistols

Then again, I'm currently listening to 'Hey Matthew' by Karel Fialka and really enjoying it, so my judgement might be suspect.

philosophy - ramones

Which is why I'm voting for the Pistols. And the singing is better.

1) they look cooler
2) johnny ramone is a great guitarist
3) the sex pistols have all that horrible art scene baggage and mcclaren
4) i dislike rotten
5) the ramones had better tunes

The Sex Pistols covered Eddie bloody Cochran.

THE RAMONES WIN!!!

Funny thing is, I actually do.

Obviously, the Ramones are better (PJ Soles notwithstanding).

The Pistols sounded like they wanted to destroy rock'n'roll and thus win easily.

Wouldn't this describe all of the sex pistols except for johnny rotten?

also is it impossible for anyone to write about mclaren without using the word 'svengali'?

I wd prefer it if everyone used words like "l4m3r", "Mother phucking lamer", "nob" etc to describe the VILE & ODIOUS mclaren

did you know that the actual (=fictional) popstar that svengali created/manipulated was a girl called trilby, whose trademark was the kind of hat we now know as the etc etc?

there was a doc on ron jeremy on c4 on monday: i was going to post abt it => he seemed sad, really (not sad as in lame, sad as in lonely: all the pr0n starlets wuv him like their funny fat elder brother, true, but no one finds him glamorous... obv they also all have hardcore sex w. him but this is somewhat devalued emotional currency in the context)

Joey Ramone rules because he was a bar mitzvah boy from Forest Hills.

They both rule because their initials are "JR" and so are mine.

You know who else rules? Jonathan Richman.

ALL WHAT WE EAR TODAY CAME FROM THEM......

That would be depressing if it were true. It's a good thing it's bullshit!

''The Ramones were rock'n'roll classicists trying to revive the genre eg named after McCartney, working with Phil Spectre, Do Your Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio etc.''

Agree.

''The Pistols sounded like they wanted to destroy rock'n'roll and thus win easily.''

sure but they ended up reviving rock. After all you can't destroy it by using rock riffage.

What are you even talking about? The New York punks (with exceptions, I know) were a crazy lot of artists.

"We were going for the preppy look, we just wanted to turn the rock iconography on its head." - David Byrne, not particularly sounding like someone trying to fit into the canon.

Conversely, I knew of Ramones from the Voice, Rock Scene, etc., and I loved the first two albums, "Leave Home" particularly. I saw Ramones on their initial Southern foray in November 1976 - idiots in the Atlanta audience were throwing ashtrays and beer bottles at them... Dee Dee absorbed several direct hits. I danced throughout the entire show in a thick, scratchy grey wool suit and took a few black plastic ashtrays to the back of my head as well.

Don Fleming and I saw the Pistols' debut American gig together at the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta (a foul strip mall dive). They were completely fucking un-together musically, but the sheer energy they emitted swept the audience into an astonishing frenzy. The clips from "DOA" and "Filth" do not lie - most folks had no clue about Sex Pistols, and dressed as though attending a midnight showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Of course, I'm quite certain that had Don and I peppered the lads with questions about The Slits or Subway Sect they would have told us to fuck off straight away... What a fucking circus.

As to their music, I can't bear to listen to any Ramomes after "Leave Home." That's just my opinion, mind you. Those first two albums are magnificent, almost perfect.

The Pistols album still blows my mind. Bill Price and Chris Thomas produced the living shit out of that album - it's completely amazing, utterly absorbing throughout. I adamantly disagree with those who say that it was "over-produced" - it's a relevatory work. Rotten's vocals are untouchable, peerless. "New York," "Bodies," "Holidays"... Holy Shit! Even better, "Satellite," the b-side of the "HITS" single. Words fail... Only Stooges begin to approach the unhinged ferocity they displayed on the song.

Verdict? A draw, of course! How can one compare? Both deserving of endless praise.

TS