Best Ramone Poll

dee dee's going to win, so i'm voting for joey

Joey by a gazillion light years.

Joey was such a lovable guy, gotta vote for him

I can see Dee Dee taking it, he was always my favourite growing up. Joey and Johnny kind of represent the opposite poles of Ramonedom - the Heartbroke Girl Group-loving Joey and the Bad Kid Punk purist Johnny - while Dee dee lands midway between the two and thus is the most perfectly Ramoneish Ramone.

No Phil?

Anyway, I'm going with the guy who was in Dust.

Dee Dee was a douchebag. I give him a little love for singing "Warthog," though.

How was Dee Dee a douchebag?

Joey all the way

How was Dee Dee a douchebag?

POLL

dd

I'd be happy if Dee Dee won, douche or not. I'm not a fan of everything he wrote, but I made a mix of my favorite Ramones songs not long ago and they were mostly Dee Dee songs.

How was Dee Dee a douchebag?

― Brio, Tuesday, September 8, 2009 12:47 PM

He's loveable in some ways, but he had to have been sort of a cancer inside the band with his uncontrolled addictions and poor choices in lovers (see End of the Century on dvd if you haven't already).

"best" is hard to say. most lovable and tuneful is definitely joey. dee dee's the idiot savant and the one most responsible for that weird ramone genius. and johnny is the most valuable player in terms of shaping the sound and also keeping the band's shit together for 20-odd years. if johnny had left at any point the whole thing would have collapsed.

so i think i'll vote johnny, cuz assholes like him never get enough love.

Most important during the early years = Tommy

Joey, always

(xpost: ok, maybe not then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Ramone#Behind_the_scenes_with_The_Ramones )

tommy was important, but he wasn't most important.

" i'll vote johnny, cuz assholes like him never get enough love."
Didn't he commission an all-titanium statue of himself to be built over his own grave?

I saw End of The Century - didn't think Dee Dee's addictions and general fuckedupedness made him more of a douche/cancer than Joey with his OCD and fragility and Johnny's heartlessness and insistence on remaining a cartoon (both of which they actually needed to survive, it seems). Dee Dee kept writing for them years after he left the band, partly for a paycheque but also out of loyalty to something he didn't even believe in anymore. The fact that they were able to keep it together at all is amazing - and part of why it's kind of hard to pick one as "the best".

The fact that they were able to keep it together at all is amazing

yeah that was my overall impression from end of the century too. like, if you were in school with those guys you wouldn't have picked any of them to do much more than pump gas, but somehow they put together this decades-long creative enterprise (and managed to make a living at it too).

No Elvis?

Oh sorry, I see "Clem" now.

Still, accuracy!

One of the rare groups in which every individual original member was absolutely crucial - and the departure of Tommy indisputably changed things.

But it will always be Joey - not the man who made the sound, or wrote the best songs, but surely the beating heart of the Ramones: the one who ensured they stayed a pop group at the same time as inventing hardcore and all that stuff. Joey's is the only celebrity death that has ever saddened me.

I still ove my "Weird tales of the Ramones" set.

I forgive that they already have a 2CD anthlogy.

It's just right!

Unsuprising prediction: Joey wins, followed very closely by Dee Dee. Johnny in a distant third, maybe a couple of Tommy votes. No love for Marky et al.

i think johnny was the ramonest ramone.

I think you might be right ... He was probably the only one who wanted to be the ramonest ramone by the end. It is a little sad he is unloved by most, but he does seem to have wanted it that way.

Kinda conflicted here - Johnny may have been the most important but the least likable, much less lovable like Joey. Still, Joey'll get plently of love even without my vote, so Johnny it is.

No love for Marky et al.

Marky's already got xhuxk's love. He was already a leather-jacket-and-all Ramone in 1971 (cf. his picture on the back cover of the first Dust album.)

oh, shit. I thought Joey was in Dust. Joey's glam band was Sniper, right?

Joey, all the way

No love for Marky et al.

Indeed. Might as well vote for CJ. Or Richie!

Tommy - he didn't even want the job at first. The original and the best.

Joey. My wife still speaks reverently about the time Joey silently stood next to her — TOWERING over her — while watching the opening band at a Providence show over 20 years ago.

Heh my wife has a similar story about standing right next to Joey watching Sky Saxon/the Seeds probably also about 20 years ago.

When I was a student, walked past our college venue - by chance- just as the Ramones arrived for a show that night. I was awestruck and stood there gawping as they walked past. I greeted each member the same and got the same response from each ...
"Joey!"
"Ay. Alright."
"Johnny!"
"Ay. Alright."
"Dee Dee!"
"Ay. Alright.:
"Marky!"
"Ay. Alright."
It was kinda perfect. They couldn't have been more Ramonic.

There should be a song called "Standing Next to Joey"

"The Boy Stared Up At Joey"

"The Wife..", surely?

Sorry, I forgot it referred to that Patti Smith line, "The wife stared at Johnny"

Mmm-hmm...

"...Johnny started to run
and with those legs, when he wants to run, he gone!"

ithappens's story is so beautiful it almost brought a tear to my eye

4 identical tears.

96 tears

There should be a song called "Standing Next to Joey"

Heh I googled "Standing Next to Joey" and got this 1997 interview with Henry Rollins:

LAST GOOD ROCK BAND YOU SAW?
"The Dictators, who reformed to play one night at (legendary New York punk club) CBGB's. I was standing next to Joey Ramone and he looked down on me and said, 'These guys are great right?'. And I was, like, 'Yeah!'.

I googled in a different direction, and discovered there was a sequel to "Rock and Roll High School"

No ramones in it. Or anyone else apart from Mary Woronov and "Eaglebauer"

Mary Woronov is always good value though

When I saw them in high school there was still some gobbing going on, kids just trying to act like the crowds they'd seen in years-old punk footage on the news, I guess, because this was already late 80's.

The band stops after a song and Joey signals Dee Dee to hold off.

Joey: "If you kids ain't quittin' the spittin' we're splittin', so get with it you fucking asssssssholes."

split second pause and then Dee Dee: "1-2-3-4!"

"I googled in a different direction, and discovered there was a sequel to "Rock and Roll High School"

No ramones in it. Or anyone else apart from Mary Woronov and "Eaglebauer""

But it has Corey Feldman in a hilarious two-toned Michael Jackson Bad-era outfit!

No love for Marky et al.

Marky's phone calls to the Best Show on WFMU are pretty solid.

Joey's probably my favorite male singer of all time, so him.

I enjoyed one of Dee Dee's books about his time in the Ramones. Another of his books, this time a novel set in the Chelsea Hotel, is terrible and I couldn't finish it.

Wonderful anecdotes up there

Marky was awesome in Dust!

but yeah i dunno wanna vote joey but i came away with this sort of fucked up admiration for johnny after end of the century.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Go Dee Dee!
or Joey!
I forget who I voted for.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

JOEY 4EVR

I thought Dee Dee would get a lot more love here.

And Marky beating Tommy? All those Best Show calls paid off!

Yeah, Tommy getting 1 vote is a total travesty

Not that I wasted my vote on Tommy either but... yeah, a travesty! Great producer.

I know, I voted Joey :(