THE RAMONES, BLITZKRIEG BOP

The Ramones come in at #18 on the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Guitar Songs. I interviewed these bad boys in 1978, mostly out of curiosity -- at first I thought they were just plain dumb, and then once they unleashed the Ramones' energy I thoroughly enjoyed myself . They were proudly at odds with the overproduced pop songs of the day (Fleetwood Mac's Rumours? The Eagles Greatest Hits?) and defiantly carried on the tradition of American garage music typified by the primitive proto-punk of "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen, "Dirty Water" by the Standells, and "I Fought the Law" by the Bobby Fuller Four. In concert, they were young, dumb, and fun. Good summer music. Hey, ho! Let's go!