- Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Stooges, New York Dolls, Slade, MC5, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Ronettes, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express
Influenced:
- Beastie Boys, Gorilla Biscuits, The Misfits, The Mob, Agnostic Front, Generation X, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Sham 69, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Ministry, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, the Lurkers, the Undertones, Teenage Head, the Zeros, the Dickies, Bad Brains, Riverdales, Green Day, Metallica, Motörhead, Iron Maiden, the Pastels, the Lemonheads, Dave Grohl, The Strokes
The Ramones, an American rock band formed in 1974, are widely regarded as the first Punk Rock band, and could even be considered something of a turning point in rock history.
Their influence on the Punk Rock movement was musical rather than political. While the Sex Pistols or The Clash's lyrics focused on sticking it to the man, The Ramones preferred to talk about common juvenile themes, like love, drugs, alienation, and cheap horror movies. In contrast to the luxuriant symphonic rock that was dominant at the time, they wrote very simple, very fast songs.
Their other schtick was to adopt pseudonyms; all the various members of the band went by "[First Name] Ramone" even though none of them were related, and (for that matter) none of them had that surname in real life. While their influence on rock music is widespread (one magazine ranked them the second-greatest band ever, behind only The Beatles), their records never sold well and they toiled on in relative obscurity for many years before finally giving up the ghost in 1996. They've released a number of solo albums afterwards, the most notable of which is Joey Ramone's Don't Worry About Me.
The Ramones formed in Queens, New York City. The earliest incarnation of the band had Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) on guitar, Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Ross Hyman) on drums, and Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) on vocals. When Dee Dee's young vocals proved unable to sustain live performances, they switched, with Dee Dee sticking to backup vocals and mostly concentrating on bass, and Joey assuming lead vocals. The band still needed a drummer, and after manager Thomas Erdelyi had trouble finding a proper drummer, he assumed the duties himself, dubbing himself Tommy Ramone.
The band debuted in 1974, playing at various clubs around NYC, most notably CBGB's, which became famous for being a showcase for the budding Punk Rock movement. They recorded their first album, Ramones, in 1976 on the low budget of $6400, and while the record wasn't a commercial smash or anything - in fact, at their first performance outside New York, in Youngstown, Ohio, about ten people showed up - it was a further catalyst for the punk scene and got glowing reviews from critics. They were further vindicated when they proved to be more popular in the UK, most notably influencing bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and playing career-defining gigs second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies.
Two further albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, followed in 1977. While the former did even worse than the debut, Rocket to Russia was their best seller to date, hitting #49, and the single "Rockaway Beach" hit #66 - the highest charting single the band would ever have. By this time, Tommy stepped down as drummer for good but remained friends with the band and would go on to produce for them. His replacement was Marc Bell, aka Marky Ramone, who recorded 1978's Road to Ruin with the band.
After the band made a guest appearance in Roger Corman's cult movie Rock 'n' Roll High School, the band got in touch with famous 1960s pop producer Phil Spector in 1980, to attempt a breakthrough album, End of the Century. The sessions were fraught with tension between the band (who were always the 'get in, get out' types) and Spector (a notoriously meticulous Control Freak). The sessions did pay off in an album that charted at #44, their highest charting album ever, but it got a mixed reputation, among fans and the band itself, for presenting a slicker, poppier Ramones. Oddly enough, their cover of "Baby I Love You" did huge business in the UK.
The band soldiered on with a few more pop crossover attempts, with relationships in the band straining further. Most notably, around the early 80s, Johnny stole Joey's girlfriend, Linda, which Joey never got over for many years, and they rarely spoke to each other since. Despite this, the band never slowed down, still playing hundreds of concerts a year. Marky, who was abusing alcohol, got fired from the band and replaced with Richard Reinhardt/Richie Ramone, who debuted on the 1984 album Too Tough to Die, a more rock-oriented album featuring Tommy Ramone behind the boards alongside old-school Ramones producer Ed Stasium.
Despite this, Animal Boy was one last grab at a pop crossover, this time produced by Jean Beauvoir of the Plasmatics, and sporting a funny, memorable music video for "Something To Believe In," a parody of the charity anthems and organizations of the day ("Ramones Aid," "Hands Across Your Face"). Animal Boy still did better business overseas than in their homeland, continuing a trend for them, so they went back to straight rock music again for 1987's Halfway to Sanity. Richie left the band after the album's release, upset that he wasn't given a share of the t-shirt sales after years with the band. The band attempted to recover by taking on Clem Burke from Blondie, dubbing him "Elvis Ramone," but he only lasted two shows behind the kit before the other Ramones decided he wasn't fast enough.
Luckily, Marky Ramone was newly sober and returned to the band for their eleventh studio album, Brain Drain (mostly notable for their song "Pet Sematary," written for the film of the same name). Unfortunately, it was just in time for longtime bassist and songwriter Dee Dee Ramone to leave, in a miserable haze of addictions, depression, and an eating disorder. Dee Dee still continued to contribute songs to the band, however - in fact, the band once bailed him out of jail after a drug bust by trading a few songs for it. After leaving, however, Dee Dee embarked on an infamous series of odd career moves, including putting out rap music under the name Dee Dee King (to say the least, it didn't go over well
), and briefly performing with shock rocker GG Allin. The Ramones officially replaced Dee Dee on bass duties with Promoted Fanboy CJ Ramone, who the band later credited as giving the band youthful energy again.
The band reunited again with producer Ed Stasium and released Mondo Bizarro, which did huge in Brazil, but the band was embittered by this point of never breaking through in America - in South America, they'd be packing stadiums and getting mobbed in the streets, but back home in North America, they were still playing smaller clubs. By 1995's ¡Adiós Amigos!, they declared they were hanging it up unless the album did huge numbers (again, it didn't), but nonetheless, they embarked on the longest farewell tour in the history of rock & roll, going over two years and spawning two live albums (Greatest Hits Live and We're Outta Here!). Their last show was in Los Angeles, in August 1996, featuring special guests like Lemmy from Motörhead, members of Rancid and Soundgarden, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and even a returning Dee Dee. After this show, the band unceremoniously went their separate ways.
After a seven-year battle with lymphoma, Joey passed away in April of 2001, in New York, just shy of his 50th birthday. In early 2002, the band (specifically the founding members and Marky) was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where Tommy mentioned in the midst of their speeches that while it meant a lot to them, it "meant everything to Joey." Two months after, Dee Dee Ramone, who'd battled drug addictions for most of his life, was finally found dead of a heroin overdose in his apartment.
In 2003, the group got their own documentary, End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones. It features interviews with everyone who'd been in the band, plus members of their families, contemporaries like Debbie Harry and Joe Strummer, and more, as it chronicles the band's history from their start in CBGBs to their Hall Of Fame induction. While Joey and Dee Dee never survived to see the film, Johnny did, and his reaction was printed on the box cover: "It’s accurate. It left me disturbed." It should be noted that Johnny, a notoriously thuggish taskmaster through much of the band's tenure, did try to repair his relationships with his former bandmates after the band ended, largely to no avail. In 2004, Johnny Ramone succumbed to prostate cancer, survived by his wife Linda. In 2014, the last original member, Tommy, succumbed to bile duct cancer.
In July of 2016, a 40th-anniversary deluxe edition of Ramones was released, featuring the album in stereo and mono mixes, outtakes, and an unreleased live album. Similar deluxe editions followed for Leave Home, Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin for their 40th anniversaries, all of which contain outtakes, alternate takes, and unreleased live recordings.
One of the more tragic facts about the band is that they're now arguably far more famous and are given more credit now than when they were performing, and after every founding member has died. Their legacy lives on through the enduring influence of their own music as well as punk rock itself, plus one of the most iconic logos in rock history. (You've seen the shirts.)
Principal Members (Founding members in bold):
- Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) - drums (1978–83, 1987–96).
- Clem Burke (Elvis Ramone) - drums (1987)
- Douglas Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone) - bass, backing and lead vocals, guitar, synthesizer (1974–89, died 2002)
- John Cummings (Johnny Ramone) - guitar (1974–96, died 2004)
- Thomas Erdelyi (Tommy Ramone) - drums (1974–78, died 2014)
- Jeffery Hyman (Joey Ramone) - lead vocals, drums (1974–96, died 2001)
- Richard Reinhardt (Richie Ramone) - drums, backing and lead vocals (1983–87)
- Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone) - bass, backing and lead vocals (1989–96)
Studio Discography
- 1976 - Ramones
- 1977 - Leave Home
- 1977 - Rocket to Russia
- 1978 - Road to Ruin
- 1980 - End of the Century
- 1981 - Pleasant Dreams
- 1983 - Subterranean Jungle
- 1984 - Too Tough to Die
- 1986 - Animal Boy
- 1987 - Halfway to Sanity
- 1989 - Brain Drain
- 1992 - Mondo Bizarro
- 1994 - Acid Eaters (covers album)
- 1995 - ¡Adiós Amigos!
Live Discography:
- 1979 - It's Alive
- 1991 - Loco Live
- 1996 - Greatest Hits Live
- 1997 - We're Outta Here! (documenting their final show)
- 2001 - You Don't Come Close
- 2003 - NYC 1978
"Hey ho! Let's trope! Hey ho! Let's trope!":
- Album Title Drop: In "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio" for End of the Century."It's the end, the end of the '70s
It's the end, the end of the century." - Alliterative Name: Richie Ramone. His real name, Richard Reinhardt, qualifies as well.
- Alliterative Title: Road To Ruin, Rocket To Russia, Adios Amigos!
- Angry Mob Song: "Blitzkrieg Bop." "HEY! HO! LET'S GO! HEY! HO! LET'S GO!"
- Animated Music Video: Their cover of the Spider-Man theme.
- Anti-Christmas Song: "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)".
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking/Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: "I'm Against It" goes back and forth with these tropes, as Joey rejects politics, communists, games and fun, Jesus freaks, circus geeks, summer and spring, sex and drugs, waterbugs, playing ping pong, the Viet Cong, Burger King, anyone and anything.
- Batter Up!: "Beat on the Brat" is basically this trope's theme song."Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat, oh yeah!"
- Big Applesauce: Played a major role in forming the New York punk scene, and many of their songs referenced different parts of New York City.
- "53rd and 3rd".
- "Oh Oh I Love Her So":
"Then we went down to Coney Island."- "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker":
"Well New York City really has it all oh yeah oh yeah."- "Rockaway Beach".
- "We're A Happy Family":
"Sittin here in Queens eating refried beans."- "I Just Want to Have Something to Do":
"Hanging out on Second Avenue Eating chicken vindaloo."- "All's Quiet on the Eastern Front":
"New York beauty take my breath away." - The Big Guy: At 6'6", Joey towered over every other member and most other musicians.
- Black Comedy: The band always had a somewhat offbeat, twisted sense of humor, but "Beat On The Brat," "We're A Happy Family", "Teenage Lobotomy," "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World" (a Nazi love song) and "Wart Hog" just wallow in this trope.
- Break Up Song: "The KKK Took My Baby Away" was a particularly bitter take on this. Also, "Glad To See You Go" (which Dee Dee wrote about his abusive ex) and the somber "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow." "Questioningly" plays with this; the lyrics take place long after the breakup.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Once, Beavis And Butthead watched the video for "I Wanna Be Sedated", and it is one of, if not the, only videos that actually got the boys to shut up and rock out for a change.
- Brooklyn Rage: Unlike other NYC Bands, they were not from Manhattan but Forest Hills, Queens. The band's lyrics and stage demeanor fully exploit the New Yorkers' reputation for grumpiness.
- Catchphrase: ONETWOTHREEFOUR!; "HEY! HO! LET'S GO!"; "Gabba Gabba Hey!"
- Christmas Songs: "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)".
- Control Freak: Johnny Ramone. Maybe not as notorious as Mike Love, but he was very much a disciplinarian, and very rigid about the band and their image. Even his widow, Linda, said he "always gets what he wants."
- Cool Shades: Joey and Tommy. Joey's, coupled with the mane of hair framing his face, became iconic in their own right, to the point of it being near impossible to find pictures of him without them. Dee Dee began wearing them regularly in the 80s, as did Marky. In fact, Johnny was the only member of the band who never wore them.
- Cover Version: Plenty. Almost every album (except Pleasant Dreams, Too Tough to Die, Animal Boy and Halfway to Sanity) features at least one. The entirety of Acid Eaters consists of this. Further, the band covered their '60s pop influences throughout their career. On their very first album, otherwise all original material, the boys included a cover of "Let's Dance" (Chris Montez), and their last album started with Tom Waits' "I Don't Want to Grow Up" from Waits' Bone Machinenote . Other notable covers included:
- "California Sun" (The Rivieras).
- "Do You Wanna Dance?" (Bobby Freeman).
- "Needles and Pins" (The Searchers).
- "Surfin' Bird" (Trashmen).
- "Substitute" (The Who).
- "Any Way You Want It" (Dave Clark Five)
- "7 and 7 Is" (Love)
- "Take It As It Comes" (The Doors).
- ... And two of their most unusual covers, the theme for the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon, and Motörhead's tribute song to the Forest Hill Four themselves, "R.A.M.O.N.E.S."
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Odd example with "I Don't Want to Grow Up". While the lyrics are unchanged, it has a rebellious tone to it in stark contrast to Waits's depressing original.
- Creepy Cemetery: The titular graveyard in "Pet Sematary" is absolutely lousy with undead and goblins. Of course, in the book it was Unholy Ground, so there's that.
- Darker and Edgier: The albums that Richie Ramone performed on (Too Tough to Die, Animal Boy and Halfway to Sanity) are much heavier musically than the band's earlier albums, and featured songs with some pretty dark lyrics.
- Dead Artists Are Better: It took Joey and, shortly after, Dee Dee dying for the band to finally get the recognition it was due in America as a seminal punk band.
- Department of Redundancy Department: A large portion of their songs consist of only a few lines or stanzas repeated over and over. Particularly noticeable in "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)":She came from a happy home
A very happy home
A home of happiness - A Dog Named "Dog": Johnny Ramone was so conservative that he didn't give his pets names "because animals don't have names in nature."
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: "You Should Never Have Opened That Door".
- Endearingly Dorky: Joey. Unlike many subsequent punk singers who were big on playing up their toughness, Joey's image was built around his socially awkward but endearing personality.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Their signature song-titling style, especially in the early years. Just a few examples:
- "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" is about not wanting to go down to the basement.
- "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" is about wanting to sniff glue.
- "I Don't Care" is about not caring about stuff (specifically, "this world" and "that girl").
- "Outsider" is about being an outsider.
- Fading into the Next Song: The feedback at the end of "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You" segues (with help from Dee Dee's signature "ONETWOTHREEFOUR!") right into "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World."
- Foreshadowing: Joey's first line in "I Believe in Miracles" is "I used to be on an endless run. Believe in miracles 'cause I'm one.". Years later, U2 would release a song called "The Miracle of Joey Ramone".
- Free-Handed Performer: Joey learned to play drums during his youth but was solely a lead singer and songwriter for the band.
- Gentle Giant: Joey stood at a rather imposing 6 foot 6, but was a laid-back, friendly, and fun-loving guy. Also, as◊ these◊ pictures show, he loved cats.
- Gratuitous Panning: Their self-titled debut album which puts guitar on one side and bass on the other.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Their final album is titled ¡Adios Amigos!
- Greatest Hits Album: All kinds of 'em! Ramones Mania, All The Stuff (And More!) volumes 1 & 2, the double-disc Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology, Ramones Mania 2, Loud Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits and many more. A three-disc box set named Weird Tales Of The Ramones was released in 2005.
- Grief Song: "The KKK Took My Baby Away".
- Guest-Star Party Member: Clem Burke, a.k.a. Elvis Ramone.
- Halloween Songs: "Pet Semetary" is often included in most Halloween playlists and mixtapes, for very obvious reasons.
- Hates Everyone Equally: The aforementioned "I'm Against It."
- Harsh Vocals: Ramones originally avoided them, but later they started showing up.
- Dee Dee sings like this on most songs where he did the lead vocals.
- Joey also sang like this in the mid-80s. A good example is "Somebody Put Something in My Drink".
- Richie Ramone sings exclusively in this style in his solo material. It could probably best be described as "Joey Ramone meets Henry Rollins".
- Heavy Meta: "Rock and Roll High School" and "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio".
- Hidden Track: Some editions of Loco Live have "Carbona Not Glue" unlisted in the tracklist. For legal reasons of course: "Carbona Not Glue" was originally deleted from the album Leave Home because of a potential lawsuit, as Carbona is a trademarked brand of cleaning solvent.
- Iconic Outfit: The biker jackets, as pictured above (In some languages, they're mostly known as "Ramones jackets") with ripped-at-the-knees jeans and sneakers, preferably either Chuck Taylors or Keds (at the time, both still American brands).
- Instrumentals: "Durango 95", their only song without any vocals. After its release in 1984, it became their traditional concert opener, prefaced with a recording of the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- Irony: They will always be associated with New York, but their last concert was in California.
- "I Want" Song: Many songs contain the phrase "I Wanna" or "I Don't Wanna". A collection of them has been gathered and parodied here◊.
- Examples in the titles include "I Wanna Be Sedated", "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement", "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You", "I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed", "Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy", "I Wanna Be Well" "I Wanna Live" and "I Don't Wanna Grow Up."
- Partial Exceptions: "I Just Want To Have Something To Do", "I Wanted Everything", "I Don't Want You", "I Want You Around", "We Want The Airwaves".
- Occasionally, as noted in the covers above, they would ask "Do YOU Wanna Dance?"
- These also appear within the lyrics, for example, in "Pet Sematary":
I don't wanna be buried
In a pet sematary
I don't want to live my life again. - Lack of Empathy: "I Don't Care" is basically this trope's theme song.
- Large and in Charge: Joey Ramone was the lead singer of the band (most sources agree Johnny was the real leader) and stood at 6'6''.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Dee Dee Ramone outright refused to ever go into detail about the song "53rd and 3rd" from the band's first album, which featured a passage in which Dee Dee sings about "taking a razor blade and doing what God forbade". It's heavily implied that Dee Dee actually did attack a man with a razor blade, so it's easy to see why he didn't really want to reveal the full story behind it.
- Limited Wardrobe: Their stage attire varied even less than their music. Total costume changes were first Tommy/Marky/Ritchie, then Johnny & DeeDee/CJ, taking off the jackets.
- List Song: "I'm Against It", mentioned above.
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Outsider."
- Military Brat:
- Dee Dee's father was a soldier. As an infant, his family relocated to West Berlin, West Germany, due to his father's military service. His father's military career also required the family to relocate frequently.
- Johnny went to military school where he acquired a disciplinary attitude.
- Miniscule Rocking: Of course. The first album packs 14 songs into barely 29 minutes.
- The Movie: Rock 'n' Roll High School.
- Named After Somebody Famous: When Clem Burke from Blondie joined the band, they dubbed him "Elvis Ramone." Unfortunately, he only lasted a pair of shows before they decided he couldn't keep up.
- Nervous Wreck: The protagonist of Mondo Bizarro song "Anxiety" prefers to be this trope.
- New Sound Album: End of the Century changed the Ramones forever, for better or for worse.
- Ode to Intoxication: "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," "Carbona Not Glue."
- Older Than He Looks: Johnny Ramone barely aged a day between the 70s◊ and the early 00s◊
- Out-of-Genre Experience: They were usually Punk Rock, but "Do You Remember Rock 'N Roll Radio" sees them experimenting with Rock & Roll. There's also "Baby, I Love You", a Folk Rock song, and "I Want You Around," which comes perilously close to an actual Pop love song.
- Pop Punk: Trope Makers
- Power Ballad: "Poison Heart".
- Precision F-Strike: "Censorshit." A strong title from a band who weren't usually profane. Unsurprisingly, it's a pretty direct Take That! at Tipper Gore.
- Professional Wrestling: "The Crusher", which originated on Dee Dee's rap album. The band re-recorded it for their last studio album, ¡Adiós Amigos!, with different lyrics.
- Protest Song:
- "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", an anti-Ronald Reagan song that Republican Johnny Ramone hated.
- "We Want the Airwaves" is about radio owned by corporations not airing rock music anymore.
- Punk Rock: One of the bands that defined its ethos.
- Radio Song: "Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio?" laments the rock stations of the 70s straying away from the genre's roots.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Deconstructed. They were a mess for most of their existence and despised each other and were profoundly miserable at times.
- Rock Trio: They originally attempted to start as this, with Johnny on guitar, Joey on drums, and Dee Dee on bass and vocals. Dee Dee, however, found it hard to sing and play at the same time. Joey started singing while initially remaining behind drums as well but realized he had the same problem. Eventually, Joey stopped drumming, and after unsuccessfully trying out a few other drummers, Tommy eventually filled in the spot.
- Sanity Slippage Song: "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment", "Psycho Therapy" and "I Wanna Be Sedated," to name a few.
- Sequel Song: "The Return of Jackie and Judy," for one.
- "Carbona Not Glue" may be considered a sequel to "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue".
- Shout-Out:
- The name Ramone was one, taken from "Paul Ramon", the pseudonym Paul McCartney used to check into hotels during The Beatles' touring days.
- "Judy Is a Punk" references "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" by Herman's Hermits, of all songs. "Second verse, same as the first!!"
- Too Tough to Die has a cover that homages the tunnel scene in A Clockwork Orange and one of the songs is named "Durango '95" after the car the Droogs steal.
- Joey's solo song "Rock 'n Roll Is the Answer" references Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" ("'Cause twelve o'clock you know I wanna rock/I wanna get a belly full of beer"), although Joey's song says it's not really alright.
- "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" matches its Phil Spector production with a whole slew of them: Upbeat, Hullabaloo and Shindig, Ed Sullivan, Murray the K, Alan Freed, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Lennon, T. Rex and "Moulty," the drummer of 60's Garage Rock band the Barbarians.
- Singer Namedrop:
- "The Return of Jackie and Judy":
"Jackie is a bookie, Judy's taking loansThey both came up to New YorkJust to see the Ramones!"- "Ramona":
"Hey Johnny, hey Dee DeeLittle Tom and Joey" - Single Stanza Song: They were quite partial to this one. Examples include "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You", "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", "Listen to My Heart", "It's a Long Way Back".
- Slipping a Mickey: "Somebody Put Something in My Drink". Based on a real incident in which someone spiked Richie’s drink with LSD.
- Something Something Leonard Bernstein: You'll get this all over their discography, but the debut is especially bad for this. Joey was never really the best at enunciating, and his New York accent didn't help. (That's nothing, you should hear Dee Dee sing!) Of course, generations of punk rockers on both sides of the pond followed suit.
- Spelling Song: Motörhead wrote one about the band, "R-A-M-O-N-E-S". The band later did a Cover Version themselves.
- Stage Names: Taken by all of the group's members. None of them are related.
- When Richard Reinhardt first joined the band, he initially started calling himself Richie Beau. He switched to Richie Ramone by the time of Too Tough to Die.
- Step Up to the Microphone: The song "Wart Hog", arguably the Trope Maker if not Ur-Example of the
"passionate and barely comprehensible screaming" variant of Hardcore Punk, is sun- er, performed by bassist Dee Dee Ramone.- Ever since Subterranean Jungle and the song "Time Bomb", the band made a point to invoke this. Dee Dee averaged a couple of songs on each album until he left the band, and then the tradition was passed onto CJ.
- While Dee Dee doesn't sing the full song, the bridge to "53rd and 3rd" from the debut can be considered his first recorded lead vocal.
- Drummer Richie Ramone sang on "Can't Say Anything Nice" as well as some demo songs.
- Stop and Go: "53rd & 3rd".
- Studio Chatter: Usually this just consists of Dee Dee counting in songs in his distinctive way. However, "Danger Zone" has a little bit more than that:Dee Dee: Which song are we doin'?Johnny: "Danger Zone"!Dee Dee: Oh, ready? note One-two-three-four!
- Subdued Section: "Blitzkrieg Bop" of course.
- Sunglasses at Night: Joey Ramone's sunglasses seemed to actually be part of his face since it was incredibly rare that he'd take them off.
- Take That!: To a lot of Album-Oriented, Progressive, baroque, guitar-solo-filled music that dominated most of The '70s.
- "Censorshit" is one to Moral Guardians (specifically calling out Tipper Gore by name), saying they're suppressing free speech and should focus on more important problems instead.
- "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg/My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" is the band's (specifically Joey and Dee Dee) answer to Ronald Reagan and his official, ceremonial visit to a West German cemetery where Nazi soldiers were buried. That Other Wiki has details on the controversy here.
- Teenage Death Songs: "7-11", "53rd & 3rd".
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Joey and Johnny were polar opposites in almost every way, and their relationship was completely broken when Linda left Joey for Johnny (an incident which was the basis for "The KKK Took My Baby Away"). Yet they spent 22 years grinding it out in the same band.
- Temporary Substitute: After Marky was kicked out of the band for his alcoholism, Richie Ramone took over as the drummer. He lasted from 1983 until 1987 when he quit the band when Johnny refused to give him a cut of the T-shirt sales. Clem Burke of Blondie then took over but was fired after playing two disastrous shows. Marky, having gotten sober, rejoined the band.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Johnny Ramone had something of a fascination for Nazism and Nazi imagery, so lyrics mentioning or discussing Nazism pop up from time to time. This is probably most famously seen in "Blitzkrieg Bop", arguably the band's Signature Song, but more explicitly in songs like "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World", which uses the lyrics "I'm a Nazi schatze, y'know I fight for the fatherland." The lyrics were originally going to repeatedly state "I'm a Nazi, baby" until Sire Records president Seymour Stein told the band to change them.
- Three Chords and the Truth: Trope Codifiers; almost every song was this trope, with them sometimes using just two chords. They were originally started because they had "gotten bored with everything else" and described '70s rock as overextended jams, with Johnny in particular outright hating guitar solos. note
- Title-Only Chorus: Quite a few songs with this trope... such as "Sheena Is s Punk Rocker", "Rock 'n' Roll High School", "Somebody Put Something in My Drink", "Mama's Boy", "I'm Affected" and so on.
- Title Track: Too Tough to Die and Animal Boy both had these.
- Today, X. Tomorrow, the World!: "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World".
- Trope Codifier: Punk Rock, at least the musical aspect. There were bands like The Stooges and MC5 laying the seeds, sure, but the blueprint for punk was basically drawn by the Ramones.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: "I Wanna Be Sedated", "The KKK Took My Baby Away", "Danny Says."
- Uncommon Time: Yes, even they did this once. Parts of "Durango 95" are in 7/8.
- "Wart Hog" features them as well.
- "Havana Affair" has a couple of guitar breaks in 6/4.
- Unrelated Brothers: Maybe the most famous example of this outside of professional wrestling.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Joey and Johnny Ramone — the two were polar opposites politically and philosophically, Johnny's fascination with Nazism led to endless anti-Semitic jokes at Joey's expense, and Joey constantly vetoed Johnny's edgier songs. Nonetheless, the two remained professionally inseparable, and when Joey died in 2001, Johnny was reportedly devastated and entered a prolonged depression.
- Vocal Evolution: Joey's vocals were originally very nasal and slurred on the band's first four albums, but became much more powerful and showed a far greater range starting with End of the Century. By the time Halfway to Sanity came around Joey proved he could even hold his own against many of the heavy metal vocalists of the time.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Joey adopted something of a British accent on earlier albums, which he dropped by the '80s.
- Wild Teen Party: In the video for "I Wanna Be Sedated."
- Word Salad Lyrics: Typically the songs make some general sense, but sometimes there are some... odd insertions (like the whole "Do you like bananas?" bit on "This Ain't Havana").
- Could be a reference to "Havana Affair" from their first album.
PT-boat on the way to Havana
I used to make a living, man
Pickin' the banana.
