Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gecko85 
Agreed. Greed Day is far more influenced by the Ramones.
The Ramones were by far the most influential and far reaching of the early punk bands. They showed that anyone with a passion can pick up an instrument and start making music. It demystified the music business. Their first tour of England directly inspired the members of The Clash, The Damned, The Sex Pistols, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and many more...kids who had a copy of their debut album then saw them play when they came through.
But if The Ramones were the fathers of Punk, it was Iggy & the Stooges, New York Dolls, and The MC5 who were the grandfathers. They weren't as directly influential, at least not initially, but they very much laid the foundation. All of those bands, though, (particularly New York Dolls) still held on to the "performance" part of the game...where The Ramones came out with a whole different attitude.
I agree for the most part, although I think even the Ramones preceded Iggy and the Stooges by a few years didn't they? I remember when I first heard Beat the Brat at a party. I had this friend who played that over and over. I admit at first, being a serious connosiuer(sp) of bands I was discovering like Genesis, Yes and ELP at age 15, I pretty much dismissed the Ramones as kind of a one-trick joke. And of course, to some extent that was the point. I only later appreciated the back to basics influence they had, althought I always did like the clean guitar sound they had, as opposed to some later punk/thrash bands that ended up simply playing unlistenable sludge. And somewhat ironically maybe for some, that early Beatles simple guitar rock sound was a blueprint for much of what the Ramones did.
I just picked up a fascinating DVD called Punk on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. I haven't gotten all the way through it, but the parts I have seen are precious. First, rarely do you get to see live video of punk bands on TV. Have to hand it to Snyder, he had the foresight to put this on--The Damned, Iggy, Ramones, Patty Smith, and an absolutely hilarious and priceless interview with the Sex Pistols where Snyder is trying to understand their "anti-music" message (this was a few years after the Sex Pistols broke and Johnny Rotten had formed Public Image Ltd), and Rotten is being an absolutely uncooperative brat--the exchanges are priceless. The DVD has both the full interviews and live clips. Its kind of funny watching the somewhat unhip but trying to be hip Snyder question Paul Weller and Iggy etc on punk, which clearly mystifies Snyder. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in punk rock or music history--this is the kind of stuff we need to see more of.
BTW, I also have a few MC5 albums and talk about some raw, kick ass rock, there is no doubt they influenced a lot of punk bands.
Re The New York Dolls, I see them as kind of posers who were trying to get in on the glam scene while playing more basic rock, but they seem far more interested in wearing makeup for shock value than actually trying to be good at music. There are a few clips of them on stuff like those Whiste Test DVDs and I find their music ability quite lame compared to the Ramones.
Every good prog rocker knows that the most creative use of facial makeup and costumes, long before Kiss, was none other than Peter Gabriel. Talk about your fascinating characters and costumes circa 1972-73.
...ELP was huge for awhile.
