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Johnny Ramone, aka John Cummings, lead guitarist of the most important punk rock band in history, The Ramones, died Wednesday at the age of 55 in his Los Angeles home.
In the company of friends and family members, Cummings died in his sleep after a five-year battle with prostate cancer that has hospitalized him many times with complications resulting from the illness.
Johnny Ramone's rise to stardom began with his affiliation with the Queens-based quartet The Ramones in 1974. Fighting musical battles since the band's emergence, The Ramones burst on the scene with a definitive sound that was different from their NYC counterparts. Since the early '70s, glamorous outfits such as the New York Dolls flirted with punk rock foundations and conventions laid down by earlier groups such as the MC5 and the Stooges, but it wasn't until the Ramones' potent surge of trigger-happy, pop-infused punk self-titled debut in 1976 that the world began to realize that something different was, indeed, going on.
With signature outfits that included ratty leather jackets, long, black hair mops, faded jeans and Chuck Taylor kicks, The Ramones earned themselves a reputation as the leaders of the NYC circuit and obtained a residency at the legendary CBGB's nightclub in the process. From there, albums would materialize and the band would find itself as an inductee into the coveted Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
The 1976 disc "Ramones," just as important as any other landmark rock album ("London Calling," "Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols" et al), took the band's interest in pop-culture obscurity, converted it into song and pressed it onto vinyl. Songs such as "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," "Judy is a Punk" and "Beat on the Brat" highlighted the band's affection toward silly-natured song compositions orchestrated at blinding speeds. These and the additional nine tracks on the album continue to be synonymous with punk itself, as do the intense tempos, melodies and hooks - which serve as reference points for any aspiring punk band, be it pop-punk or not.
Spitting out multiple records per year during the late '70s and well through the '80s, The Ramones were known to make conscious decisions about the reconstruction of their sound. Though not in any way as hyperactive as any of their live material, the shape-shifting album "Road to Ruin" placed The Ramones under the critical spotlight shortly after it was made available to the public. Succeeding commercially due in part to the chart-topping singalong "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Road to Ruin" became the recipient of critical backlash from journalists and punk rock enthusiasts alike.
During times such as this, it is fairly easy for the public to criticize the creative direction of a band, but in actuality, the commentary the band garnered was completely undeserved. Hits such as the aforementioned crossover cut, "Needles and Pins," and even "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" helped propel the band into the mainstream more than they were prior to their, (as most people often refer to as), "sellout" days.
Throughout the '80s, albums produced by the band would continue to fail commercially and even during their precarious and unstable days during the early '90s, albums such as "Mondo Bizarro" and "Acid Eaters" revealed that the band was nearing its end.
The curtain call came in 1995 when the band released the more-than-disappointing album "Adios Amigos." Due to extremely low record sales, The Ramones decided to call it quits after a lengthy tour that signified their final farewell.
Each known for possessing signature characteristics, such as lead singer Joey Ramone's indecipherable vocal inflection, Dee Dee's offstage banter and Johnny's unbelievable ability to pound out three-chord riffs with acute precision, the NYC punk rock squad has gone on to inspire more hard rock outfits than possibly any other band in recent history. When it came to shaking up rock conventions and concocting a brand of music that valued simplicity over intellectual reconnaissance, The Ramones' stripped-down arsenal of ear-splitting youth chants led the charge.
With Joey's failed fight against lymphatic cancer a few years back, Dee Dee's rock and roll lifestyle finally catching up to him (Lech Kowalski's fantastic documentary "Hey! Is Dee Dee Home?" illustrates this quite vividly) and now Johnny's passing, fans around the world are sure to be sharing in a loss - a deep and personal one at that. Johnny Ramone will most certainly be missed.
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