Ramones, by Nicholas Rombes, presents an interesting, well-documented reading of the Ramones and their New York social context. A slight 128 pages, the book reads like a punk song: brief and without needless flourish. So much has been written about NYC punk rock--and End of the Century narrates the story of the Ramones in some detail, and in a gritty, fanboy style that's lots of fun--that the question you've got to ask becomes: does this short book say anything new? Answer's yes. Rombes avoids dishing on the drugs and the fights and pursues some important issues like the inseparable nature of punk music and punk journalism and the irrelevance of the tired authentic-inauthentic binary in most analyses of punk. Quite engaging.
Rombes claims that the Ramones (both album and band) present a "unified vision," acknowledging punk's antecedents but downplaying their significance. Here's where I disagree. As Rombes himself points out, these guys were obsessed with pop culture and drew heavily on horror movies, comic books, 60s girl groups, glam rock, and Iggy and the Stooges. But they also drew on elements of French cinema and other avant garde art forms. The Ramones were the sum of these influences--and then some--to the point of pastiche. That's not to dis the importance of their music; I share Rombes' enthusiasm for those songs. But his "originality" argument doesn't quite ring true for me.
Sidenote: Rombes teaches at my alma mater, UDM. He got there midway through my undergrad years but unfortunately I never took a class with him and only knew him in passing. If Ramones is any indication, my loss.
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