Gabba Gabba Huh??
Atrios is right, when you’re using something like this to convince people there’s a “thriving Republican punk music scene”, then you’re an idiot :
And, as a Republican, I’m proud to have John Cummings in our Party. You may know John as Johnny Ramone, of one of the best bands of all time, the Ramones. The Ramones are largely regarded as being the first punk rock band and they happen to be Republicans. In fact, Johnny Ramone was quoted in 2004 as saying, “I send money to the [Republican National Committee] and to Bush/Cheney. I will argue politics with people all day long. I am one of the few Republicans out here.”
Odd that conservatives would boast of having a dead Ramone in their ranks when one of the band’s most political songs, Bonzo Goes To Bitburg, was to protest St. Ronnie putting a wreath on a Nazi grave :
Remind me, how many times did the Republican candidates compare themselves to Reagan in last week’s debate?
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Most of the “Republican” punks I’ve read interviews with have a really muddled rationale for why they’re politically on the right (“it’s supposed to be about hating hippies!”). But there are more than a few conservative punkers out there, including Billy Zoom from X and Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys. And of course, there’s always Skrewdriver!
Comment by dAnimal — May 7, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
Actually, the title of that song, “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg,” was changed to “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down” in American releases.
This is because of the conservative Johnny Ramone, who insisted that the title should be changed.
Comment by Charles Brubaker — May 7, 2007 @ 4:31 pm
Anyone who talks about punk like it only existed in the late 70s and early 80s doesn’t know shit about punk in the first place. I.E. anyone who thinks anything any Ramone does or says is relevant to 99.9% of the punk scene is fooling themselves. It’s akin to saying that just because a member of the Sugar Hill Gang did something, everyone involved with hip-hop, ever, agrees.
Comment by David Grenier — May 7, 2007 @ 5:44 pm
A minor, minor thing, but that’s a picture of Reagan at Bergen-Belsen, not Bitburg. The text visible at left is in Russian, and you can make out at the bottom that it says “Bel’zen,” which is the Russian spelling. I can also make out the word “fashistskoi” (fascist) in the text, but not much else.
As I said, it’s a minor quibble. Not sure if there were many pictures taken at the actual Bitburg visit!
Comment by James H-H — May 7, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
Perhaps one could point to the neo-nazi skinheads as conservatives. Is that really the crowd they want to associate with their party? I say, have at it.
Comment by RobW — May 7, 2007 @ 6:53 pm
Calling the graves at Bitburg a “Nazi grave” is the kind of knee-jerk oversimplification I would like to think is the exclusive territory of the right wing. As educated leftists, we can do better.
Comment by Adam West — May 7, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
First, for someone to say the Ramones were a “Republican” band is nonsense.
Johhny Ramone was a troubled soul. Particularly by 2004.
A great artist, he more than other band members felt the band was overworked and overlooked. He also was a contrarian and may have retained the punk art of BStin to the end.
Comment by whizkid — May 7, 2007 @ 7:36 pm
I really love it (in the referenced article) that the problem is failure to adopt Web 2.0 technologies. No problem with totally destroying the Republican brand (fiscal responsibility, competent foreign policy), no problem with jumping into bed with sex-phobic fundamentalists, no problem with corruption, no problems with lying us into a war — no, the problem is a failure to track the latest trendy techno-crap.
It’s good to know that the Republican party is in such sound hands.
Comment by dr2chase — May 7, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Sure, Johnny Ramone (guitar) was a conservative. But then Joey Ramone (vocals) was a liberal. Dee Dee (bass) was some kinda anarchist maybe. Tommy (the drummer) seemed pretty apolitical as far as I can tell. Knowing this, it is kinda ridiculous to say that the Ramones were a Republican band. Actually they were a group of very politically varied people who could barely even get along most of the time. (Not to mention, most of them are dead now.)
For more songs that break the Ramones=Republicans image, see “The KKK Took my Baby Away”, written by Joey, apparently in protest of Johnny stealing his girlfreind.
Comment by atheist — May 8, 2007 @ 5:54 am
If you read the article, you are led to believe that ALL of the Ramones were Republicans. Even Dee Dee?
The Republican’s problem is not that they aren’t reaching out to “Gen Next” via YouTube but that they are following a scorched earth, venal program of vilifying every opponent.
I also love the unintentional irony of “pick up a musket” in the last paragraph. C’mon! Muskets are soooooo gun 0.5!
Comment by Chris — May 8, 2007 @ 6:17 am
Johnny Ramone always claimed to be “right wing” or something, but I am not able to find a coherent statement on an actual policy by him. Feel free to direct me to one if I’m wrong.
Joey Ramone was extremely liberal, attended various demonstrations, and made statements to the press.
I have no idea what the original Tommy and the original Dee-Dee thought. For the record, I can’t see Dee-Dee Ramone as a Republican, but who knows? Somebody could ask Tommy, he’s still alive.
And of course there were later members.
I’m amazed by this whole thing. Who cares what the Ramones thought about politics, unless they said something that was worth thinking about (Joey probably did do that on occasion, to be fair)? And why would the Republicans, the Republicans, want to claim to be supported by punk rock musicians? Is that really going to play well with the Pat Robertson contingent?
Comment by harold — May 8, 2007 @ 7:16 am
To add on to whizkid’s post, I don’t think it’s accurate to call the Ramones “conservative” either – Johnny may have been right wing, but the others were just the opposite. In fact, I believe they even threatened to beat his a$$ if he spoke up too loudly or often.
Comment by Bugsy — May 8, 2007 @ 7:16 am
Not sure if this is true but I aways heard that Johnny refused to play on “Bonzo” because of it’s anti-Reagan content.
Comment by Chuckr — May 8, 2007 @ 9:38 am
Conservatism in punk rock isn’t something for which fellow conservatives should necessarily boast. After all, there’s a fair amount of extreme racism among conservative punks, and this is not part of the fringe. Just to bring home my point.. I can’t think of other groups with members who go to great lengths to inform others that they are, in fact, not racist, unless racism is a big problem within the group already. Then again, I suppose this isn’t a new problem for conservatives anyhow.
Not sayin’ that Ramone was a racist, not sayin’ that all conservative punks are racists, just sayin’..
Comment by Chris Yohn — May 8, 2007 @ 10:31 am
I’m not sure if Johnny Ramone was racist. In that Ramones documentary from a few years ago, he makes some goofy comment about the Ramones not having any “blues” influence or elements (to see how accurate that is try playing the chords of a Ramones tune very slowly). I sort of wondered if it was a coded racist crack, but it might have just been a reference to some of the many rock groups that made a big deal of their blues influence. As everybody knows, DeeDee did some rap work as DeeDee King.
Comment by harold — May 8, 2007 @ 11:54 am
The Ramones – like much of the supposed Punk scene of mid-70′s New York – were just a slightly gussied-up Rock band anyway. At best, they’re proto-Punk, having a musical and aesthetic connection to Punk that’s about as firm as Chuck Berry’s to Heavy Metal. Part of me can’t help thinking that if they hadn’t had a hit single with “Punk Rocker” in the title, they wouldn’t be so clearly identified with a movement that very quickly moved quite far away from the aesthetics that defined them.
Comment by JET — May 10, 2007 @ 12:23 am
JET knows nothing about music and nothing about punk rock.
The New York bands that came immediately before the Ramones, e.g. the New York Dolls, Television, Tuff Darts, Mink Deville, even Patti Smith, could be called proto-punk due to the blues chords and lengthy guitar solos that held back their energy a little bit.
But if you compare the Ramones to those other bands, the difference is profound–suddenly we have no-nonsense minute-and-a-half songs, with themes about beating up brats with baseball bats and gay hustlers turning tricks for heroin. Every bit of the punk aesthetic (except the spiky hair and the independent record labels) was pioneered by these guys–three chord songs done really fast with no solos, distorted guitars that sounded like a wasp nest being churned in a meat grinder, black leather jackets and chains over t-shirts, glue sniffing, heroin, hating each other, you name it.
And the English punk scene that followed them built a whole new music around this exact style. The first Clash, Buzzcocks, Adverts, Generation X, Rezillos, and Jam singles all sounded EXACTLY like Ramones songs–perhaps with just a bit more drum flash or amphetamine pep, but definitely following a template started in New York. Sit down with an instrument and actually LEARN these songs, and you won’t be able to deny the song structure similarities. If the Ramones were to punk what Chuck Berry was to metal, then Black Sabbath’s first stuff would sound EXACTLY like Chuck Berry… but it doesn’t, so your analogy is weak. It’s more like the Ramones are to punk what Black Sabbath is to metal (which I guess makes the Sex Pistols the Led Zeppelin of punk, or maybe the Alice Cooper…).
Anyway, don’t go around saying the Ramones aren’t punk, or I’ll kick your ass.
Comment by dAnimal — May 10, 2007 @ 10:26 am
I agree that Republicans are all head-bangers. It makes me want to bang my head against the wall every times I try to talk to one
Comment by Rhonda — May 24, 2007 @ 4:02 pm
Wow! u guys are getting pretty deep but I’m a black guy (born in the early 80′s.) I’m into the whole rock look. I think the Ramones shirt is cool however if they are some nazi skinhead group or even something close. I will find another shirt to weaR. i DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT THEY’RE POLITICAL VIEWS. As long as they weren’t “nigger haters.”
Comment by Anthony Wayne Dr. — March 19, 2010 @ 10:30 pm