The recently released film "End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones" succeeds in portraying an honest account of the band without getting too carried away with lessons learned or rock 'n' roll revolution. The Ramones weren't that complicated. If anything, the Ramones made it cool to be geeks. They weren't pretty; they weren't exceptionally talented; they never made loads of money. Whether or not the Ramones were the "original punk band" means little-just look at what people call "punk" today. "End of the Century" follows the band from inception to death, with insightful and sometimes ridiculous interviews, early performance footage, leather jackets, ripped jeans and plenty of shaggy hair.
Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy, four boys from Queens, formed the Ramones in the early 1970s, the time of Olivia Newton John, the Doobie Brothers, the Osmonds and ... Wings. The Ramones weren't exactly going along with the disco groove, and their U.S. record sales proved as much.
Recently there has been a flood of adoration for the band, a Ramones revival unfortunately coinciding with the deaths of some key players. In the past four years, three of the original members have passed away. Joey died from cancer in 2001, Dee Dee overdosed a year later and Johnny lost his battle with prostate cancer Wednesday.
Joey Ramone called what drew the four together "a strong chemical imbalance." They weren't exactly the best of friends nor did they have any sort of smooth success, but their admirers came from all over, from Joe Strummer to Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore to record producer Rick Rubin. The Ramones were cool, like weird caricatures of 1950s greasers who were rejected for being a little too rough around the edges.
The Ramones are often lumped in with British bands of the same era or vein (Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Stranglers, the Clash), while in fact they were the inspiration behind most of these guys. Regardless of where punk stands today, it was born as outsiders' music, never meant to make it on the Billboard charts or be played in stadiums. Even more than a musical style, it was an attitude: Take what's traditionally deemed ugly, unacceptable and uncool, and make it beautiful.
"End of the Century" should be on the to-see list of Ramones fans. Most of the stories will probably be familiar, but the film's intimacy may recall those lost memories of when you first heard Joey's graveled insecurities atop Johnny's chugging guitar and Tommy's military pounding.
Those who aren't Ramones fans really should be. They were self-proclaimed freaks who got over love grudges (Johnny stole Joey's girl) and political differences (Johnny was really conservative, the others really weren't) to play rock music. If that makes them trailblazers, then at least now they're receiving the attention and praise they deserved from the get-go.
