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THE PUNK ROCK SHOT HEARD AROUND
THE WORLD
The Historical Impact of Ramones and Crass
By Tim Barker
Everyones seen the A with the circle around it, and has probably heard the chant Hey ho, lets go, or the catchy Bam, bam, bambam on the previews of Tom Arnolds
Movie Car Pool, these are things that are common place in todays society. The A with the circle was originally designed by the infamous punk band from the late 70s by the
name of Crass. Crass also had many other accomplishments and influences in things you see everyday, but dont even realize it. How about the Hey ho, lets go that is
played now at sporting events, that is from the Ramones song Blitzkrieg Bop, and that catchy little ditty from Car Pool is also an old Ramones tune called I Wanna Be
Sedated. Like Crass, Ramones have a very important part in the history of punk rock, and society as a whole. These bands were the punk rock shot heard around the world so
to speak, neither were the very first band, but both were by far the most important. They both started with humble beginnings, had a time in the limelight, and many
successful accomplishments before they bowed out with dignity.
Opposed to what many may say punk had its humble beginnings in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was a time when bands like Iggy and the
Stooges, Television, Blondie, New York Dolls, MC5, and many other bands were starting a new style of music. Maybe the best known, and most successful of these bands would be the Ramones from New York City. It all started on August 16th of 1974 when four kids from the streets wearing leather jackets and torn jeans stepped onto the stage
at CBGBs. They played short fast songs averaging two minutes in length, with only a fast 1,2,3 yelled by the guitarist to separate one song from the other. As Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone said, A junkyard assemblage of Beach Boys bubble gum, Stooges-style guitar mayhem and mumbling, and Andy Warhol-influenced repetition. The Ramones presented themselves as a return to what had once made rock and roll great, rather than the dead horse that it had become. Ramones led punk rock in a crusade to revive the simplicity, chaos, danger, irony, and fun that rock and roll had seem to lose. The Ramones fast barrage of songs consisting of only three chords played in different
combinations led the punk rock movement from the run down clubs like CBGBs to its popularity of today.
On the otherside of the ocean, when Malcolm Mclearen, the manager and founder of the Sex Pistols brought back with him what he saw going on in New York. The first Punk band in the UK was actually the Damned, then was quickly followed by Sex Pistols, Clash, and an assortment of other bands. While all of this was going on there was something else lurking in the underground: Crass. Crass actually predates punk itself, Crass started when two hippies G. Sus and Penny Rimbaud found a house about 15 minutes from London, where they set up a communal type house that was free to anyone to come stay a night, and share a story. They truly lived the hippie lifestyle.
They werent really a band until 1976 when punk rock first came to England with the message of do it yourself, which they have been doing for many years. When Johnny Rotten said Anarchy in the UK, and all of the other promises that were made by some of the other bands, they believed it, and they finally felt that they were no longer alone.
Crass then started in the summer of 1977, it was open to all who wanted to play. They never sat down and said lets start a band, it just kind of happened. They managed to
beg, borrow, and steal enough equipment to call themselves a band. They managed to rehearse five songs and went out on the road. They played gigs, benefits, and chaotic
demonstrations of inadequacy and independence.
While Crass was just getting started in the UK, the Ramones released their first album which was self-titled, and then in the following year 1977 they released their next
two albums entitled, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia. Of their first album the New York Times said,
The debut from this Queens quartet is punks declaration of independence, shaping democratic experiments from the Sex Pistols to Riot Grrrl. With no more than three brutally delivered chords per song and lyrics like demented nursery rhymes, the Ramones banished rocks complacency by reasserting is id. Slice the songs open, and out tumbles the history of rocks teenage heart: the girl groups and Bo Diddley, comic books and horror flicks, awkward sex and romantic longing, and in every phrase, the defining moment of saying exactly what you want. Skeptics said that the Ramones would never last, which is a fair statement considering that it has been rare for a punk band to release more than a couple of good albums. Despite what the opposition said the Ramones have went on to release 24 albums before finally saying a final fare well in 1997, they are still the longest lived punk bands in history. The Ramones somehow were able to maintain a minimalistic approach, and the do it yourself style despite being on a major record label.
Crass on the other hand have avoided the major labels at all cost, the money making corporations were the enemy. Crass released their first album in 1978 called,
The Feeding of the 5000 on an independent label by the name of Small Wonder Records. The first track was silent and named The Sound of Free Speech, this was in place of the original song Reality Asylum, which the record company viewed as too blasphemous to release. Later they found a pressing plant that was willing to release it along with another song theyd written called Shaved Women. The Reality Asylum single ran into immediate troubles, the police raided record shops and the Scotland Yards Vice Squad paid the band a visit. They were warned not to try releasing such material again. From then on they had numerous run-ins with the law. Crass only did one radio show, and several chat shows on the BBC, and because of their dissident views on the Falkland war they were temporarily blacklisted by the BBC. They single-handedly created anarco-punk, which is punks that believe that there can be peace through anarchy. They made the A with the circle around it famous, they also were the first to use video as part of their concerts, as well as the first band to hang a banner with their logo on it as a backdrop of the stage. Perhaps what brought them the most fame though would be a non musical endeavor, the Thatchergate Tapes. They made a phony tape of a phone call between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcherwhere she admitted responsibility for the sinking of the Belgrano, an issue which at that time she had not been confronted with. and implying knowledge of the Invincibles decision to guinea-pig the Sheffield, a fact that still had not come to light. The tapes also had Reagan threatening to nuke Europe in defense of American heritage, a hypothesis
which is probably not as wild as it seems. It was almost a year after the tapes were made before they surfaced in the State Department in Washington DC, who pointed an accusory finger at the Kremlin, and shortly after several American and British papers ran stories of proof of KGB foul play. Somehow a reporter for the Observer contacted Crass in relation to a certain tape, no one knows quite how the reporter found out about the hoax though. Media from around the world pounced on the story, thrilled that a bunch of punks made idiots of The State Department. This is what brought Crass into the mainstream limelight, eventhough most people had never even heard their music. It was once said by The Spin Alternative Record Guide, that Crass were probably the first rock band whose liner notes are not only indispensable, but often better reading than the records are listening.
Another thing these bands share in common is the fact that they have started movements, that have changed music as well as society, albeit in different ways. Much
of the punk that is on the radio today, like Green Day, Offspring, Blink 182, Fenix TX, among others is a style that is labeled pop-punk, because of its poppy singalongable lyrics and catchy tune. The pop-punk style started with the Ramones, who were a band that if you heard once you may dismiss them as a talentless band that really cant play their instruments, but upon second or third listening you wouldnt be able to get the songs out of your head. For instance songs like Were a Happy Family with lyricsthat go: Were a happy family/ were a happy family/ were a happy family/ meet mom and daddy/ sitting here in queens eating refried beans/ were in all the magazines/ gulping down Thorazines/ we aint got no friends/ troubles never end/ Christmas cards never sent/ daddy likes men...
The songs are repetitive and catchy with sometimes nonsensical lyrics. Their songs talk about sniffing glue, drug hustling on 63rd and 3rd, and other stuff that teenagers deal with. Unlike most of the other pop-punk bands the Ramones lived the lifestyle, they all grew up doing drugs, hanging out on the streets, and Dee Dee the bass player was even a male prostitute who sold his body for drugs. Dee Dee is also the main songwriter
for the band, and he wrote about things that he knew about, like sniffing glue, Rockaway Beach, and many of the other themes that are in the songs. Another thing that Ramones started was everyone in the band having the same name, when you joined the Ramones, your last name became Ramone, this has been imitated by later bands such as the Nobodys and the Queers. Pretty much everywhere you look you can see Ramones influences, everyone from Pearl Jam and Nirvana, to Rancid and NOFX, even rappers have caught on to the Hey Ho chant.
Crass movement was more of an underground movement, again they single-handedly created anarco-punk, as well as being the first people in Britain to use graffiti as a way of protest, by spray painting their slogans all over the place. They would spray-paint things such as Fight War Not Wars, Peace through Anarchy, and Do they owe us a living? among others. Crass gave birth to such bands as the Exploited, Subhumans, Dead Kennedys, Against All Authority, Propaghandi, Chumbawamba, and many other bands that spread the message of peace through anarchy. Crass was also a record label that gave many bands a start, so in addition to their 20 albums of their own that they released they also released material for bands like MDC, Rudimentary Peni, Poison Girls, Zounds, Dirt, Annie Anxiety, Conflict, as well as many other bands that have become big in the world of underground punk. In addition to all of their other movements they also started a anti-sexism movement, that can still be seen today. Even
after their break up in 1984, Crass is still working on all of the things that they have started. Their home, the Dial House, which is finally theirs after many legal battles, is a center for dynamic cultural change, they are in the process of setting up different organizations to make their goal of peaceful anarchist living a reality.
Though neither of these bands are still playing the impact of what they created will go on forever. These two totally different bands have shaped much of what we see
everyday, from the music that we listen to, to the anarchy sign that is on that patch sold at Sam Goody in the mall. Punk bands effect far more than just their genre of music,
they have the courage to be different to challenge what we have always taken for granted.
Work Cited
(Crass), Crass, Southern Records, southernrecords.com,
http://southernrecords.com/southern/label/CRC , 11/12/2001
(Diehl Matt), Rolling Stone 2000 Making of the Ramones, Official Ramones,
official ramones.com,
http://officialramones.com/site/depot/making.html, 11/12/2001
Fricke David, The Ramones...Fast and Loud, New York, Rhino, 1999
(New York Times) Critics Choices; Albums as Mileposts in a Music Century,
Official Ramones.com,
http://officialramones.com/site/newyorktimes.html, 11/7/01
Ramones Happy Family from All the Stuff and More Vol 2 , New York, Sire
Records, 1991
(Unterberger Richie), Crass, Furious.com,
http://furious.com/perfect/crass/html, 11/12/01
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