The Jewish Community Center 75th Anniversary Committee
cordially invites you to a panel discussion
on

Punk Prophet

As the Ramones are inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we
remember the late Joey Ramone.

Jewish Community Center • D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
6600 West Maple Ropd • West Bloomfield

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MARTIN NATCHEZ

JCC Executive Director Emeritus Irwin Shaw
U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn
Jewish Federation Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Melba Winer

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David Gad-Harf Executive Director,
Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit

Debbie Levin, JCC Board Member

Free admission • Public welcome

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Co-sponsored by the JCC 75th Anniversary Committee
and the Institute for Retired Professionals

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Special to the Jewish News

rom their Jewish New York
suburb of Forest Hills to the
glass-and-steel structure of
Cleveland's famed musical
monolith, Monday's induction of the
Ramones into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame is expected to be greeted with
happiness and tears.
The Ramones kicked off the punk-
rock movement in 1974, producing
nearly two dozen albums and staging
more than 2,200 concerts, before dis-
banding in 1986. That same year, group
founder Jeffrey Hyman, a.k.a. Joey
Ramone, contracted lymphatic cancer.
He died on April 15, 2001, a month
short of his 50th birthday.
Youth wasn't necessary to appreciate
the Ramones. But a closer look a't the
influential legacy that the "Johnny
Appleseeds of Punk" left behind belongs
to lead singer Ramone, a matchstick:
thin, Jewish singer-songwriter who lived
and died a true rock 'n' roller.
First impressions of the Ramones
were puzzling, as no one had ever seen a
band cloaked in black-leather jackets
and rose-colored sunglasses playing
over-amplified guitars and cranking out
three-chord songs at breakneck speed.
To combat the wallowing mellowness
of the 1970s, the group's blistering
"Blitzkrieg Bop" emerged from their
self-titled debut album, putting radio
programmers on notice that it was time
for rock 'n' roll's aging adulthood to
revert its course.
"The Ramones were responsible for
returning rock 'n' roll to its original val-
ues," explains Jeff Tamarkin, noted
music journalist and former editor of
Goldmine magazine. "Rock had turned
into musically bloated, pseudo-artistic
drivel. [The Ramones] reminded us that
it was supposed to be fun."
By 1976, a new crop of free-style
artists were following the Ramones'
lead, including Patti Smith, Television,
the Talking Heads, Blondie and others
who had also launched careers at a
Lower East Side nightspot named
CBGB's.

F

Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Hyman,
reminded us that rock 'n' roll "was sup-,
posed to be fun."

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them,
the Ramones were also counter-revolu-
tionizing the British Invasion.
"I don't think they knew it, at first,"
Tamarkin says, "but after that first tour
of the U.K., once the Sex Pistols and
Clash came out, citing the Ramones as
inspirations, they had to know they
were on to something."
In truth, despite their Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame honor, the Ramones never
really rose above cult status. Yet, their
teenage-nitro anthems "I Wanna Be

PUNK PROPHET

on page 81