Today’s Zippy:
(#1)
A natural pairing, Zippy and the Ramones.
From Wikipedia:
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first band to define the punk-rock sound. Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was a major influence on the 1970s punk movement in both the United States and United Kingdom.
All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname “Ramone”, although none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By 2014, all four of the band’s original members, lead singer Joey Ramone (1951–2001), bass guitarist Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), lead guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949–2014), had died.
(#2)
Cover of their 40th anniversary album
Their music was elemental — just a few chords, driving beat, minimal, repetitive lyrics, often nonsensical or surrealistic (examples in #1). Lots of fun.
And then there’s the movie:
(#3)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School is a 1979 musical comedy film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Allan Arkush, and starring P. J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard. The film featured the punk rock group the Ramones.
The movie is set in 1980. Vince Lombardi High School keeps losing principals to nervous breakdowns because of the students’ love of rock ‘n’ roll and their disregard for education. (Wikipedia link)
The central character is a student who’s totally into the Ramones and brings them to the school. The movie is anarchic, energetic, and, frankly, quite sweet.
My usual tastes in popular music are for the complex, so you might be surprised to hear that I’ve always been a great fan of the Ramones.
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