"Tommy would use the name Loudmouth Productions for the business side of things, so we'd sound professional. Sort of."

-Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando

"At that point, we were still dressed in partial glitter because the Dolls were still the big thing in New York. I had these silver pants made of Mylar and these black spandex pants I'd wear too. I was the only one with a real perfecto jacket- what the Ramones would later be identified with- which I had been wearing for 7years already. We were starting to throw in sneakers, Keds. I also had this vest with leopard trim that I had custom made for me. It was like the thing Iggy was wearing on the Stooges' Raw Power Sleeve."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

Judy is a Punk

photo by Paul Zone.

I Don't Want Go Down To The Basement.

1. Loudmouth
2. Beat On The Brat
3. I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed
4. Listen To My Heart
5. 53rd & 3rd
6. Judy Is A Punk
7. California Sun
8. I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
9. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World

"The Talking Heads were doing something totally different from us, so it didn't concern me. It wasn't really rock n roll, it was something else."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

"Rolling Stone covered the festival with a one-page article. Most of it was about the Ramones,then the Talking Heads, with the other bands just casually mentioned. I thought that we were going to become huge and be the biggest band in the world."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

1. I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement
2. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
3. Blitzkrieg Bop
4. Swallow My Pride
5. Glad To See You Go
6. Chain Saw
7. Listen To My Heart
8. Babysitter
9. 53rd & 3rd
10. Havana Affair
11. Let's Dance
12. Judy Is A Punk
13. I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
14. Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World

From the film Blank Generation.

"We sent five of the songs we had recorded to record companies, and they quickly sent them back. We never even considered that the music was seriously whacked or anything. We were wondering what was wrong with them."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando

"We played 3 nights in October at Mother's with Blondie. I had an argument with Debbie Harry over the split of the door money. She thought we were doing a 50/50 split, and I said, " No one is here to see you guys. Everyone is here to see us." We split the door 70-30 and she was mad."

Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

photos by Bob Gruen

Joey at CBGB's with Debbie Harry 

Photo by Chris Stein

Photo by Bob Gruen

photo by Roberta Bayley

The Ramones at Arturo Vega's loft. 

All photos by Chris Stein

Photo by Danny FIelds

"Doing an album in a week and bringing it in for $6,400 was unheard of, especially since it was an album that really changed the world. It kicked off punk rock and started the whole thing—as well as us."

—Joey Ramone

All Photos by Danny Fields

"In the studio, they stuck me in a little room to play by myself with headphones. I thought it was strange, but what did I know? [...] Tommy knew more about what we should do in the studio."

-Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

" I saw our first album for the first time at Alexander's, probably the day it was released, April 23, 1976. There it was. It was cool, sort of like the first time I heard myself on the radio".

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

Today Your Love,Tomorrow The World

- 53rd & 3rd

“With their first album ready to release in early 1976 the Ramones were booked into M.P.C.S’s TV studio to shoot what Rock Scene Magazine would refer to as a ‘special 20 minute full colour surprise TV show’. I was there taking pictures. Arturo Vega’s backdrop with the band’s name seems to sag a bit, but that would add to the punkiness of the production, it was hoped!”

-Danny Fields

A conversation with Tommy Ramone at Max's Kansas City, in New York City (1976)

Christmas party at Max’s Kansas City, 1975, in the bottom right are Richard Hell, Tommy Ramone, Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone and Wayne County.

Village Voice 

04-19-76

53rd & 3rd - Seymour Stein's birthday. ( Sire Records Founder )

I Want To Be Your Boyfriend - Seymour Stein's birthday. 

David Johansen, Dee Dee Ramone and Alan Vega in the Foreground at Max's Kansas City, 1974

Courtesy of the artist and Steven Kasher Gallery

Havana Affair - Listen To My Heart.

" The Ramones"- $2.50

"Your favorite local beer, molested by a straight shot of whiskey"

Each concoction has been designed especially for Max's by David Smith.

 Robert Gordon, Tommy Dean, Bruce Springsteen & Dee Dee Ramone 1977

Photo by Bob Gruen

"We decided we should go to England. So Danny managed to get us shows there, and we played at the Roundhouse, then Dingwalls, both shows with the Flamin' Groovies. We did well there. We played in front of two thousand people. It was great to go there, it was a place where so much music history had been created."

-Johnny Ramone , from his book Commando.

All photos by Danny Fields

All photos by Danny Fields.

“Still not sure how it happened, but within weeks of the release of the first Ramones album, in April 1976, and after getting to play as far from New York as Nashua, New Hampshire – 250 miles away – Seymour Stein, who’d signed the band to Sire records, told me they had been booked to play the Roundhouse in London; capacity 3,300 people; distance from CBGB’s about 3,400 miles.”
-Danny Fields ( All photos by Danny Fields)

From the documentary "The End of The Century"

By the time of their U.K. tour in 1976, word of their sound and style had spread before them. Johnny disliked England, especially the audiences who spat on bands as a sign of punk affection. But he found time to give some famous advice to the Clash, who were nervous they were under-rehearsed: "We're lousy, we can't play," Johnny reportedly told Joe Strummer. "If you wait until you can play, you'll be too old to get up there." The Ramones set the standard for a new, democratic aesthetic. "We wanted to save rock and roll," Johnny wrote in Commando. "We weren't against anybody....I thought the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Clash were all going to become the major groups, like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and it would be a better world."

Rolling Stone Magazine

"Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976. The Ramones perform at The Club in Cambridge. The Boston area was the first major metro in which they performed outside of their native New York."

- Danny Fields

 Chain Saw

Rare Promotional Postcard. 

1. Loudmouth (0:00)
2. Beat on the brat (2:04)
3. Blitzkrieg bop (4:35)
4. Glad to see you go (6:53)
5. 53rd and 3rd (8:55)
6. I wanna be your boyfriend (11:20)
7. Havana Affair (13:43)
8. California sun (15:37)
9. Judy is a punk (17:33)
10. I don't wanna walk around with you (18:56)
11. Today your love tomorrow the world (20:28)
12. Let's Dance (23:20)

The Roxy, L.A. – 12 August 1976. The show was recorded for a radio broadcast and probably derives from a copy taped off the air. The whole concert has been officially released on the 2001 expanded CD version of Leave Home

"We did some shows in L.A with the Flamin' Groovies, a co-bill thing on August 11 and 12. We played two nights, the 16th and the 17th, at the Starwood on our own."

-Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando

"We liked L.A right away, and they liked us. We met Rodney Bingenheimer, who was a really sweet guy. We did his show on KROQ and L.A became a very friendly place for us." 

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando

"I like those parks. I've been to Disneyland three times and to Disney World twenty times. At DIsney World, I like to ride Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain."

-Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando

"The Ramones were staying at the Sunset Marquis, just down the street from the intersection of Sunset Blvd and Alta Loma. The band was wonderful to photograph and they really knew how to work the camera. They would all line up and strike their pose like they had already done it a thousand times before. It was so cute to watch. I am sure they were taught how to do the dog for the camera by their brilliant manager, Danny Fields, also a talented photographer. Both the Sunset Marquis and The Whiskey are still around. You can go for a visit and stand in the exact spot where Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy once stood."

- Brad Elterman ( text and photo)

San Francisco.

Photo Jenny Lens

All photos by Jenny Lens 08-76 California

12-1977 " "T" is for Ramone"

All photos by Danny Fields. Houston 1976

Dee Dee Ramone interviewed in the documentary film "Punking Out" (1977), courtesy Ric Shore.

I Remember You,
Carbona Not Glue

All photos by Roberta Bayley

LIVE NYC 1979

"In April we left for a seven week tour of Europe with the Talking Heads. That was two stress factors: the Talking Heads and Europe.[...] We were on a tour bus, and I hated the bus. We really didn't talk to them much. The Talking Heads were college educated folks, and we were street kids."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando

"It was on the bus the Ramones shared with the Talking Heads, riding along the valley of the Rhone River. Neither Ramone is interested in scenery; they never were.”

Photo by Danny Fields

Arriving at LAX by Jenny Lens

At the Whisky by Jenny Lens

All photos by Jenny Lens.

By the pool at the Sunset Marquis

Photos by Danny Fields

Tommy and Linda outside of Licorice Pizza signing. 1977

by Danny Fields

"When Linda got in the van for the first time during that west coast tour, I told her, "You sit in the back row", and she turned to me and said, "Not for long." I thought " What is this, this girl answers back to me?" Joey told her to not say anything but she did anyways. I thought it was kind of funny."

-Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

Linda at the record signing at Licorice Pizza, 1977 by Danny Fields

Fans in line, by Danny Fields.

Joey by Brad Elterman

Photos by Jenny Lens.

Photos by Jenny Lens

"We moved into the Tropicana Motor Hotel on Santa Monica Blvd while we worked on the movie. It was cheaper than the Sunset Marquis, where we usually stayed. We spent a lot of time at the pool. Tom Waits had a room at the Tropicana when we got there. We all talked to him, and he was a nice guy. They tore the place down in 1985. Now it's a Ramada."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

Tom Waits and Tommy at the Tropicana.

photo by Brad Elterman.

Joey Ramone and Director Allan Arkush on the set of Rock N Roll High School (1979)

"That backstage scene with the band getting pizza was shot at the Whisky; the concert stuff was shot at the Roxy; and the outside of the theater was at the Mayan. The pizza scene took a while. Joey was a real good sport about getting all those bean sprouts in his mouth, or whatever the hell it was…"

- Allan Arkush

Rock 'N' Roll High School

(Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) available HERE

"You know, many of Miss Togar’s dialogue lines were taken verbatim from things said by my high school principal. It was John’s idea to put the “Kick Me” sign on her back. The Ramones had a lot of respect for her because of the Warhol connection, and the Velvet Underground, the Factory scene, all that." 

-Allan Arkush, interview for the Village Voice

art by John Holmstrom of PUNK Magazine

The "family values" punk group make an appearance on a popular USTV program, which featured comedy skits, as well as music .

With Phil Spector.

" Phil would make us think we were going to change studios every day, so we never knew where we were going in advance.[...] Each day we would have to call to find out where to go, but we never moved. We'd be at the same place every day Gold Star Studios.[..] For some reason he always wanted us to think we might move. I don't know if it was drugs, paranoia or what. He was crazy."

- Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

"Then we got the jacket issue.[...]I should never have agreed to take the picture without the leather jacket. The pictures came back and the band outvoted me, so we used the shot with the colored T-shirts.[..] They said, " Let's get rid of the leather jackets. The jackets are why we're not getting played on the radio." The photo on the inside sleeve, with the jackets, that was supposed to be the cover. I was mad when I got voted down."

-Johnny Ramone, from his book Commando.

Super 8 footage of the Ramones live at Schaumburg's "B'ginnings" and at Old Chicago amusement park

The Ramones with Legs McNeil and John Holmstrom of PUNK

Photo by Tom Hearn