The Ramones’ Lesson: Just Rock

The Ramones’ “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” is as grand and enduring a rock’ ‘n’ roll battle cry as many of the classic lines from the early anthems of such rock giants as Chuck Berry and the Who.

That’s only natural, because the New York quartet relied heavily on the economy and pop-minded, sing-along quality of rock’s early hit-makers.

The Ramones’ contribution was to frame those elements with an aggression and coloring (from irreverent lyrics to leather jacket dress code) that defined a new punk-rock aesthetic.

There had been earlier signs of trashy punk sensibilities, including the humor-laced rock ‘n’ rouge approach of the New York Dolls and the desperate obsessions of the Stooges.

But the Ramones’ approach felt revolutionary on their self-titled 1976 debut because it arrived during a time when rock seemed in danger of losing its youthful defiance and grass-roots passion.

Filled with such wry, turbocharged sonic assaults as “Blitzkrieg Bop” (the song that introduced the “Hey! Ho!” cry), “Beat on the Brat” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,” the debut album was a dramatic wake-up call.

The Ramones’ album didn’t catch fire commercially, but copies seemed to find their way into the hands of countless youngsters who dreamed about being in a rock band but had seen no place for themselves in the commercial world of Kansas and Styx.

If some of the group’s lyrics (such as “beat on the brat / with a baseball bat”) alarmed parents, that made the joke only that much sweeter for young listeners.

The lesson of the Ramones was that you didn’t need to be a virtuoso to start a band and that you could still make exciting music by focusing on the classic elements of early rock. Among the scores of bands that have cited the Ramones’ influence: the Clash, Nirvana, U2 and Green Day.

Even before singer Joey Ramone’s death of lymphoma on Sunday, the Ramones were back in the news. The current issue of Spin magazine surveys the 25-year history of punk and salutes the Ramones by putting Joey on its cover (the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious appears on the cover of some issues of the magazine).

The magazine staff also lists the Ramones’ debut album No. 1 on a list of essential punk-rock collections. The best way to sample the band’s legacy on record is a two-disc set titled “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: The Anthology.”

Two discs may not sound like much for a group that recorded for some two decades, but the Ramones specialized in such short tunes (some under two minutes) that the set contains 58 tracks. Amazingly, 33 songs are squeezed into the first, 78-minute disc.

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**** The Ramones, “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: The Anthology,” Warner Archives/Rhino.

It’s interesting how one’s perception of an album can change in light of Joey Ramone’s death--and it’s not just sentimentality. In evaluating this package in From the Vaults when it was released two years ago, I gave the album three stars because I was as concerned with consistency and value as with musical strength. The reason: The group’s essential work is all contained on the first disc, making the second largely unnecessary.

Looking at the album again, I increased the rating to four stars because its importance as a historical document outweighs the pure “value” factor. Besides the music, it contains a handsome, hard-cover booklet about the Ramones’ history, complete with a foreword by manager Danny Fields.

In it, he recalls seeing the group for the first time at New York’s legendary CBGB club.

“Epiphany is not too strong a word,” he says. He then asked the group if he could manage them, and Johnny Ramone, the group’s guitarist, said that was nice, but what the band really needed was a new set of drums.

Fields was so excited about the possibility of working with the Ramones that he talked his mother into lending him a few thousand dollars. He notes, “I would like to take this opportunity to say that without the generosity of Sylvia Feinberg, may she rest in peace, the world of rock ‘n’ roll might be a very different place.”

The story captures the unlikely, underdog success of a band whose members came together in 1974 and adopted the shared stage name Ramone. Besides Joey (Jeffrey Hyman), the lineup on the early albums was guitarist Johnny Ramone (John Cummings), bassist Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin) and drummer Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi).

The first 26 tracks from disc one are from the group’s first four albums, and they compose the heart of the Ramones’ statement. Though they wrote most of their own songs, the Ramones sometimes relied on outside material, including an inspired rendition of Henry Glover’s “California Sun,” a song that was a hit in the ‘60s for both Joe Jones and the Rivieras.

Despite the distinctive nature of the Ramones’ recordings, the group’s music frequently showcased their own influences, from the Beach Boys’ echo in “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” to the Eddie Cochran rockabilly touch in “Rockaway Beach.”

The band tried to move beyond its signature sound in places (notably the evocative “Danny Says” on “End of the Century,” the 1980 album they did with producer Phil Spector), and it’s interesting to hear their efforts in that direction. Still, the legacy is in the early recordings--and it’s a powerful legacy indeed.

The Ramones haven’t been voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but you can bet they’ll get plenty of consideration when the next induction class is elected this fall.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent). Robert Hilburn can be reached at robert.hilburn@latimes.com