A
few months ago, Tommy Ramone passed away. The last surviving member
of the original line-up of the Ramones. I could write here about the
history of the band, talk about the hey-day of New York Punk, debate
whether it started in America or England and go over hundreds of
other points that I have far less knowledge than some other people
might. Suffice to say that Tommy Ramone was a vital member of the
band and without him, rock music would not be what it is today, but
I'll leave the biographies and tributes to people who know more about
Tommy than me. For example, Jon Wurster of Superchunk and Bob Mould's
band wrote a really
nice piece about Tommy
and the band.
What
struck me about the death of Tommy Ramone (Thomas
Erdelyi outside of the band) was that he was the last living Ramone
who played on the band's first record, 1976's “Ramones”. More
shockingly, he was the only member who was alive to see it sell
enough copies to be certified Gold by the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA). The record passed that milestone just
a few weeks before his death. It's the only Ramones album, aside from
'best of' compilations, to have sold enough copies to qualify.
