Drummer Tommy Ramone, the last member of the original 1970s punk band
the Ramones, died Friday of cancer, according to Variety. He was 62.
The Ridgewood, Queens, resident had been in hospice and suffering from bile duct cancer, the trade publication reported.
Ramone, born in Budapest, Hungary, was a drummer and producer who
performed on the groundbreaking band’s first three albums, Variety said.
Those first three albums are far and away the best Ramones albums.
I would argue they're also three of the finest rock n' roll albums ever.
The Ramones had all these influences - Spector's girl groups, Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, 60's surf music, Elvis, The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, Arthur Lee's Love and the Jefferson Airplane, great glam bands like T. Rex & Slade, The Stooges and VU - and they put them all into their 1:59 songs and made rock n' roll perfection.
Tommy Ramone co-produced all three of those albums and helped craft that perfect sound.
If you want to hear the work that Tommy did, get the Rhino Records remasters of the first three Ramones albums and listen to the demos on them as well as the live songs, then listen to the albums themselves.
He also produced the fourth Ramones album, Road to Ruin and the eighth, Too Tough To Die.
Each has their moments.
But the first three albums are really perfect and you should go and listen to all three, back-to-back.
I'd like to focus on those positives Ms. Ravitch wrote about as I enjoy my time off this summer.
I'd also like to remember that Bloomberg and his threats of layoffs, school closures and privatization can be beaten back, especially now that people are mobilizing in force - from to parents to students to teachers to the politicians who do not support the corporate privatization agenda.
Going forward, next year will be the last year Bloomberg gets to pull his layoff threat/budget crisis out of a hat before there is a new election for mayor.
You can bet the fight against seniority rights and work protections for teachers has not gone away even though Bloomberg lost the battle this year.
If anything, that fight will get tougher next year since Bloomberg and the corporate ed establishment know it's their last chance to smash seniority before the 2013 election season starts in earnest.
In addition, there will be many more fights over standardized testing, NCLB reauthorization, teacher evaluations, budget cuts, replacing teachers with online computer programs that line the pockets of the corporate deformers (including Joel Klein), outside consultants, merit pay, charter school co-locations, and all the other market-based outrages the corporate education reform movement has brought to public education in order to destroy it (and profit from that very destruction.)
The Jonathan Alters will be out in full force defaming anybody who fights the corporate deform movement.
The Michelle Rhees and the Joe Kleins will continue to enrich themselves even as they shirk responsibility and accountability for their records as "reform" chancellors.
The corporate media will continue to give them a platform to spew their lies and half-truths.
President Obama and Secretary of Education Privatization Arne Duncan will continue their anti-teacher/anti-traditional public schools agenda.
But as Diane Ravitch noted in her post yesterday:
Growing evidence and growing resistance by teachers and parents, by administrators and school boards, will eventually make it possible to break through the media shield that protects corporate reform. In time, the general public will understand the full dimensions of this corporate effort to reduce public space and to hand more of the nation's children over to the private sector. When the curtains are pulled away, we will learn that many idealistic and well-meaning people were cynically used by people with an ideological axe to grind, with a will to power, or with dreams of financial gain.
There is a lot of work ahead for those of us who oppose the corporatization of public education.
But there is hope too that we can and will resist the corporatization and that resistance can stop some of the worst excesses of the corporate reform movement.
Dare I say, there is even some hope that we can bring back some humanity to school systems over run by testing and data.
Here at Perdido Street school we are closing up shop for the summer, taking the papers and decorations down from the wall, putting the chairs up on the tables and putting things away for a few months.
There is a lot going on in life that I need to attend to and so I want to sign off for the summer and wish everybody a happy, restful, enjoyable, healthy summer.
But first, a few words.
Go swimming.
Go for a jog.
Have a picnic in the park.
Take a vacation to somewhere you have never been.
Spend a few hours a day every day hanging out with your children and really be present for them (no blackberry or iPad!)
Listen to music every day.
Better yet, see live music as much as you can.
Sing.
Eat well.
Enjoy something fresh and good from your favorite bakery.
Eat something fresh and good from the farmer's market every day.
Sure, school's still in session in NYC and if you send your child to a Mistress Eva charter, school is ALWAYS in session (except for mornings off to rally against traditional public schools), but today really feels like the first day of summer.
So let's catch a wave and sit on top of the world:
The musical treats for pop fans continue to roll out in conjunction with national Record Store Day on April 16, the annual event hosted by a consortium of independent record retailers to recognize merchants who still sell music from brick-and-mortar stores.
Capitol/EMI will put out a 78 rpm vinyl double disc set pairing two Beach Boys’ high watermark recordings, “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains,” both recorded after the “Pet Sounds” album during sessions for the highly anticipated “SMiLe” album that was eventually shelved. The Record Store Day set will include commercially released versions of both songs on the first disc, and early alternate takes of both on the second.
...
In addition to the “Good Vibrations/Heroes and Villains” vinyl news, Beach Boys founding member Al Jardine recently told an interviewer that the band’s longtime label would release some version of the “SMiLe” album this year in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the group’s formation.
Others close to the group have confirmed that there have been discussions with label officials about releasing more of the “SMiLe” material than has been previously available. Many of the songs recorded for the album were subsequently released on other Beach Boys collections, but out of whatever context “SMiLe” mastermind Brian Wilson had intended. A sequence of about 30 minutes' worth of the "SMiLe" sessions was included on the 1993 "Good Vibrations" box set.
Wilson put out his own latter-day version of “SMiLe” in 2004, which he completed, recorded and released, to considerable critical acclaim, 37 years after it was to have come out originally. He walked away from the project in 1967 after suffering a nervous breakdown amid heavy resistance from record company executives and other members of the group to the adventurous direction he was taking.
Now this is probably asking too much, but boy would it be nice to see some version of Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love and Bruce Johnston tour in conjunction with the SMiLe release.
I saw Brian and Al play at the Beacon a few years ago with Brian's band and I can honestly say it was one of the more religious experiences I have had in my life.
But Brian always did say the music was meant to connect us with the spirit:
