Tommy Ramone

And so the last surviving original member of The Ramones has died:

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.

RIP Tommy.

Tell The Teacher We're Surfing...

SMILE: Al Jardine Says Capitol Will Release "Smile" Material This Year

Taking a break from the horror that is the news these days (Libya, New Zealand, PCB's in NYCDOE Schools, etc.), here is SOMETHING that does put a smile on my face:

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: