HEY! HO! LET’S GO: RAMONES AND THE BIRTH OF PUNK

Exhibit Info

On View - Sep 16, 2016 - Feb 28, 2017

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“This is so amazing, the best RAMONES collection ever. Gonna be a real cool time, fun for all! Gabba Gabba Hey!”
-Linda Ramone, Johnny Ramone’s wife

Co-curated by the GRAMMY Museum and the Queens Museum, in collaboration with Ramones Productions Inc., the exhibit commemorates the 40th anniversary of the release of the Ramones’ 1976 self-titled debut album and contextualizes the band in the larger pantheon of music history and pop culture.

On display through February 2017, the exhibit is organized under a sequence of themes — places, events, songs, and artists —and includes items by figures such as:

ARTURO VEGA (WHO, ALONG WITH THE RAMONES, DESIGNED THE FAMED RAMONES LOGO)JOHN HOLMSTROM (PUNK MAGAZINE FOUNDER AND CARTOONIST)AND SHEPARD FAIREY
Also included in the exhibit are contributions from the personal collections of:

MICKEY LEIGH (JOEY RAMONE’S BROTHER AND RAMONES’ ORIGINAL STAGE MANAGER)LINDA RAMONE (JOHNNY RAMONE’S WIFE)AND MONTE MELNICK (RAMONES’ TOUR MANAGER)
And rock photographers such as:

ROBERTA BAYLEY (WHO SHOT THE FIRST RAMONES ALBUM COVER)BOB GRUENDAVID GODLISDANNY FIELDS (RAMONES’ FIRST MANAGER)JENNY LENSAND OTHERS WHO WERE INTIMATELY INVOLVED WITH THE GROUP THROUGHOUT THEIR CAREER
Additional artifacts will also include personal memorabilia such as clothing and instruments.

Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk is organized by the GRAMMY Museum and Queens Museum, in collaboration with Ramones Productions Inc., JAM Inc., and Silent Partner Management. The exhibit is co-curated by Queens Museum guest curator Marc H. Miller and Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum. Delta is proud to be the official airline of both the GRAMMY Museum and the Queens Museum.

ABOUT THE RAMONES
The Ramones were loud and fast — and gloriously so, from the moment of their inception in Forest Hills, New York, in 1974, until their final concert, 2,263, in Los Angeles on Aug. 6, 1996.

They were prolific — releasing 21 studio and live albums between 1976 and 1996 — and professional, typically cutting all of the basic tracks for one of those studio LPs in a matter of days. They were stubborn, a marvel of bulldog determination and cast-iron pride in a business greased by negotiation and compromise. And they were fun, rock & roll’s most reliable Great Night Out for nearly a quarter of a century, which seems like a weird thing to say about a bunch of guys for whom a show, in 1974 or ’75, could be six songs in a quarter of an hour.

In their time, in their brilliantly specialized way, the Ramones — the founding four of Johnny (guitar), Joey (vocals), Tommy (drums), and Dee Dee (bass), were the sharpest band on the planet. Fully evolved as musicians and songwriters, they were confident in their power and the importance of what they had. Road to Ruin was the first album with a new drummer (Marky), followed by CJ (bass), and Richie (drums).

The atomic-mono impact of Johnny’s Mosrite guitar, Joey’s commanding vocal delivery, the unity of wardrobe and identity, right down to the original, collective songwriting credits and the mutually assumed surname — were the result of a very simple philosophy. As Tommy put it: “Eliminate the unnecessary and focus on the substance.” That is precisely what the group did on every record they ever made, on every stage they ever played.

The Ramones’ place in rock & roll history was already assured by 1978 with their first three albums: Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia, all made in the span of 18 months, between February 1976 and the fall of ’77. When it was time to make records, Tommy said, “Our art was complete.” The art was the combined product of four strangely aligned personalities — all living within shouting distance of each other in the conservative, middleclass enclave of Forest Hills, where their mutual needs as fledgling musicians and bored delinquents far outweighed the mess of differences and civil wars that could never quite bust them apart. Once a Ramone, always a Ramone.

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