Choosing a birthday celebration is easy enough when two of the people sharing a birthday are Ramones. Johnny Ramone was integral to the original band, serving as guitarist from 1974 to 1996. I thought it was interesting that Johnny was #16 on Rolling Stone’s 100 greatest guitar players and was on Time magazine’s 10 greatest rock guitarists, because frankly, I’ve never thought of any of the Ramones as “great” instrumentalists. Johnny’s guitar technique was simple and basic, but it was incredibly influential among punk bands. He died of cancer in 2004 at age 55, the last of the three original Ramones (preceded in death by Joey and Dee Dee). C. J. Ramone shared a birthdate with Johnny but was born 17 years later and replaced Dee Dee in the band, on bass and vocals.
More after the jump, including C. J. Ramone performing Blitzkrieg Bop. Your tunes, of course, in the comments.
