End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones

Synopsis: A documentary tracing the history of The Ramones, from the band's humble origins through its star-crossed career and to a desultory demise.

The Ramones were a phenomenon - over their 21 year, 14 album history they barely changed more than their drummer (which they did twice) and in their regulation Wild One uniformity kept on churning out their 1-2-3-4 gabba gabba hey 3 chord songs, impervious to changes in fashion or musical development. Recognized as the original punk band, in 2002 they were inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. By this time lead singer Joey Ramone had died of cancer. By the time this documentary was released, bassist Dee Dee had died of a heroin overdose, whilst guitarist Johnny Ramone was also dead from cancer.

Although stylistically different, subject-wise this film has quite a few points in common with last year's Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster. Both bands are highly regarded within their genre, both are purveyors of an unholy cacophony and both are, or were in the case of The Ramones, riven by irreconcilable personal rivalries. This is the more entertaining of the two works, albeit overlong particularly in its latter stages. For the uninitiated, it is informative regarding the band's history, with a good selection of archival footage of early performances, is peppered with an array of celebrity interviewees of the likes of Joe Strummer and fellow CBGB alumni Chris Stein and Deborah Harry, and most of all thanks to the band members themselves, the perpetually diffident Joey, permanently hidden behind his just-outta-bed hair and dark glasses, the chronically taciturn, pro-Republican Johnny and the disarmingly straightforward junkie, Dee Dee, often warmly humourous. Unfortunately Joey died before Gramaglia and Fields got to interview him and we have to make do with snippets from other sources over the years, though what he does have to say is full of self-deprecating wit.

Unlike the rather full-of-it members of Metallica, The Ramones had the good taste not to encumber themselves with art collections, country estates, big boys' toys and other accoutrements of rock star wealth. Perhaps this was simply because, despite their international cult status, they never made enough money to indulge in rampant self-gratification but one gets the impression that they wouldn't really have known what to do with money had they had it, except in Dee Dee's case, to put it up his arm.

Aside from the purely informative aspect of the documentary this is where the real appeal of the film lies - for this is the story of 3 boys (the 4th Ramone, Tommy, being a Zeppo to his much-better known Marx brothers) from Queens, to paraphrase Lou Reed, whose lives were saved by (and lost to) rock n' roll. Joey was a gangly geek with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, Johnny a burgeoning right-wing sociopath, and Dee Dee a drug addict and sometime male prostitute. None had any musical talent, yet by dint of individual and collective commitment they managed to become legends in their own lifetimes and a positive inspiration to hundreds of thousands of disaffected kids around the globe - in other words, unlikely emblems of the American Dream.

Privately, like wealth, happiness in large quantity seems also to have eluded the lads and in their untimely demise, at least given their lives as portrayed here, one is almost inclined to ask of Death, where is thy sting? Whilst in this regard it may have been better as John Ford said, to print the legend we can thank Messrs Gramaglia and Fields for an insight into one of the most ironically iconic, stylishly unstylish, indefatigably unmusical bands in the history of rock n' roll.

 

 

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