Icon: The Ramones
By Ira Robbins
Reality is perishable; image is the stuff of eternity. Now transubstantiated into a T-shirt logo — like their home base, CBGB — the Ramones will forever be the mythic distillate of punk. That New York's finest were no more brat-beatin 'cretins than the Beach Boys were surfers is immaterial: Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy (and Marky and Richie, even CJ) found truth in the sound of their records: Mad magazine revved up, stripped down… more »