Teenage Lobotomy

Just checking out this obit of Johnny Ramone
The New York Times > Arts > Music > Johnny Ramone, Signal Guitarist for the Ramones, Dies at 55
and it made me wonder about a few things.
It's terrible when anyone dies, and I'm not trying to rag on Johnny, a known Republican, but what's up with this quote:

Mr. Ramone once described his guitar style as "pure, white rock 'n' roll, with no blues influence."

Sure, the Times style, where everyone has to be quoted as "Mr.", is ridiculous, but what the fuck is "pure, white rock and roll"? How is this devoid of blues influence? I guess Ben Sisario was trying to set up the liberal bias by showing how brainless Mr. Ramone was, but did he have to go for this quote, which is near the top of the piece?

Let's face it, Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) may have "influenced, directly or indirectly, almost every punk guitarist since, from the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones and the Clash's Joe Strummer to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain," but anyone who knows their punk from their elbow knows that Johnny Thunders (John Anthony Genzale, Jr.) was by far the seminal punk guitarist.

But he died in 1991 so nobody remembers.




And you can't put your arms around a memory.