Tommy Ramone
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Tommy Ramone (born Tamás Erdélyi, January 29, 1952 in Budapest, Hungary) is an American record producer and drummer. He is the last surviving founding member of the pioneering punk rock band Ramones. He is a guitarist in many different bands.
Erdelyi grew up in Queens, one of the boroughs of New York City. Tommy and guitarist Johnny Cummings (later to be dubbed "Johnny Ramone") performed together in a mid-60's four-piece garage band called the Tangerine Puppets while in high school. In 1970, the then 18-year-old Erdelyi was a studio intern for the production of the Jimi Hendrix album Band of Gypsys.
When the Ramones first came together, with Johnny Ramone on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone on bass and Joey Ramone on drums, Erdelyi was supposed to be the manager, but was drafted as the band's drummer when Joey became the lead singer and found that he couldn't keep up with the Ramones' increasingly fast tempos. "Tommy Ramone, who was managing us, finally had to sit down behind the drums, because nobody else wanted to," Dee Dee later recalled.[1]
He remained as drummer, from 1974 to 1978, playing on and co-producing their first three albums: Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket to Russia. He grew exhausted of touring and left the drum stool in 1978, but handled band management and co-production for their fourth album, 1978's Road to Ruin; and eighth album, 1984's Too Tough to Die. His drumming replacement was Marky Ramone.
Tommy Ramone also wrote the majority of "Blitzkrieg Bop" after bassist Dee Dee suggested the title.
Tommy is known as a fan of bluegrass music. In the 1980s he produced The Replacements' classic album Tim. He is currently touring New York and New Haven, Connecticut with Claudia Tienan, formerly of local underground band The Simplistics, in a new alterna-bluegrass duo the two have dubbed Uncle Monk. They have also recently released their first album.
[edit] Discography with Ramones
- Ramones (1976)
- Leave Home (1977)
- Rocket to Russia (1977)
- It's Alive (1979)
[edit] References
- Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk.
[edit] Notes
- ^ McNeil and McCain, pp. 182-183.
