TOMMY RAMONE, LAST OF THE ORIGINAL RAMONES, DEAD AT 62
Drummer Tommy Ramone, the last surviving member of the four founding Ramones, died of cancer Friday at age 62 (some outlets place his age at 65). Born Thomas Erdelyi in 1952, in the band's early formative years, Tommy also served as record producer and manager. Tommy was responsible for writing "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and co-writing "Blitzkrieg Bob," two songs that helped put the Ramones on the map and forever change the future of music.
Named after the pseudonym Paul McCartney used at hotels while he was still a Beatle, The Ramones came together in the mid-seventies and recorded their first of 14 albums in 1976. Tommy, apparently the most functional of the group, left in 1978. The party lifestyle and touring exhausted him.
With the death of Tommy, and since the band's break up in 1996, all four of the original Ramones have died, and done so prematurely. In 2001, lead singer Joey Ramone died of cancer at age 49; Dee Dee Ramone, the band's founder and bassist died at 51 of a suspected heroin overdose in 2002; guitarist Johnny Ramone was only 55 when he died of prostate cancer in 2004.
While the Ramones were never Top 40 stars, the band's influence, especially in Britain, was every bit as profound as that of the Beatles here in America. Using four chords, an insane tempo, songs that started with an explosion of noise ("Hey, ho, let's go!") and frequently didn’t reach the two minute mark, Dee Dee, Joey, Johnny and Tommy invented what became known as Punk Rock.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywo...mmy-ramone-rip
