Check out the full episode below and keep reading for a deeper look into the subversive uniform of this iconic band. To paint the picture of the Ramones teenage outcast style I needed to get a few of my facts straight on the 4-piece band. While I have read and researched the groups musical career over the years and had many an in-depth conversation with like-minded friends on their style, there is actually little written in mass media on the intricacies of their stylistic origins.
Andrew Luecke , professional writer and co-author of Cool: Style, Sound, and Subversion is a self-confessed subcultural nerd. Cue Punk. The film premiered to no shortage of controversy, even being banned in Britain for the better part of two decades; but the iconic images of biker culture that characterised the film endured long after the initial shock wore off.
Luecke explains that this film influenced multiple interconnected but ultimately separate subcultures, including bikers, both gay and straight, rocker-inspired juvenile delinquents and gay leathermen. The area was a centre of gay nightlife decades before the West Village became prominent, and was home to well-known hustler bars, most notably Cowboys, Rounds and Red, from the s through the s.
Legend has it that Dee Dee himself, bassist and primary songwriter of the Ramones, worked as a hustler in order to pay for his heroin habit. Both define punk as the lowest of the low. They were first and foremost street culture. Dee Dee was hustling for a fix, not to be cool. So it skirts all those things. Its also important to note that heavy psychedelic bands like The Stooges and rough glam bands like the New York Dolls deeply influenced punk with their Chuck Berry licks, unconventional style, and transgressive attitudes.
Luecke explains that the Ramones were heavy into glam before they helped create punk. You have glam and hard rock artists like Suzi Quattro wearing leathers too.
