The Ramones played their first gig at CBGB in Lower Manhattan on Aug. 16, 1974. The rest is Punk Rock history.
Get the details when the Grammy-nominated documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones screens at Queens Theatre on Friday, Aug. 16, at 8 pm. Part of a 50th anniversary celebration, a panel discussion with players from the 1970s NYC underground music scene follows.
Wearing motorcycle jackets and Converse high-tops, the quartet killed Disco and made it big with raw lyrics and punk riffs, while they also fell apart due to drug abuse and personality conflicts. They released 14 albums before disbanding in 1996, and although the original members had already died from addiction or cancer, the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Why Queens Theatre? Dee Dee (bass), Joey (vocals), Johnny (guitar), and Tommy (drums) were childhood buddies who hung out and rode skateboards near the Thorneycroft Apartments in Rego Park. Then, they attended Forest Hills High School together.
Dee Dee wrote the 1977 song Rockaway Beach, which relates how they would stand on Woodhaven Boulevard with their thumbs out to get rides from central Queens to Rockaway’s surf and sun in the 1970s.
Learn more watching End of the Century, which features candid interviews with the original rockers, a few replacements, family members, and even Blondie star Debbie Harry. (The Ramones were not related; they used the same last stage name.)
General admission is $12.
Queens Theatre is at 14 United Nations Ave. S. in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. A free subway shuttle will operate from the 7 train’s Mets-Willets Point station to the venue before and after the screening.
End of the Century (2003) was produced and directed by Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia. It’s presented by Caglia Bros. Films.
Image: Rob MacKay