The best live band Joey Ramone ever saw: “I want to blow people’s minds like that”

Posted On November 25, 2025November 25, 2025

When you have a musical movement that changed the world as much as punk did, it’s not the result of one band, but a culmination of factors that combine to make something otherworldly.

Because of the fact that there were a number of different factors that came together to create the punk movement, it’s hard to pin a specific turning point on one band. While a lot of genres started with a song, artist, or album, punk is a bit more elusive than that. 

The pub rock movement was incredibly important when it came to punk music. Fans were starting to feel somewhat disconnected from the music they were listening to, as the bands that people were fans of were completely inaccessible. You would pay to see The Rolling Stones in a crowd of thousands and would wind up so far back that you hardly even see them.

You also had the band the Sex Pistols, who were one of the first when it came to writing music that could be easily labelled as punk. Their debut single, ‘Anarchy In The UK’, used lyrics that people found profane and somewhat even threatening. Despite lead singer John Lydon attesting that the song wasn’t supposed to be a threat, it still set the foundation for a lot of punk lyricists.

Then, when it came to the importance of a good live performance, you had the Ramones. The Ramones had an approach to live music that can only be described as planned chaos. Their shows were packed with energy and felt incredibly haphazard; however, this was very much planned out by them.

Joey Ramone was exposed to the power of a good live show from a young age, which inspired him to try and make music himself. When he started the Ramones, there was no question that he was going to try and put on a live show that blew people’s minds the same way he had his mind blown when he was young. There was one band in particular he thought of when putting on gigs, and that was the British behemoth The Who. 

“When I was 16, I saw the Who. It was the first time they played America. It was a Murray the K show at the RKO theatre on 59th street [in New York City] — like 30 bands and the Who and Cream for the first time in America,” Ramone recalled. “Cream were great, but the Who blew my mind.”

He continued, “The character and the visuals, Townshend, Keith Moon. It was the best thing I’d ever seen. When I perform, I want to blow people’s minds like that.”

You can certainly understand the way The Who influenced the Ramones. The Who’s music was tighter and more complex than the punk rockers, but Townshend and Co’s chaotic stage presence would have been labelled as punk if that term existed when they first took to the stage. What was once a glint in Joey Ramone’s eye became one of the most pivotal elements of the entire punk movement: a kickass live show.

Related Topics