Lately I’ve been getting into the TV. Show Mad Men. For those who do not know, Mad Men revolves around the lives of a group of people who work for some fancy New York Advertising firm in the early part of the 60’s. There was this one particular episode in which some of the office workers decide to go to a local bar after work to drink, have fun and possibly get loose. At the bar some lady puts some coins in the jukebox and picks “The Twist” by Chubby Checker. The Corporate Men didn’t quite get it but the little girls understood and twisted the hell out of the song.
When I saw this scene and “The Twist” came on one of the first thoughts that came to my head was: this sounds like a Ramones song played at a slower tempo. Now I’m versed well enough in my Rock History to know that it’s the other way around; that “the twist” predates the “Blitzkrieg Bop.” I am aware that the Ramones music was influenced by Rock n Roll from the 50’s and early 60’s. I knew that the band had a thing for giving old Rock N Roll songs the Ramones treatment. But it’s one thing to read about this sort of thing and another to actually HEAR IT for yourself. To actually ‘get it’ and not just go by what something you read or what you’ve been told. It’s a Rock N Roll Epiphany.
ahandfullofnapalm 