50 Years Ago, release of The Ramones and the birth of Punk

Today, April 23, is the birthday of The Bard, William Shakespeare. So, a pretty legendary moment in the world of the arts. But it also happens to be a significant and pivotal moment in the history of rock-n-roll and the American music scene.

Fifty years ago, on this day in 1976, the self-titled debut album from The Ramones was released, and with that the world experienced what can be considered the birth of Punk.

Now, of course, discussions and debates about just when and where and how punk and punk rock began can fill books and university courses. And they have almost since its inception somewhere in the 1970s, somewhere around the Lower East Side. However, regardless of the inability to truly determine a singular moment -- which is arguably absurd -- the release of the Ramones' first LP is pivotal. It is undoubtedly an essential part of the story and the influence of that first record cannot be underestimated. It was then and remains to this day an absolute gamechanger.

Some interesting bits of trivia include the album being recorded in just a week for a miniscule $7000, and it did not make any sort of splash in terms of singles or units moved or chart placement. The classic punk image, captured perfectly on the cover by a photographer for PUNK Magazine is a direct reference and lineage to an original counterculture icon and anti-hero, Johnny Strabler as portrayed by Marlon Brando in the 1950s rebel film The Wild One.

Who can forget the lines: "Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?"

"Whattaya got?" is the terse response.

And, many people don't know that the band's name is likely inspired by this bit of trivia -- Ramone was the alias Paul McCartney used when checking in to hotels.

That all said, there is nothing trivial about the album. In fact, one could argue it is every bit as significant in music history as albums by the Beatles or Rolling Stones. That's a solid claim made on the excellent Substack newsletter Punk-n-Coffee. And, for more context and understanding of the vast reach and profound influence of the album and the band, consider checking out the book All Good Cretins Go to Heaven  by Jenn L Beckwith.

FoCoMX 2026 - Colorado's Independent Music Festival

It's known as "America's biggest little music festival," and it's coming up this weekend in Fort Collins, Colorado, the best music town you might not yet know about. Each spring the musical festival scene kicks off in a big way around the cool college town of Fort Collins, Colorado, home to Colorado State University. FoCoMX, or the Fort Collins Music Experience, is a two-day, all-Colorado music festival that virtually takes over Old Town Fort Collins with more than 400 bands playing at more than 40 different stages over forty-eight hours. As Fort Collins Musicians Association founder and President Greta Cornett says, "It's the most wonderful time of the year ... when the streets are alive with the sound of local music."

FoCoMX is the reason my wife and I moved to Fort Collins two years ago, and it is a truly one-of-a-kind music extravaganza that highlights the incredibly hip, fun, close-knit town in NoCo, or Northern Colorado. And if you are a music festival fan and have the means, you should not miss an opportunity to experience this very special event.

A River Runs Through It -- still running 50 years later

It was a story, a book of stories really, that never should have seen the spotlight. Written by a retired college professor about the art of fly fishing and relationships among fathers, sons, and brothers, A River Runs Through It was published by an academic press after being rejected numerous times from mainstream trade publishers and agents. And, alas, it became a phenomenon. 

Thanks to the titular novella, “A River Runs Through It and Other Stories” went on to sell more than a million copies, and is now considered a classic. It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning movie, directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt, and helped supercharge the fly fishing industry. And it remains beloved by generations of readers and writers.

“The novella is one of the great American stories of the 20th century, a lesson on how to write,” said the author Annie Proulx. “It’s romantic and erudite and filled with visceral excitements,” the author Thomas McGuane added. “And there is so much under the surface in this short work. It has a huge power-to-weight ratio.”

“A River Runs Through It” turns 50 this month. In getting to its exalted place, the book had to navigate a tricky set of rapids. Though it sailed through them, a question lingers half a century later: Would a book like this, with its regional setting and its male and outdoorsy focus, face different challenges in today’s publishing world?

That's a really good questions. If you've never read the novella or seen the brilliantly produced film from Robert Redford, give yourself a treat, explore a beautiful and beautifully written story, and decide for yourself.

Stand By Me - 40 Years Later

Ok, readers. I'm still here. It's been a busy couple weeks on my job search and preparation for a big move. But the blog is still active. And, as I finish up work on my book about Henry Thoreau and punk rock, I have decided to also finish writing about music, art, and culture for Westword and other local magazines. However, I will still write, and post here about all the things that catch my interest.

I went into the wood a lot as a kid. And looking back, my friends and I went into the woods for the same reason Henry Thoreau did - to "live deliberately." 

In the tech-driven, social-media-obsessed, AI-constructed world of 2026, it seems like images, posts, and articles about "the last great time to be a kid" are coming across the media feeds with increasingly regularity. Generation X, the last demographic to know life -- and childhood -- before the internet, are nostalgically reflecting on and even pining for the the halcyon days of our 1970s-80s coming of age. And with the 40th anniversary of the poignant, enduring film Stand By Me coming around, it's a time poised to remember our time in the woods.

Sarah Wildman (what a perfect name for the writer of this piece), an opinion editor for The Times, recently reflected on The End of the Free-Range ‘Stand by Me’ Childhood:

Last fall I watched the 1986 movie “Stand by Me” with my 12-year-old daughter, on a lark. She is the same age as the film’s characters, four boys who set out on a quest through the Oregon woods in search of a dead body. The soundtrack, a midcentury greatest-hits compilation — ranging from Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” to Ben E. King’s song that gives the film its title — was music of my parents’ generation: They both turned 13 in 1959, the year in which the film is set. The songs were an auditory madeleine of the summer I finished elementary school; I hadn’t thought of the film in years. The layered nostalgia I found in revisiting it as a parent was, predictably, not only for the era that “Stand by Me” depicts but also for the time when the movie premiered.

What took me by surprise was my daughter’s fascination. She has since watched the movie half a dozen more times, on her own, and read the Stephen King novella, “The Body,” on which it was based. It was she who realized the film turns 40 this year and insisted we attend an anniversary screening in a theater.
...

The central premise of the film is, essentially, a postwar, middle grade “Odyssey.” The boys of “Stand by Me” — played by Wil Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, Corey Feldman and River Phoenix — encounter obstacles: brutal or absent parents, a purportedly terrifying dog, bloodsucking leeches and a set of drag-racing teenage hoodlums who wield as weapons pocketknives and lit cigarettes. News arrives via overheard gossip (one boy learns the location of the dead body from his brother) or hand-held transistor radio. They live almost entirely outdoors. Along the way, they come to realize their friendships far outrank the prize of their discovery.

Henry David Thoreau -- wonderful new PBS documentary from Ken Burns Productions

He "went into the woods because [he] wished to live deliberately ... and not when [he] came to die, discover that [he] had not lived."

As Michael Pollan explains in the new PBS documentary Henry David Thoreau, when Thoreau said he meant to live deliberately that word "deliberate" was rooted in the idea of freedom. Challenging the norms and the changes that early 19th century America was experiencing, Thoreau went to live in a cabin on the shores of Walden Pond for two years to test the philosophy of transcendentalism and the ability of man to "live wild and free." The significance of his time at Walden and the writing he did there remains profoundly relevant in contemporary American society, and his legacy is all-too-deserving of the thoughtful and beautifully-produced mini-series from Ken Burns Productions.

As readers of this blog know, I am on a Thoreauvian kick myself these days, and for the past couple years, I've been working on a project which casts Thoreau in a new spotlight through a new lens. So, I am excited for this PBS special presentation, and I look forward to contributing to the discussion through my own unique take on "The Punk on Walden Pond."