My Beatclub

If you've taken a look at the latest The Monthly you'll have seen The Ramones on there, and my comment that it'd be pretty damned ace to have seen that band in their prime, back in the 70s. So cut to me catching up on some potential bloggery and one of the things I'd made a note to do was to look at this website called My Beatclub. It's a collection of old TV performances and includes artists as diverse as Randy Newman, The Byrds, Slade, T Rex, Kraftwerk, Don McLean and The Small Faces.

It's not just the big names though, and the likes of Medicine Head, The Motels, The Grapefruit, Amanda Lear and Chi Coltrane are all new to me and look like they warrant a little further investigation.

But The Ramoes track below really got my attention - partly because of the coincidence of The Monthly but also because it's a great performance that goes far beyond the usual stale TV run-through.

Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop - My Beat Club
"Blitzkrieg Bop" was the first single from the first album of one of the first US punk rock groups in history - the Ramones! Although there was no relation between the members, they all used the name "Ramone" as surnames. So the classic line up includes Joey Ramone (voc), Johnny Ramone (guitar), Dee Dee Ramone (bass) and Tommy Ramone (drums). (The Musikladen performance features follower Marky Ramone on drums). The exact meaning of the song - named after the German World War 2 tactic - is vague and obscure. Some people guess that the song is about gang violence - a subject that applies to the ghetto topic in early Ramones lyrics. Otherwise, the song is simply about having fun at a (Ramones-) concert - so it may be a tribute to their fans.

Keywords: punk hits seventies beat club 70s livemusic guilty pleasures classic hits musikladen classic rock concert clips rock live

Video from my-beatclub