As you may have heard, the legendary Tommy Ramone passed away on Friday, July 11, 2014 at age 65.  He had been battling cancer.  Tommy is the final original member of the RAMONES to pass away.

Aside from the band’s first three albums, you can gain great insight into Tommy and the rest of the band in the excellent documentary, End of the Century.  The trailer is below.

Those first couple albums changed my life as a teenager.  In the middle of all the aggro and gloom I was listening to at the time, the RAMONES showed me that I could smile and be happy while listening to something heavy and fast.  Another life lesson that I learned back then was that if the music isn’t catchy, memorable, and real, forget about it.  Tommy, thanks for the timeless music and for keeping the rest of the guys together when they went over the deep end.  Nice guys can finish first.