Johnny Ramone striking a pose in London, 1977.

August, 1974. Washington, D.C. An entire country watches as Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States, steps aboard a waiting helicopter and vacates the White House. News of the Nixon resignation fills newspaper pages and television and radio broadcasts the world over. From this moment forward, politics will never be the same.

August, 1974, New York City. Scattered Bowery residents pay little notice as four young men from Forest Hills, Queens, enter a small club called CBGB in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The owner, Hilly Kristal, isn’t sure if this strange-looking group—identically dressed in leather jackets, T-shirts, ripped jeans, and sneakers, and calling themselves the Ramones—are the ones who are supposed to be auditioning for a gig or just a bunch of hoodlums. All of their songs are very loud, very short, and very fast. In fact, the only thing separating them are the bass player’s shouts of “1-2-3-4″ during the milliseconds in which they stop. He decides to book them anyway; business is bad. Their first public performance draws no attention from newspapers, radio, or television and, in point of fact, is witnessed by a grand total of five warm bodies—six if you count the bartender’s dog. No matter. From this point forward, rock & roll will never again be the same.

(excerpt taken from Ramones Mania CD jacket)