He worked under his own name until 1984, when Buster Poindexter-Johansen’s lounge-singing, white collar, black bow-tie and pompadour-coiffed persona-was born. In 1978, Johansen recorded his self-titled solo debut, backed by the Staten Island Boys. Like most punk bands, the Dolls lived fast and died even faster, leaving Johansen without a vehicle for his musical energy. Audiences weren’t ready for five androgynous men who fully incorporated drug use into their image. Johansen joined in ’71, the band changed its name to New York Dolls, and, pulling influences from the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, the band released two albums, produced by Todd Rundgren and George “Shadow” Morton-both curious choices-and single-handedly started the breeding ground for NYC punk. Johansen was dabbling in acting and club-hopping when he met future Dolls bassist Arthur Kane, who was looking for a singer for his band, Actress. His earliest musical endeavor came as the teen vocalist for local band the Vagabond Missionaries, which led to his soul cover band Fast Eddie & the Electric Japs. Johansen was born on Januon Staten Island to an Irish librarian mother and Norwegian tenor father. After the group disbanded, chameleon Johansen shed the spandex from his days fronting the Dolls and eventually reemerged as an actor, bluesman and as alter ego Buster Poindexter before re-forming the Dolls. NE W YORK NATIVE DAVID JOHANSEN IS BEST KNOWN for his stint in the short-lived but megaiconic protopunk outfit the New York Dolls, which solidified Johansen’s role as a pioneer of punk. He says, “It’s kind of the music that I grew up with as a child.” DAVID JOHANSEN Uncle Monk’s self-titled 2007 release is an old-time, back-to-basics approach to country bluegrass. The couple moved from NYC’s Greenwich Village to upstate NY, dropped electric instruments altogether and went on as an acoustic duo. Their project, Uncle Monk, started as a psychedelic jam band three-piece, but stripped down when Tommy picked up the banjo and mandolin in the early ’90s. Tommy toured and recorded with the Ramones until 1977, when, tired of life on the road, he relinquished the drums to Marky Ramone, becoming the producer on both 1978’s Road to Ruin and 1984’s Too Tough To Die, and went on to produce other artists’ albums, including the Replacements’ Tim and Redd Kross’ Neurotica.Īfter returning to college in the late ’80s, Tommy met bassist Claudia Tienan. The Ramones were regulars at CBGB, which, despite the music inside, is an acronym for country, bluegrass and blues, all genres which influenced Tommy’s pre-Ramones music, and would resurface later in his career. When the Ramones formed in 1974, Tommy assumed managerial duty, but soon picked up the sticks in true DIY punk ethos. In high school during the ’60s British Invasion, Ramone met John Cummings-later known as Johnny Ramone-and the two started the garage rock band the Tangerine Puppets, with Tommy on guitar.Īt age 18, he was assistant engineer on Jimi Hendrix’s album Band of Gypsys. “Then the Beatles showed up, and six months later or a year later, we all got electric guitars.” “I got a guitar as a birthday present, and I was very much into that folk era,” he said. Ramone’s father and older brother liked country music and brought home folk and old-time music records from the library. It was just a great time to arrive in this country.”
“You could turn the dial and go from Frank Sinatra and Perry Como to Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.
“In those days on the radio you heard great music,” Ramone recalled. Tommy’s family immigrated to Queens, New York during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, landing him smack in the middle of the American rock ‘n’ roll revolution. BE ST KNOWN FOR HIS ROLE AS TIMEKEEPER FOR NYC-based three-chord punk heroes, the Ramones, Tommy Ramone was born Tamás Erdélyi on Januin Budapest, Hungary.
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