Eliminating the unnecessary

"Eliminate the unnecessary and focus on the substance," is how Tommy Erdelyi (TOMMY RAMONE) described the credo of THE RAMONES.
I thought about this credo this morning, as KERSTIN and I listened to the band's landmark, debut album en route to her driver's education class.
It's becoming harder to imagine the Ramones as revolutionary, now that their songs are so prominently features in movies and TV commercials.
We would hear an "ooh ooh ooh" chorus and I would explain to Kerstin that the band decided to reject the lengthy guitar solo pretensions of the current music scene, returning to the simpler, "fun" era of early rock 'n' roll and girl-group pop.
It all sounded so raw for two reasons: They consciously rejected virtuosity and, quite frankly, they were just learning their instruments.
Even the iconic cover lives up to the credo. It's in black and white, it's just the band standing in front of a wall, and the only word is "Ramones" emblazoned on the top.
Simple.