It's funny how in the art world pieces by dead artists go for millions, and yet, while they were alive, they practically starved to death.

To a lesser extent — much lesser, actually — the same thing happened with punk pranksters The Ramones. Playing at breakneck speed with a ferocity and single-minded purpose that was borderline militaristic, but with garage-rock songs that had sweet hooks, funny lyrics and infectious, simple melodies that harkened back to '60s pop groups, The Ramones grew to become everyone's favorite glue-sniffers, brat beaters and general rock 'n' roll malcontents.

With The Ramones out front, the New York City punk city took off in the late '70s, but, in terms of record sales and commercial appeal, they didn't exactly set the world on fire. And yet, today, songs like "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Rock 'N' Roll High School," "Blitzkrieg Pop," "Judy Is A Punk" and "Rockaway Beach" have seeped their way into pop culture like a virus. They're everywhere now. They're in TV commercials. They're played at sporting events. Who could have seen that coming?

But, when the band was at the peak of its powers, outside of punk circles, they were thought of as a fringe element, mere gutter rats who would never amount to much.

Their longtime tour manager, Monte Melnick, who wrote The Ramones insider book "On The Road With The Ramones," wonders what might have been.
 
"You know, it's a shame," says Melnick. "They retired in '96, and they got into the Hall of Fame after that, and Joey died, and Dee Dee died and Johnny died, and they became huge. They're so big now it's insane. In fact, I have a line that I put into my new book which is, 'If the Ramones were this big when I was working for them, I would have gotten a raise.' I mean, they're so big now, it's insane. If they were around now, this is what they should have been. At the time, they didn't sell any records. They could have been like a Nirvana or a Green Day and selling a lot of records like that and having huge, humungous tours, like that. The record sales is the big thing. They could have sold a helluva lot more records now if they were still around, because they're so much bigger."

Recently, Melnick's book (Ominbus Press, $24.95, BOB11572R) was updated with more photos and observations from everybody involved with The Ramones. More from our interview with Melnick will be available in an upcoming issue of Goldmine and on our Web site at www.goldminemag.com.

For ordering information for Melnick's book, visit www.omnibuspress.com