Recently HMXCasey tried to argue that the Ramones were not a punk band, but rather that there were a (*gasp*) glam band. His reasoning:

"Did they, or did they not, wear costumes?"

Once I scooped all my brains back up off the floor and tried to cram them back in my ears I told him that he was being ridiculous. Here are (some of) the (many) reasons why HMXCasey was being ridiculous.

1) I will not concede that the Ramones wore costumes. The ripped jeans, tshirts, leather jackets, and signature black hair cuts for which they were known were not stage clothes. That's the culture / fashion they came from and it's who they were. KISS had stage costumes. David Bowie had numerous on stage personalities. They wore those "costumes" both on and off stage so I think it transcends the pageantry of glam rock (if punk could ever be that sophisticated) and drifts somewhere into a uniform group identity (where they all look the same, whether by design or not, and share the same name). This may be worthy of deeper consideration, but I think at the very least I've established that HMXCasey is wrong.

2) Even if the Ramones did wear costumes (which they didn't) that doesn't make them a glam band. Which poster has that signature with the Zappa quote where a reported tells him he's a hippie because he has long hair? Anyway, Zappa's response was "You have a wooden leg. Are you a table?" Costumes do not equal glam band. The pageantry, the pomp and circumstance, the theatrics, the light and fog show, the make up, and all of those elements that made up the look and feel and sound of glam rock are nearly entirely absent in the Ramones. The Ramones, in most respects, were the antithesis of glam rock. They were stripped down, bare bones, no frills. While the paths of punk and glam have certainly crossed in the past (New York Dolls and the Misfits for example) the Ramones don't seem like an intersection to me.

Those are the two major counter points to HMXCasey's wild claim, so I don't think I need too many supporting points. I suppose there's a lot of wiggle room in this argument depending on your definition of words like glam, punk, costume, uniform, ridiculous and wrong... but at the end of the day I feel that I've done my best to defend those ragged and scraggly mop headed punks.