“Cretin family cretin family cretin family, everyone's against me, cretin family cretin family cretin family, oi-oi-oi-oi”. Cretin Family it's a Ramones song contained in ¡Adios Amigos! from 1995, the band's last studio album, the one with the cover of I Don't Want to Grow Up by Tom Waits. The first and most famous, the one with the cover photo of Roberta Bayley (here is the interview with the photographer), was released in 1976.
To worthily celebrate half a century of the album by Blitzkrieg Bop, Judy Is a Punk And I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend a supergroup aptly named Cretin Family was born. The members are all musicians influenced by the Ramones and there is also a Ramone inside: Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Travis Barker of Blink-182, Tim Armstrong of Rancid and CJ Ramone, the group's last bassist and among other things co-author and singer of Cretin Family.
The four will participate in the Official Ramones 50th Anniversary Tribute which will be held on August 30 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Proceeds will go to the Ellison Institute Research Foundation for cancer research (Joey Ramone died in 2001 from lymphoma).
«The spirit of the Ramones lives in every improvised punk concert, in every punk club, in every festival», says Billie Joe Armstrong. «Generation after generation of idiots and weirdos they became Ramones fans. The kids are influenced by the Ramones and don't even know it. ¡Viva Ramones!».
For Barker «the Ramones are the reference model. Punk-rock wouldn't be what it is today without them”, Tim Armstrong recalls that “from the moment I heard them for the first time, the music was never the same”, while CJ Ramone promises that “it will be the biggest celebration of the Ramones that anyone has witnessed in a long time!”.
The event will be presented by John Travolta and includes the screening of the film he starred in in 1976 Carrie – Satan's gaze as well as Night flight to Los Angeles directed by him and released this year. «Two years ago» says the actor in a statement «I had the pleasure of participating in the Hollywood Forever Johnny Ramone Tribute for the first time. It was amazing and I want to go back for the Ramones tribute. With something new, my directorial debut, and something old, the 50th anniversary of the original Carrie. It will be a fun evening. See you there.”
At this link the first interview by Rolling Stone to the band created in 1976 and here is our story of the event Travolta talks about, with the visit to Joey's grave and the performance of a Ramones cover band with Tim Armstrong of Rancid, CJ Ramone and Billy Idol.
