Guitar Cover - "Blitzkrieg Bop" - The RAMONES (Tabs in video description)

[@HardlyRamone]

I couldn't resist making a better cover with my new guitar & tone, feel free to check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHm7oHuwd755a9E

[@justineverett7396]

I saw that one the other night with the Green Mosrite, I watched it a number of times. It's awesome man!

[@101Volts]

@@justineverett7396 That's not a Mosrite, it's a Hallmark. Hallmark make very good guitars that are somewhat like replicas of Mosrite models, and they get close to the original sound that the Mosrites had. If Hardly had an original 1965 Mosrite Ventures II "Slab," it would cost between $5,000 and $10,000 in today's market, early 2024. Mosrite made only up to 150 of them, if that. I'm sure that at least 2 of them were confiscated, and replaced with a Mark V type model instead. It's not just the rarity that made it valued, it's Johnny.

[@artyom6167]

No joke one of the best covers i've seen on Yt, from the outfit and the sound to the camera quality, amazing job

[@MrRamone_CBGB]

This guy is a beast

[@101Volts]

Hardly here works as a cinematographer.

[@ratkomartin2005]

Thanks for bringing Johnny back on this world again.

[@HardlyRamone]

Nobody can ever really replace Johnny Ramone the man, but I hope to keep the spirit of his playing alive here

[@samquitkin338]

That guitar tone is fucking BEASTLY! Awesome work man love all the videos!

[@JP_LIII]

Love that sound! Can't stop listening to it.

[@patrickjoshi3033]

There is no other explanation, this is Johnny Ramone reincarnated.

[@harrihiltunen6383]

one of the best guitar solo ever....

[@LetsGoMetsGo33]

Gosh, if I didn't know that Johnny never played at home, I could be fooled this was him! Besides your spot on technique, even your hands and arms remind of a young Johnny. A great antidote to a lot of crap "how to play" Ramones videos. You and WoodyAmsterdam the best I've seen.

[@HardlyRamone]

Yeah I'm just trying to spread how the songs were really played! I hope the video quality is eye catching enough to get these covers seen. And thanks, I just lucked out being approximately the same height/weight as Johnny was in his mid 20s.

[@LetsGoMetsGo33]

@@HardlyRamone Right on. I've written some surly comments to some of the bad videos I mentioned. I shouldn't care that much, but I find it insulting if someone titles the video "Super easy- how to play Blitzkrieg Bop totally correct", and they're alternate picking in a random pattern, while playing power chords. I've seen your videos before, but got here today b/c on one such surly comment, someone corrected my assertion that Johnny plays the B chord on this song on the E string. I stood corrected after watching some old footage (and your video). I've played it on the E since before you were born, assuming I was correct, I guess because I learned the principle of switching between those two chord shapes in a way that economized fretboard movement from Johnny. Keep up the good work.

[@HardlyRamone]

@@LetsGoMetsGo33 Ah man, yeah I can't stand that one tutorial video calling the alternate picking/power chord method "insanely easy and correct". I don't care if people want to teach "Easy Playalong Guitar - Blitzkrieg Bop". But when you start asserting that it's correct, like that's how Johnny played... get outta here. In general, anybody can play guitar however they want, but don't present false information as fact and diminish the style of a guitar player who isn't around to say otherwise. As for the B chord, yeah that is honestly one of the craziest overlooked details of one of the band's most well known songs. Even Woody's tutorial shows it on the E string, and he's basically the original hero of explaining Johnny's style on KZbin. I wouldn't have known the style used barre chords so easily without him. But yeah. Johnny played a full on B minor chord with an A shape barre chord, and it's very odd, considering how he usually built his chord patterns. I suspect it's this way because the song's music was written by Tommy Ramone, who probably presented to Johnny where the chords were to be played. Tommy was a bit more of a music-savvy guitarist in those early days, who probably knew that B minor was correct for the key of A. And as much as I like to say tone doesn't matter too much, this is admittedly a chord that can sound really awful on an unfitting rig. So maybe with all things considered, its not too strange of an oversight for playing this song.

[@LetsGoMetsGo33]

@@HardlyRamone Yeah, Woody plays it that way too! I’m sure that increased my certainty! Awesome that you watch him- as I said, you two rule. Tommy! Great sleuthing! Would explain it… Yeah, he was gonna call it “animal hop” I believe, until Dee Dee helped give the lyrics more pizazz. And of course, like you said, Tommy was more of a muso. He was given to playing what Johnny would call “Beatles chords”… I believe Johnny had Tommy play a minor chord somewhere on the “your gonna kill that girl” recording, b/c Johnny refused, lol.

[@HardlyRamone]

@@LetsGoMetsGo33 I have a theory about that whole thing; I think the story about it has gotten muddied in some way over time. Wikipedia even mentions it in some variety, but it doesn't make any sense. The thing is, there aren't actually any minor chords in You're Gonna Kill That Girl, the entire song is just the normal major chords Johnny played live. So here's my theory. Tommy famously did say that he played "the chord at the end of You're Gonna Kill That Girl" because Johnny didn't want to, but that's a very odd statement, because there is no special final chord at the end of that song. It just ends on Johnny's normal guitar take. I feel like Tommy must have misspoke in that quote. I think he was actually thinking of the special chord at the end of "Oh Oh I Love Her So" from the same album, which does end with a very Beatles-esque A13 chord... played on a clean guitar. My guess would be that this is the chord that was actually recorded by Tommy on his own guitar. It sounds sensible enough to me. Weirdly though, on top of all that, you can still hear Johnny himself play that colorful A13 chord at the end of Oh Oh I Love Her So in early live recordings, such as the famous Blitz '76 bootleg from The Club in Cambridge. So even if Tommy played it on the record, maybe he convinced Johnny to do it once or twice live? It's so confusing, lol

[@igordragoslav9672]

Love it dude

[@leamanc]

I just read your notes on the tab. Great stuff, and it explains why other tabs don’t sound right when you follow them. The notes on getting the tone right are fantastic.

[@HardlyRamone]

Thanks! This song has a weird thing going on where the tone kind of hides the barre chords a little, thanks to a lack of string clarity, so you get all these tabs interpreting it with power chords instead. But when the right technique and the tone come together, the resulting harmonic power is unmistakable. A shame that something so cool but ultimately very simple is widely misrepresented. Even the "Official" Ultimate Guitar tab is wrong in several ways...

[@leamanc]

@@HardlyRamone I thought I was doing good to figure out he did include the third in his chords vs. straight power chords! Did he generally always play A-shaped chords as second inversions, or just on this song?

[@HardlyRamone]

@@leamanc I’d say you were still doing good there, the 3rds get overlooked so often. He pretty much always played 2nd inversions as well. There’s a really old video on this channel that shows his strumming and chord changes in slow motion. I’ve never been able to find any examples of him either controlling his strum to not hit the low E string or muting out the low E with his fretting hand, unless he was playing the D open chord

[@101Volts]

@@HardlyRamone The "Official" U.G. tab is incorrect, ha ha. Having written a tab to The B-52s' "Rock Lobster" that actually tabs the last 2 minutes, I know what you mean. You might think that in about 40 or 45 years, someone else would have nailed it earlier? But, it just didn't happen.

[@HardlyRamone]

@@101Volts You would really think so!

[@shnert27]

Great comeback!

[@MikeT003]

Awesome Job!!!! Sounds exactly like the original Recording! subbed!

[@TwistedCantQuickscope]

Hey man Nice Cover of Blitzkrieg Bop. Man that cover almost sounded like the original recording!

[@HardlyRamone]

You should check out my updated cover! I’d say it’s even closer

[@erpe1972]

Nice sound. Super!!!

Daaaamn i was faking waiting for videos like this, thx man

[@pioneerrocket22]

MONSTER TONE!!

[@DavidCharlier]

Wow, best cover I found here on KZbin!!! Thanks for sharing!

[@idoguitarstuff]

Dude I love it, thanks for all the new videos! The fit is good too 😂

[@PalaceFan]

great cover and love the camera position for someone like me that is looking to learn it correctly!! Massive thanks

[@alfonsoazcorra]

Well done !!, Great sound !!, Cheers !!

[@PeterParker-lf7ft]

That’s awesome.

[@nogy8884]

As a new Ramones fan and enemy of all bar chords, I both hate and love you. Time to settle the score with the old A bar chord and turn my right wrist into jelly. Thanks for the help!

[@HardlyRamone]

I hate and love you too!

[@tommy2064]

I like this 👍👌

[@martinkguitarcover4933]

Nice song , great playing!!

[@Thirteen31Music]

Nice playing sir. Curious are you playing a full 6 string barchord - 577655 or just the top 4 strings - 5776xx? I've seen a read that Johnny pretty much always played full 6 string major bar chords, that + all downstrokes being a key part of his sound. The number of incorrect tabs for this "simple" song is actually pretty astounding. You're cover is probably the best I've seen.

[@HardlyRamone]

Thanks! Yes, a terribly misunderstood song despite being very simple and famous.. I use full six string barre chord shapes for Johnny Ramone stuff, and I'm pretty much always happy to clarify exactly what strings I'm hitting in these songs. I generally allow the B string in particular to mute out a little on the E shape chords, so it's nearly 5776x5 here. I can't claim it's for sure what Johnny did, but I do currently suspect that he typically fretted E shape barres this way much of the time. I have these guitar tones pretty close to his, and usually fretting the B string clearly with the barre sounds pretty drastically incorrect. If I ever try out his real gear and find that the fretted B string sounds correct, I'll go back to fretting it clean at all times, but I'm doubtful. The B string is one of the loudest strings on a guitar and it's hard to conceal it's effect on a chord via tone... but you never know. He did know how to fret it properly, you can sometimes plainly hear him do it, like in some live versions of "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" during the clean parts, and other instances that are seemingly more random. Also, I should say all six strings are fretted clean on every A shape barre chord, 557775, 779997, and 224432 here. In these chords the B string is actually rather crucial because it adds the 3rd interval to the chord, which can be heard pretty plainly in his recordings. Having that high E string in all the chord shapes is important in my opinion for the early sound, it adds a certain subtle brightness that kinda seems like it's just his tone, but it’s not. You don't have to hit it very hard for it to contribute something to the sound, you just want to catch it at the very end of the downstroke. Sometimes he would really hit the full chord harder and you could hear the high E poke through his tone more clearly than usual, but you have to listen closely to a lot of their material to catch those moments. I'd say 9 times out of 10 though on any of my current guitar covers the high E string IS fretted, and being struck by the downstrokes... just not very hard much of the time. And ultimately it will ring out and add some ambient brightness whether you actively hit it or not, there's no way to stop it from vibrating a little once it's fretted and you're wailing on the guitar. If you'd like to hear the sound of my guitar without an amp for reference, check out my recent "First Album Version" cover of Teenage Lobotomy. There's a link in the description to hear that guitar take cleanly without amp distortion, and you'll hear the sound of the high E string, as well as the muted out B string on any E shape chords. You can also find that video by just adding this to youtube.com in the url bar: /watch?v=NqwFRrR9chc

[@expeditoricardo6453]

0:02

[@remixplayerbasketballgh2]

Nice👍

[@AmiltonJr99]

what's your amp settings? bass, treble btw really nice cover :)

[@HardlyRamone]

Bass 2, Mids 8, Treble 4, Gain 10. I wouldn't say these numbers are too important though, the knobs do very different things on different amps... I also added additional EQ and processing to my tone after the amp in these recordings.

[@AmiltonJr99]

@@HardlyRamone thanks, and yeah, I can see that, I use totally different settings lol

[@croby]

What amp do you use? Sounds incredible!

[@HardlyRamone]

@@croby It's the plugin version of the Marshall Plexi Super Lead 1959 by Softube, so it represents the same amp Johnny Ramone used on this record. I add a lot of extra EQ after amp settings to real dial in the tone, though

[@Jan_Zimny]

Guitar model ?

[@lauwolf1111]

Mosrite sound= Strat + P90 💪🔥

[@pdoherty926]

This cover and the tab to go along with it is such a great contribution. Thanks, @Hardly Ramone! Do you or anyone else have any tips on moving back to A? I've been trying for weeks and just can't seem to do it cleanly or consistently.

[@HardlyRamone]

Honestly that transition back to A is just hard when you're learning, getting all four fingers back in just the right place. The most important thing is to take the time you need to get back in the correct chord position, even if you can't do it fast enough to play along with the song yet. That keeps you from building a bad or sloppy habit. Eventually your fingers will just learn from repetition, and be able to go fast enough to get it clean most of the time, enough that it isn't frustrating. You'll get tighter from there.

[@pdoherty926]

@@HardlyRamone Thanks for the prompt response and suggestions! If there's anything I've learned while trying to pick up guitar, it's "when in doubt, just do it a few thousands times."

[@bendrowe]

I could have almost sworn this was Steve Albini playing this song!

[@HardlyRamone]

Well you can get a good look at me on my Instagram page of the same name, lol

[@Dawid_Andrzejczak]

Wow 🖤🔥

[@adrianpopov3639]

SO BADASS

[@sashamonique3005]

johnny stance

[@steveclark7736]

Happy to see others still into Punk Rock. Ramones, The Faction and Green Day are a mood. What kind of guitar is that? I’m way digging the Fender Lead vibe with the 1 single coil in the bridge

[@HardlyRamone]

Squier bullet strat with a Hallmark 67 pickup! I also did some smaller mods like better tuners. I talk about it a little in my latest video

[@steveclark7736]

Awesome! My current rig is an American professional 2 Stratocaster is HSS thats outfited with Alnico 5 pickups, treble bleed circuit, and the humbucker is coil split. Getting Punk rock tons out of Strats is super easy and I highly recommend it. What kind of amp or software you use? I currently use Bias Fx2 and Logic.

[@HardlyRamone]

@@steveclark7736 That’s real cool, man. For the videos I use Softube’s plugin versions of the Marshall Plexi Super Lead 1959 and Marshall Master Volume 2203, since Johnny used the real ones in the 70’s. I’m using Logic X as well

[@steveclark7736]

@@HardlyRamone I’m definitely going to try out some Softube for my own covers. From your covers they sound pretty spot compared to the real deal. I’ve always be hesitant to buy Marshall plugins because I’m scared it’s gonna be garbage but that’s stellar. Keep up the good videos and Rock on! 🔥🤘🏻🔥🤘🏻🔥🤘🏻

[@HardlyRamone]

@@steveclark7736 thanks man! I think they offer a 20 day free trial to test the plugins out, which I used, ha. The Softube stuff is officially licensed by Marshall, they worked with each other to capture amp samples and design these. I’m using the Super Lead in this video, I think it’s awesome. A bit more “fizzy” than a real one perhaps, but really really close.

[@diegocantarelli1699]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@justineverett7396]

TLDR: This is perfect, what BPM are you using here?...Seriously man, this is the most accurate cover (to my untrained ear) of my second favorite Ramones song (I loved your cover of my favorite - Cretin Hop as well). I'm sure this has been answered somewhere in the comments. However, I JUST started learning guitar a month ago, and I can kinda play Blitzkrieg Bop in a hybrid easy way/Barre Chord way. My problem is that even with syncing with a metronome, it sounds off (too slow at 176). There are multiple opinions out there on whether this song on "The Ramones" original album is 176 BPM, 177, 178, 180, 215, and 235. Only the faster ones sound right to me, but I just watched a video from 1976 where the channel owner claimed it was 180 BPM, and that version sounded correct. But when I match my metronome to the song, the metronome sounds too slow to me. I saw on the guitar tab link (love your handle of "Johnny Ramone" spelled backwards, and how you took that hater down), but I didn't see the BPM posted. Since, in my opinion, you play it perfectly here, what is the BPM?

[@HardlyRamone]

Blitzkrieg Bop isn't a perfect tempo. Supposedly Tommy Ramone was playing to a flashing metronome light, but running a digital tempo analysis shows that the song fluctuates from anywhere between 175 to 180 bpm, leaning slower. So the song is around 177 bpm on average, but the actual drums are speeding up and slowing down slightly. I'm playing along to the record, so I'm doing the same thing here. If you want to play at the approximate speed of the record, just do 177, but it will never feel the same as the energy fluctuation on the real track. Hope that helps!

[@justineverett7396]

@@HardlyRamone, thank you for responding! I've been listening to the song in the background or active listening on a loop for the last month. After playing to the song, and varying speeds after I posted the question, my teacher on Weds noted that I was getting my timing down and he was surprised that I varied speeds on the verse and chorus - because that's what sounded right to me vs. the tabs (or my inability to read them correctly). After a month I can can play the song decently...but, man - watching your video(s) makes me want to get it perfect like you do. Love your channel!!!!

[@HardlyRamone]

@@justineverett7396 Thank you! Blitzkrieg Bop is my favorite Ramones song. I have a newer cover of it up, with a guitar tone a little closer to the original! I also have that one up as just the guitar track (no backing music), and that one links to a version without the amp effects, just the raw guitar signal, if that interests you.

[@justineverett7396]

@@HardlyRamone, yes - I saw all of your covers of BB! I went from research to pure enjoyment with your videos!

[@bubu2959]

Holy sh it's a beautiful guitar, what is it? Noventa strat or a modified regular one?

[@HardlyRamone]

It's a Squier Bullet Strat, but I did a lot to it. New tuners, internal shielding paint, repainted headstock, 500k volume pot, and a Hallmark '67 pickup in the bridge position!

[@XenoFTW]

Kind of cheating with finger on whole frat but... it's not stupid if it works. Nicely played!👏

[@HardlyRamone]

Thanks! This is how the song is fretted on the album and in all Ramones live shows, it’s not so much cheating, just the way the song is played. It sounds much cooler than the regular chord shapes, and it’s not like it’s easier

[@JohnyJames-vx2ei]

SUB-SCRIMED!