Can You Really Get By on Three Chords and the Truth? by Ace Boggess

Can You Really Get By on Three Chords and the Truth?

by Ace Boggess

(published in Jenny, Issue 015, Fall 2018)

I like to think of the Ramones as the Schopenhauer of punk

in dirt of the psyche boldly shouting about wanting

to be sedated, sniff some glue, be somebody’s boyfriend.

Theirs was the fatalistic music of half-believing,

self-entrenchment of a kind that would’ve inspired Dostoevsky

to dance or pound his rugged fist in the air. Of course,

Joey Ramone couldn’t be called an attractive ma...