10 Songs That Changed Rock History

As much as the Who may have tried to ignite the fire of rock and roll one more time, it felt like a lost cause for a lot of longtime fans. Regardless of the awesome music that was being made, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple felt like gods among men, with guitar skills and fancy houses that most of us would never see in our lifetime. So if we wanted to get into rock again, we needed something that actually looked achievable.

That's not to say that the Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop is necessarily an easy song to play or anything. While the structure of it is pretty straightforward, it all comes down to the passion and the stamina that you have for rock and roll to get you to the finish line. After spending years of putting rock on the main stage, this was exactly the kind of music that felt good blasting out of a grimy club like CBGBs.

And you better believe that the rest of the world was taking notice, with the Clash rising to prominence just a few months after the Ramones' debut, along with every pop punk act that used their songs as a marketing tool. If you've ever made money off of three simple chords and your internal angst, you probably still owe the Ramones about half of your royalties.