I've noticed a number of peculiar incidents among the members of the student body, all having to do with rock and roll music.

Now if you don't think this song is the greatest song ever, I will fight you.

I've never met a rock band that hasn't prepared for their tour by watching Spinal Tap.

I'm Jim DeRogatus, and I'm Greg Cutt. We celebrate 30 years of Spinal Tap with director, writer, and star Rob Reiner.

And then we review a new album from another rock and roll myth maker, Morrissey. That's all coming up on Sound Opinions.

This is Sound Opinions, and later in the show, we're going to review the new album, the 10th solo record from Morrissey.

Greg, we had Johnny Mar of the Smiths on the show, and that was fun, but I've never spoken to Mars, have you?

I did, Jim. This was years ago, in the early 90s, actually, and he just came off a show where the fans had climbed on stage and literally ripped his shirt off.

And I said, what's going on there? He says, I understand what my fans want. That happens to us a lot.

Yes, indeed. What we're going to find out of Mars still understands what his fans want. We're going to review that album later in the show, but first we've got some music news.

That is the Ramones from 1976. Who else could it be, with beat on the brats and the great Tommy Ramones on drums leaving absolutely no space in that song for anything else.

It's the driving locomotive of rhythm, the late great Tommy Ramones. Tommy Erdelay, dead at the age of 65, the last surviving original member of the Ramones, Jim.

It's hard to say that, you know, it really is. Johnny Joey and D.D. Ramone all died within the last 15 years. Tommy was the last man standing from that original band that basically changed the face of rock and roll in the 70s.

He was probably the least known, the most mysterious member. He was kind of the behind the scenes, Sven Galley of this band in a way.

He crafted their first press release. He was saying the Ramones all originate from Forest Hills, New York, and kids who grew up there either become musicians, degenerates, or dentists.

The Ramones are a little of each. Their sound is not unlike a fast drill on a rear muller. He was an experienced guy, Jim. He had worked with Hendrix in the studio as a studio engineer in 1970 before he came to the Ramones as their drummer, producer, and also songwriter.

And we talked to him on the show about working on rocket to Russia. We're going to replay that show in a couple of weeks as a tribute.

Two things I think people don't understand or appreciate about Tommy and the Ramones in general. Number one is if you think that was simple drumming because there's no fill on the first Ramones out until the very last song. Try to play it.

Try it. It's endurance. Their virtuosity was speed. Number two is the influence of this band.

We can talk about the Rolling Stones or the Beatles. It's wonderful. The McCartney is still out there. But this is a band that if you heard them, and if you got them, they changed your life.

And that can't be said of a lot of other groups. I was in Italy recently, and I was staying in this 900-year-old castle, and there's this little chapel at the foot of the hill where the castle is.

And there was this kid. He's this chubby little kid with the complete Johnny bowl haircut, and he's with this girl, and they're sitting there at teens, 16 years old, and he had a Ramones shirt on.

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