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The Ramones - Ramones Audio CD

A fair review of the The Ramones "Ramones" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Ramones reviews here, or go back to the The Ramones tabs.

Band: The Ramones
Title: Ramones
Rating:

Release Date: 2001-06-19
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Blitzkrieg Bop 2: Beat on the Brat 3: Judy Is a Punk 4: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend 5: Chainsaw 6: Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue 7: I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement 8: Loudmouth 9: Havana Affair 10: Listen to My Heart 11: 53rd & 3rd 12: Let's Dance 13: I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You 14: Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World 15: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend [*][Demo Version] 16: Judy Is a Punk [*][Demo Version] 17: I Don't Care [*][Demo Version] 18: I Can't Be [*][Demo Version] 19: Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue [*][Demo Version] 20: I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed [*][Demo Version] 21: You Should Never Have Opened That Door [*][Demo Version] 22: Blitzkrieg Bop [Single Version]

Sorry, Kids, This ISN"T true Punk Rock!

Dee Dee once confessed that he'd rather be one of Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers than a Ramone. I agree with another reviewer somewhere below! His/Her review is the best Ramones review I've ever been fortunate enough to read and I KNOW I'll Never top it, But It's so refreshing to hear of another true punk fan who sees the truth about this album in particular and the band in general, that I can't resist trying!
Let me try to elucidate!
I've listened to many of the Ramones albums over the years and despite the band's considerable energy on this album as well as their next 3, the Ramones were never really a Punk Rock band and their half-hearted attempt to market themslves as one fell flat, even though DeeDee DID write the Punk Rock anthem, "Chinese Rocks" with Johnny Thunders! Dee Dee, Marky, and original drummer Tommy (featured here) were the only intelligent members of the bunch. Perhaps he should have been!
The Ramones were always more Power Pop than Punk. Joey was a Beatles fan and Johnny was a right wing Bush-Lover and the band always lacked the Nasty attitude of true Punx! I mean, I never heard any stories about the Ramones scaring parents, priests ,or politicians! No perversity, no nihilism, no negativity! Those are all key elements of Punk and the Ramones always seemed to shy away from them! I mean, NO shock value whatsoever! They never threatened the status quo!Their hypocritical attempt to play "street rebels" was a transparent fake! They were always kissing the system's a**! Always doing as they were told! After watching their Documentary, "End Of the Century" I felt as if their only message was; "We will do ANYTHING for mainsteam acceptance!" Is THAT Punk?!?

By pretending to be"Punx", The Ramones lied to themselves, the public, and worst of all, their fans!

Personally, I always felt that the British bands of the 80s,( The Exploited, U. K. Subs, G. B. H. , The Varukers, and Chaotic Dischord et. al) were far more loyal to the true ethos of Punk Rock, although I respectfully concede that some American bands,(e. g. , the afore mentioned Johnny Thunders and The Heartreakers, The Dead Boys, The Germs, and GG Allin's projects) had enough Punky venom to totally DEMOLISH the Ramones!They all may have drawn upon the Ramones early energy but they did it FAR BETTER! I would Prefer any one of the above mentioned bands instead of Mamma's clean ,nice ,little Ramone boys!

The fiction that the Ramones were the "founders" of punk rock is only a cultural myth perpetuated by the mainstream media in order to gloss over the more threatening bands which followed.
Musically, the Ramones never had the slightest influence on real Punk Rock, Which was originally inspired by the Stooges, the New York Dolls, and the MC5 so Punk would still have developed just as well(albeit slower) without the Ramones.
For newcomers interested in 70s Punk, I recommend the Sex Pistols,the Damned's first album, or the Dead Boys, not these poseurs!

.

The Ramones first studio record.
The band took punk in new directions and influenced many bands in the process. This was their best record, which sounds better than ever before, remastered, plus it contains bonus tracks, demo versions of some of their songs worth checking out.

The American side of the foundational punk triangle
I won't go into who started punk in this review, as I haven't really checked out enough acts that get called "proto-punk".
This seems to be the album which gets nominated as the first genuine punk album. In any case, The Ramones did, from what I've read, have a big impact in the UK, where many of what would become the first wave of British punk, came to see them and hang out with them. That's the U. K end of the foundational punk triangle I mentioned in my header. The final side of that punk triangle lies in Australian bands like The Saints and Radio Birdman, who had no first hand contact with The Ramones or that British scene, so can't really be said to have been influenced by either the Ramones' side or British side of the punk scene. In fact, these Australian acts' releases predated most, if not all UK releases from that part of the world.

Basing my following comments on this album from a 2 for 1 release of "Ramones/Rocket to Russia", I have to say that I do find The Ramones to have that distinctive punk guitar sound, and lyrical themes associated with the American sense of the word "punk" (i. e. before the British sense came to be universal, with bands like The Sex Pistols). However, by comparison to The Saints' more seminal sounding debut "(I'm) Stranded", I have to say that The Ramones would have been better served taking The Saints' approach to the guitar sound in the mix. With The Saints, their sound is clean, clear, abrasive and to the fore. With The Ramones, unfortunately, it sounds like Mrs Ramone was in the mixing booth and toned down the punk guitar sound as it was a bit 'noisy' or something. If that is a faithful reproduction of the sound from their original album, then I must say it would be good to have a new remaster where the guitar sound is prominent and abrasive.

Leaving that aside, The Ramones bring a rhythm based approach to their pop punk. Their lyrics concern themes and concerns of the US 'punk'. . . snapshots of the seedier side of their city, and their proclivity for taking drugs. There is none of that phoney Philosophy which The Sex Pistols would bring to the table and brand the punk movement. . . a corporate takeover which excluded bands like The Saints and maybe The Ramones from the new mainstream punk scene.

Ok, to the songs I like on this album. . . this is my first Ramones studio album. . . a while back I reviewed their 3cd anthology, which I liked. Without looking at my review of that here, I am guessing that if I have passed over any songs in that review, it is because at the time they didn't stand out so much. Now, I seem to find some of these catchier, I think.

Best songs:

I wanna be your boyfriend - a very sweet, 50's style song. . . maybe the kind of vibe you'd get from girl-groups. One guitar sounds pretty, whilst the other has that typical punk sound happening. If you like Blondies' lovely "In the flesh", this song should appeal equally. Or maybe The La's "There she goes" is another point of comparison for this song. Anyway the lead guitar in this song is pretty and the other Ramones provide backing vocals. It's hard to think any mother wouldn't push her daughter in Joey's direction after listening to him on his best behaviour here! The demo version later on in this cd has more backing singing.

53rd & 3rd - has a catchy chorus and seems to be about a Vietnam War veteran who is an unsuccessful prostitute!

Next best songs:

Blitzkrieg bop - a song which grew on me on second listen. Has a classic guitar sound, is catchy and features some nice beats and noticeable bass. The Clash's "I fought the law" is brought to mind re vocal melody.

Down on my knees - 50s style rock'n'roll, bassy, with nice backing vocals and hand claps (actually, I think that my 2 for 1 has the wrong song title. . . "Down on my knees" did sound suspiciously similar to "Judy is a punk". . . so, wonder if my cd with track listing error is worth more resale?). The demo version of "Judy is a punk" doesn't have very good sound quality but it does feature a piano at the end.

Let's dance - another 50s style rock'n'roll song, bringing to mind such artists as England's Cliff Richard and Australia's Johnny O'Keefe. I've reviewed compilation albums by both of those acts here. . . recommended. This song has an organ or keyboard and frequent cool drum fills.

The rest:

Beat on the brat - has some heavy metal-ish fuzzy guitar sounds. In End Of The Century, The Ramones name drop Blue Cheer, which may be a source for this heavy approach to music.

Chainsaw - I think that this is the second song on this album which features Joey putting on the dog, so to speak (i. e. trying on an English type accent when singing, on occasion). A final example of this occurs with "I don't care", near the end of the album). The intro has the classic punk guitar sound. . . like angle grinders going to work on metal. My notes suggest that I found this song to function sort of as a theme to the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. . . a score to a horror movie, in other words.

Now I wanna sniff some glue - bassy, classic punk guitar tone, lead guitar solos featured. Makes me wonder if the title owes a debt to a Stooges' song title.

I don't wanna go down to the basement - a track with good bass guitar lines. Here the bass guitar practically functions as the lead guitar, I think. Has the classic punk guitar sound, but, again, it's a pity that all that goodness is way down in the mix, backgrounded. The next track, "Loudmouth", sounds sort of similar to this track, too, bass guitar wise and elsewhere.

Havana affair - by this point the bass guitar is sounding samey, but the amped up fuzz guitar bits are nice. . . in other words, you sometimes get a feel in this song for how it might have sounded if the guitar was foregrounded.

Listen to my heard - bassist seems to be playing punk type riffs, but by notes, not chords. Seems to be a song about love lost.

I don't wanna walk around with you - cool, driving, funky bass. . . it's really going places. Reminded me of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Has backing vocals.

Today your love - the lyrics are hard to understand, as usual. Songs discussed below are part of the bonus tracks this cd offers. . .

I don't care - a good track if you like bass guitar. . . I'm reminded of the classic "Little green bag" or, say, The White Stripes "7 nation army". This is the other track where Joey tries to pull off an English accent but is just hard to understand, ironically.

I can't be - bassy track, with a bit of amped up, grungy sounding guitar. . . has a CLASSIC punk sounding riff. . . makes me wonder if it draws on the riff from "Chinese rock", which The Ramones would record later, and which was recorded by one of the Ramones earlier in his career, with another band (The Heartbreakers, going on memory).

Now I wanna sniff some glue - highly distorted guitar with a prominent lead guitar bit. Has some bass guitar bits which remind me of "7 nation army".

I don't wanna be learned/I don't wanna be tamed - a bassy, fuzz rock song.

You should never have opened that door - interesting bass, I think, and has sounds similar to a needle jumping on a vinyl record. Has a classic punk lyrical structure, as far as the chorus goes. The lyrics are horror themed. . . menacing, in other words.

Blitzkrieg bop - the intro sort of sounds mono on this song.

In conclusion, this is a solid punk album. It has excellent sound quality, especially as far as the sound for the bass guitar and vocals go (prominent in the mix). It's a pity that the punk guitar sound is short-changed in this album. Would have liked more of an edge to that, as you get with The Saints' debut album, which preceded any album by a British punk band, I think. I'd give the original album 8/10, but including the bonus tracks, I'd give this particular cd around 85-90/100.

Recommendations:

The Saints: (I'm) Stranded - to me this album seems to have songs that pre-empt later movements in music like speed and thrash etc. Takes more than one listen to get into though. I rate it a superior album to The Ramones' debut, but it took me more than one listen to come to that view.

Radio Birdman: Radios appear - get described as 'proto-punk', but this Australian band released their debut the same year as The Saints. Has some variety of sound. . . from "Oi!" type punk, to more speed based punk, to easy-listening jazzy tracks. Have heard Television's Marquee Moon, which I don't really consider to be punk, despite it being classed as such. If Television were punk, Radio Birdman might be what they would have sounded like. If you like Radio Birdman's jazzy, easy listening tracks, you will be rewarded by a listen to Marquee Moon, although I did not get that much out of them.

The Damned: Damned damned damned - the first English punk band to release an album. . . a fact which was brought to my attention in a recent issue of "Classic rock" magazine, by Joey Ramone, in an interview which was finally published, despite being conducted years ago (this interview is in the 'alternative history of heavy metal' issue, of some months back. Joey takes full credit for every first wave of punk band to come out. . . an assertion I do not agree with, at least as far as the Australian punk scene goes).

One of the greatest recordings of all time
It is one of my all time favorites, through all of the subtle twists of my own personal musical tastes. There is really nothing more to say about this album. . . the Ramones have been one of the constants. I have to admit to a great degree of satisfaction every time I see a youngster walking around sporting a Ramones shirt. It gives me some hope for the future.

Today your gut, tomorrow history
It's a gloriously maladjusted crusade through the backstreets of the Bronx, where mothers "beat on the brat with a baseball bat," kids sniff glue out of desperate boredom, and their bully older brothers are riveted by "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Ramones are historically misrepresented as the first punk band--see the New York Dolls--but their debut is accurately acclaimed as one of the greatest rock 'n' roll records ever cut, from the drumbeat lightning-strike drive of "Blitzkrieg Bop" (little sex, some macho, lotta dysfunction) onward. " The Ramones were those kids. Now they're pop music legends, since, even if they didn't invent it, they did bring punk to the mainstream (eventually; their debut only hit number 11 on the "Billboard" charts). They're also in on Cold War absurdity ("Havana Affair"--what do you think of that, Mr. Zimmerman?). The best title award goes to "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World," one of my favorites off the album, despite the fact that it's about Naziism.

You can see a complete list of all The Ramones discography, or go back to the The Ramones tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.