Ramones - Ramones

As of my original writing of this review, I only own three Ramones albums. I own the first album, the last live recording, and a greatest hits that covers everything in between. I would own more from them, but I didn't get into the Ramones until my late teens.

My little sister actually liked the Ramones before me, thanks to the movie Rock 'N' Roll High School. If you are wondering how this could happen, all I have to do is say Varg. I've mentioned my friend that had a habit of killing songs/album/bands for many of us in our teens. I heard Acid Eaters, and I don't remember which other album, more times than I can clearly remember.

It also didn't help that at the time I was going through my "punk is talentless shit period". It took until 1997 before I finally bought my first Ramones anything, and it was We're Outta Here! Recorded on August 6, 1996 when the Ramones performed their 2,263rd and final concert. Those thirty-two songs opened me up to a whole world as high speed enjoyment. It's because of the Ramones break neck speed that Metal moves so fast.

It took around half a decade after that, before I got around to picking up anymore CDs, from the leather clad punks from Queens. When I did finally start picking up albums I opted to go with the self titled debut, Ramones. However, it's not the standard classic album. It's the 2001 Expanded Edition release.

It has the original 14 songs available remastered in Rhinophonic Authentic Sound (Digitally remaster and released by Rhino, for the Warner Archives). Plus, it also has 7 demo versions and a single version of various songs.

The album opens with the uber classic Blitzkrieg Bop. I can't believe I've seen this song become the monster that it now is, and in my kid's life time. This song was always known to some degree, enough to call it popular, but underground popular. However, in the time since Dee Dee, Joey and Johnny Ramone have all died, this song has become legend. It's right up there with Iggy Pop's Lust for Life in the Punk stratosphere of commercial popularity.

Beat On The Brat is held back on the recording by the production. This song should have been allowed to run wild at a blistering pace, and instead totally feels like it's being held back from beating on the brat. I remember reading somewhere that when this album was recorded the producer Craig Leon was a metronome Nazi. Well that might be a bit of an overstatement, but that's how I find most of this album sounds.

Judy Ia A Punk is one of those songs that you either like or you don't. It's a great rock song, with a very 60's kind of vibe. Part of me always thinks of The Monkees, when I hear this one. Which is great, except that it's not a quality Monkees song. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend is so 50's high school dance music. I could so picture Marty McFly playing this one in Back To The Future, and the audience never knowing it's a punk song from two decades later. Well except for the fact that the tempo is unusually fast.

Chain Saw is the original Scoobie-Doo cartoon meets Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This song has the best production on the entire album, because it's the only song that sounds like more than just the band locked in a room and told to play at one specific tempo. It also has violent machine noises. I do really love this song. It's one of my favourites on this album.

I like bits and pieces of Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue. I don't care for the song over all, and I don't understand why so many people like it so much. It's just a really odd song to me.

The nice part about a Ramones song is it's over before it gets boring. The problem is that it makes the longest song on the album seem really long, and repetative. I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement is only 2:35 and I would swear if I hadn't looked that it was closer to four minutes.

It's a good thing that on the original vinyl Loudmouth and I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement were separated by different sides of the album. On the CD one runs into the other, and they sound like the exact same song with different words.

Which brings me to the simplicity of the lyrical structure to this bands songs. You get one verse, one chorus, and adlibbed variations on those two sets of words. It's simple genius, when it works on a song. It's boring as shit when it doesn't.

Havana Affair is one of those songs that I would like to love, but I can't. I've heard the original version on here and a cover by Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I like the original version better by far, but it still sounds like it could have been done better. The producer should have had them try to tweek it just a bit more still. Try and find more of the song's voice.

I don't care for Listen To My Heart. It has that problem of sounding too long, even though it's only two minutes.

I'm not sure how I feel about 53rd & 3rd as well. I really like the song. It's one of the most complicated songs on the album, but at the same time I don't care for the jagged rhythm. To which people then say, "You're clearly missing the point of the song". To which I point out that I clearly am not. I just don't really care for it.

Let's Dance is a Sock Hop, on a beach, with hoola hoops, where everyone got into the crack. Also can someone explain to me which Ramone was the organist? I'm pretty sure the first rule of Punk is no piano. Then again this was the first Punk album, so I guess they didn't have that rule yet.

I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You, is another song that just seems longer than it really is. It's these types of songs that make up what would be this album's fillers. Thankfully there aren't to many of them.

Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World has the following lyrics, "I'm a shock trooper in a stupor / Yes I am. / I'm a Nazi schatze / Y'know I fight for fatherland / Little German boy / Being pushed around / Little German boy / In a German town / Today your love, tomorrow the world". I find this very powerful and captivating, since these are the only words spoken in the last song on the original vinyl. It's a great ending to the album, and it's one of the few Ramones songs I would love to cover on any type of regular basis.

The Bonus Tracks start with the demo of I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, and I like the tape hiss filled version just as much as the original. In some ways I like it better, specifically the guitar sound.

From there it's on to Judy is a Punk. I like this version better. It's the band let off the leash, performing the song the way they would perform it. I still don't care for the song that much.

I Don't Care is a demo just like almost every other bonus song. Also like many other songs, this was previously unissued. The song is pretty much the title said over and over, but if it had great potential and it should have been explored and released on this original album.

All the Stuff (And More) Volume One is a compilation album, made up of the first two albums, plus some other demos. I Can't Be is one of those, and is now on here. It's not as good to my ears as the demo song before it. I'd say skip it, but it's really not that long.

The demo for Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue would be better than the studio version if the sound quality was better. However, I still don't care for the song.

I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna be Tamed is a second track that could only be found on the All the Stuff (And More) Volume One album. I like this one more than I Can't Be, but not as much as the next demo.

You Should Never Have Opened That Door is another song that is very much just like I described Chain Saw. It would be my guess that someone said, "Those songs are pretty much the same. Why do you need to have two songs about killers?" I think that person should have been shot, for clearly only having half a brain.

The album ends with Blitzkreig Bop (Single Version). Normally when there's a single version of a song it's to make it more radio friendly. Many times radio edits are to remove certain offending words, or to shorten for time. This song didn't need either, and the running time is still the exact same. So, without listening to the song you have to wonder what the hell they did to it.

That famous version of this song you always hear, it's actually this version of the song. The production is slightly altered. For starters, the guitar is pushed further forward, and the vocals have echo on them now. Actually the sound of the entire song is cleaned up, sort of. A better way to describe it would be instrumentally separated.

The original version has a very level blended sound, where it's hard to pull the instruments apart. The single version has the drums balanced and holding down the background noise, the bass is really pushed up to create a clear thumping, and the vocals really radiate from the center. This is what an over produced Ramones album would have sounded like, if they were going for commercial success.

All in all this is a great album. If I had been in charge of putting together the original album, using all the songs that make up this Expanded Edition, I would have changed out at least three songs. Loudmouth, Listen To My Heart, and Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue would have been replaced with I Don't Care, I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna be Tamed, and You Should Never Have Opened That Door, if I had had my way.

If you find the original album you should pick it up all the same. It's the original Punk album, and just for educational purposes it should be a part of any record/compact disc collection. If you find the Expanded Edition I would suggest picking that up even more. I can't stress how much better the Ramones sound as a band on the demos, not to mention five of the seven demos are just really good to listen to.

The only thing that hurts this album is the production. Part of that comes from the time and equipment, but I think most of the blame needs to go on Craig Leon's head. Admittedly this was his first Pop/Rock/Non Classical Music album, but it was the wrong band to start with. The second album he's credited with producing, that falls into the Pop/Rock catagory, was Blondie's self titled debut, and he did a much better job with the production.

8/10 - content

5/10 - production

7/10 - personal bias