Ramones - Acid Eaters

I've mentioned my buddy Varg and his over play abuse of certains bands, albums and songs. Acid Eaters from the Ramones was one of those albums. However, I came a across a four pack of the last four Ramones CDs one day, for a very reasonable price and now I have this album in my possession.

While I will admit right from the begining I don't overly care for this album, it is interesting listening to the Ramones do covers of some classic Rock greats.

Journey To The Center Of The Mind opens the album with the perfect sense of speed and tenacity. I'm a huge fan of the original from Ted Nugent And The Amboy Dukes, and while this cover doesn't have the soloing of Ted Nugent, it still has some mighty enjoyable guitar work.

I really like what the band did with Substitute. It sounds very much like The Who, and The Ramones. However, in the case of the song itself, I never really cared about it one way or the other.

I don't like Out Of Time. It's a basic run of the mill slow song, being done by a band that shouldn't be doing slow songs. I don't know the original and I don't want to either, after hearing this.

The Shape Of Things To Come is a good quick Punk number, that I enjoy, but have no comparison point of an original.

While I won't say that Somebody To Love is good, I also won't say that it's bad either. I love the Jefferson Airplane version, and have heard other covers that are decent, but this one has a take that seems slightly off kilt. It's like taking the original and then having the Ramones play it on acid.

I would never call myself a fan of The Animals, but I do enjoy their music. I can hear them all over this cover of When I Was Young. Sure it sounds like a Ramones track, but you can tell where this song came from. It's a pretty decent song.

At this point I have mentioned the song 7 And 7 Is and how I can't stand it. Alice Cooper has covered this song. Rush has covered this song. I am now listening to a Ramones cover of the song, and I still don't get what everyone sees in this song. It is a really quick track, though, and of all bands I've heard cover it, this version is the most understandable.

I do not know My Black Pages, and I really don't care for it on this album. I find that CJ sung songs tend to do nothing for me. CJ should have stuck to playing bass only. His voice wasn't as interesting as Dee Dee's and it's sort of like listening to Duff McKagen sing a Guns N' Roses song.

I don't know Can't Seem To Make You Mine in it's original form either, but once again it's a slow song that I think isn't done right. It just seems off.

I love Have You Ever Seen The Rain in it's original Creedence Clearwater Revival glory. This cover is not that song. The Punk people may dig this track, I think the band spent too much time playing around with slower songs.

I Can't Control Myself is the fist track on the second half of the album that I actually enjoy. It's still not a great song, but it seems right coming out of the Ramones.

The album ends with Surf City, and I will admit that I have a big old soft spot for Surf music. Even these big over played classics. What I find interesting, though, is that this is clearly a band from Queens doing a Surf song, so it sounds a bit weird.

I would never really suggest this album to anyone, unless you can get it cheaply. Unless you are into classic Punk you'll only ever listen to this album once or twice. It has a couple of decent tracks, but that's it.

4/10 - content

6/10 - production

5/10 - personal bias