Medialoper

Certain Songs #1813: Ramones – “Pet Sematary”

May 7, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Brain Drain
Year: 1989

I got to see the Ramones for the second and final time on September 19, 1987 at the Wilson Theater in Fresno. This was on the Brain Drain tour, a record that was so devoid of inspiration that Robert Christgau dissed by calling them a “great band that has worn down to a day job for night people.”

However, lack of inspiration isn’t lack of professionalism, and with Marky back in the drummers throne, they were awesome in concert. Though it might have been the, er, substance Ronnie (R.I.P.) and I ingested before they went on, I remember just letting myself being blown away by one great song after another, all of which were announced by Dee Dee’s omnipresent “1-2-3-4!”, and even if they hated each other and were doing it because they knew there was nothing else they could do, they clearly still trusted in their ever-present momentum.

Certain Songs #1812: Ramones – “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg”

May 6, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Single, 1985

And yeah, while I know that “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” eventually got released in the U.S. on 1986’s Animal Boy album, it was rebranded as “My Brain is Hanging Upside Down” in order to appease Johnny who was, of course, a staunch conservative — but still chose to play on it, so kudos to him — the version that made the impact on me was the import single.

Certain Songs #1811: Ramones – “Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)”

May 5, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Too Tough To Die
Year: 1984

The cover of Too Tough to Die was an accident, a camera malfunction that led to one last iconic album cover, as well as obscuring the fact that Marky had been replaced by Ritchie, whose drumming was one of the key factors on my favorite track on the album, Joey’s soap opera pean, “Daytime Dilemma (The Dangers of Love)”

Certain Songs #1810: Ramones – “Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La)”

May 4, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Too Tough To Die
Year: 1984

. . .

Maybe because Tommy was in the producer’s chair for the first time since Road to Ruin way back in 1978, the Ramones eighth album, 1984’s Too Tough To Die was hailed as a comeback. But man, I never heard it as such.

I actually heard it as a bit of a mess: Johnny’s instrumental co-existing with Dee Dee’s hardcore songs co-existing with the big keyboard-driven epics smack in the middle added up to an album that was lacking in something. And that something was melody.

Certain Songs #1809: Ramones – “Psycho Therapy”

May 1, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Subterranean Jungle
Year: 1983

In the end, the most enduring song from Subterranean Jungle was probably “Psycho Therapy,” the rip-roaring start to side two. A co-write between Johnny and Dee Dee and featuring Johnny slamming his guitar like it was 1977, “Psycho Therapy” struck just the right balance between seriousness and ludicrousness.

You know, like a classic Ramones song. Hell, it even led with the chorus, following an introduction with siren sound effects.

Certain Songs #1808: Ramones – “Somebody Like Me”

April 30, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Subterranean Jungle
Year: 1983

. . .

In between the July 1981 release of Pleasant Dreams and the February, 1983 release of Subterranean Jungle, I got to see the Ramones in concert for the first time.

Sadly, it wasn’t at a small, sweaty club, but rather a massive, sweaty outdoor venue: the first US Festival on September 3, 1982. The Ramones were part of the quote-unqote New Wave day, sharing the stage with a bunch of other great bands including Gang of Four, English Beat, The B-52s, The Police and The Talking Heads, the last of which put on . . . well, I’ll get to that in a couple of years.

Certain Songs #1807: Ramones – “Sitting in My Room”

April 29, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Pleasant Dreams
Year: 1981

. . .

It was a bit of a miracle that Pleasant Dreams got made at all, as something happened at that time that forever changed the trajectory of the band: Joey’s girlfriend Linda — for whom he had written “Danny Says” — left him for Johnny.

This, of course, is the type of incident that usually wipes bands out, but like The Rolling Stones before them, the Ramones believed so much in their core mission that they soldiered on for another 15 years, Linda eventually marrying Johnny. And while people often thought that the pummeling “The KKK Took My Baby Away” was about all of this, it was supposedly written years earlier.

Certain Songs #1806: Ramones – “We Want The Airwaves”

April 28, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Pleasant Dreams
Year: 1981

. . .

And so the Ramones soldiered on into the 1980s, following the Phil Spector-produced End of The Century with the far less bombastic Pleasant Dreams, their sixth album, and the first that didn’t feature a full-band shot on the cover. It was also the first Ramones album where the credits listed who actually wrote the song, as opposed to the Joey-Johnny-Dee Dee-Tommy credits of the first four albums and the Joey-Johnny-Dee Dee credits on End of the Century.

All of this reflected internal tensions that we will discuss more fully tomorrow, but in a weird way, it meant that Joey could now take full credit for his songs that posited the Ramones as the saviors of rock ‘n’ roll, like the opening track, “We Want The Airwaves.”

Certain Songs #1805: Ramones – “Chinese Rock”

April 27, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: End of the Century
Year: 1980

So yeah, while I wrote about the Heartbreakers version of “Chinese Rocks” about a thousand songs ago, I love the Ramones version enough to also write about it.

Given that L.A.M.F. wasn’t released in the U.S. at the time — well, shit, I did some digging on Discogs, and I can’t find a U.S. release at all for L.A.M.F, and that can’t be right — the version on End of The Century was the first one I heard. And it was one of the harder rockers on that record, Phil Spector staying relatively light-handed so that Joey could sing the incredibly dark lyrics.

Certain Songs #1804: Ramones – “Danny Says”

April 24, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: End of The Century
Year: 1980

Yesterday, I called End of the Century “a mess,” which is true, but at least it gave us Joey’s heartfelt and ultimately tragic “Danny Says,” on the shortlist of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Ramones Division.