We're Not Who You Think We Are
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.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1804: Ramones – “Danny Says”
Album: End of The Century
Year: 1980
. . .
While on paper, the concept of Phil Spector producing the Ramones must have made sense to everybody involved. These days, End of the Century just sounds like a fucking mess. The only reason it resonates at all 40 years later was that the songwriting was still pretty good, even if two of the best songs, “Chinese Rock” and and “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” predated the sessions and the other two — “Danny Says” and “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?” featured instrumentation that would have been unthinkable just a year prior.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1803: Ramones – “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?”
Album: Ramones Mania
Year: 1979
It just doesn’t matter, OK?
It doesn’t matter that the Ramones were the third choice to play the band in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, after Cheap Trick (!) and Todd Rundgren (?).
It doesn’t matter that Dee Dee was so out of it that he couldn’t even have any speaking lines.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1802: Ramones – “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”
Album: Road to Ruin
Year: 1978
Probably the toughest-sounding song on Road to Ruin — though that might be just because it was in the center of the pure pop “I Wanna Be Sedated” and the acoustic guitar based “Questioningly” — “Go Mental” juxtaposes an utterly diamond-hard riff from Johnny with Marky and Dee Dee continually smashing the beat against your head.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1801: Ramones – “Go Mental”
Album: Road to Ruin
Year: 1978
While it was never a hit, the endlessly catchy “I Wanna Be Sedated” has essentially become one in retrospect. That sometimes happens, of course, and in a weird way, the story of “I Wanna Be Sedated” mirrors the rise of the Ramones from commercial failures to eternal icons.
And why not? From the very opening, “I Wanna Be Sedated” is a massive hook machine, Johnny playing brightly muted surfy chords over which Joey sings the chorus first.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1800: Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated”
Album: Road to Ruin
Year: 1978
. . .
Tommy was an accidental drummer.
In the earliest incarnation of the Ramones, Joey was the drummer and Tommy — who had played guitar with Johnny in their high school band — was the manager.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1799: Ramones – “I Just Want To Have Something To Do”
Album: It’s Alive!
Year: 1977
. . .
But they saved the greatest performance on It’s Alive to the very end. As the 27th song on an album clocking at under an hour, the live version of “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” is 78 seconds of joyous ferociousness, a pure glue-sniffing rush of a rock ‘n’ roll song that just might be my favorite Ramones song.
There are no verses in “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.” There are no choruses in “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.” There are only lyrics.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1798: Ramones – “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (London, 1977)”
Album: It’s Alive!
Year: 1977
. . .
On Ramones, “Listen to My Heart” clocked in at a languid 1:56, but on the extra-amped It’s Alive!, they kick it with supersonic speed after Johnny’s opening “ka-chaaaannnng!” and Dee-Dee’s “1-2-3-4!”, cutting 20 full seconds from it without sacrificing any of the drama of Dee Dee’s tale of woe, which begins with the chorus.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1797: Ramones – “Listen to My Heart (London, 1977)”
Album: It’s Alive!
Year: 1977
The story of It’s Alive! is one of the weirder stories in the world of the Ramones. Recorded on New Years Eve, 1977, the final day of a year that changed rock ‘n’ roll forever, It’s Alive! is simultaneously one of the greatest live albums ever released and totally redundant.
For one thing, it came out in 1979, after Road to Ruin, but because it was recorded prior to that album, only featured songs from the first three — 28 out of the 42 songs from Ramones, Leave Home & Rocket to Russia — it was already a bit out time. Also, it didn’t come out in the U.S., where in 1979, punk rock was still a dirty word. In fact, it didn’t get an official release here until 1995 — after the way inferior Loco Live! — which is a sham of a mockery of a sham.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1796: Ramones – “Commando (London, 1977)”
Album: Rocket to Russia
Year: 1977
. . .
Because they instinctively knew that their unique sound would make their version of a song different from the original — but also because they were fans — the Ramones covered other people’s songs: on their debut, it was Chris Montez’s “Let’s Dance,” which was fine, on Leave Home, it was The Riviera’s “California Sun,” which was even better, though The Dictators got there first.
But on Rocket to Russia, they did two, their reverential cover of the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird” and their utter genius rearrangement of Bobby Freeman’s “Do You Wanna Dance?”
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1795: Ramones – “Do You Wanna Dance?”