Ramones

Certain Songs #1784: Ramones – “Judy is a Punk”

March 30, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ramones
Year: 1976

. . .

How much cleverness can you cram into 92 seconds?

A whole universe worth, as it turns out, as Joey’s song about the potential fate of a bunch of kids hanging out and drinking set up characters who would reoccur in future Ramones songs.

Certain Songs #1783: Ramones – “Beat on the Brat”

March 27, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ramones
Year: 1976

. . .

And then there are the lyrics on Ramones: darkly funny; smartly stoopid and of course, just incredibly wrong, especially by today’s standards. And of course, looking at the guys on the cover, leather-jacketed, jeans ripped — and was that one guy giving us the finger? — you could only wonder what kind of depravity they were getting up to.

Which is all to say that I can’t imagine any band today even trying to write a song like “Beat on The Brat,” Joey’s response to what Dee Dee claims was a real-life incident.

Certain Songs #1782: Ramones – “Blitzkrieg Bop”

March 26, 2020 by Jim Connelly

Album: Ramones
Year: 1976

Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!

Like other great opening tracks from world-changing debut albums — “Good Times, Bad Times,” “Just Like Honey” — it’s all there from the very beginning: that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.