Ramones, “Ramones”

Chris McJaggerly:

The first English punk band to make a big splash – the Sex Pistols –  played loud, amateurish  music with a screaming, political, pierced skin and mohawk kind of energy.  America’s first well-known punk band — the Ramones — were loud, amateurish and energetic, too.  But they laid off politics (mostly), sang instead of screaming, and had a shaggy hair and old blue jeans approach.  Compared to the Sex Pistols, the Ramones version of punk is easier to enjoy decades later (I purposely say “enjoy” rather than “appreciate” because I do appreciate the Sex Pistols).  But it still wears thin.  The music is just too simple to hold the listener’s interest for a whole album.

The Ramones self-titled debut album starts with the fantastic single “Blitzkrieg Bop,” with  its famous “hey, ho, let’s go!” refrain.  Naming a dance after the Nazi army’s war tactics was genius.  As much good music as the Ramones released subsequently, they never topped “Blitzkrieg Bop.”  The rest of the record has its moments, too.  “Judy is a Punk” is a great mosh-pit slam dancing punk song, “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” is the kind of sweet, almost Buddy Holly sounding love song that the Pistols would never have considered, and “Now I Want to Sniff Some Glue” nicely sums up suburban teenage life in the 70’s.  But a few other songs are forgettable, boring, or just plain dumb.  Sure, punk isn’t about song craft or musicianship , but half the songs on this record seem to start with the same guitar riff, and the drumming is so lame, it’s hard not to be distracted by it.

I’m glad this album was made.  The world needed to break free from disco and James Taylor and remember that rock music is about energy and subversion.  Besides, the cover shot of the four Ramones leaning against that brick wall kicks ass.  But I just don’t think the Ramones made music with enough depth to take its place on a Top 100 list.

I give the Ramones eponymous debut album 29-1/3.

Tom Heerman:

God, you are out on a limb there, Chris.  That last statement is pretty unwieldy.  I do agree with you in that this record is not that great.  I don’t think there are enough great songs on it to justify its inclusion on the top100.  Not by a long shot, really.  So on that point I concur.

Jimy Web:

It would be my pleasure to spew for you on this topic, let me think.

McJaggerly:

When we get around to nominating new records to fill the gaping holes we’ve blasted in the RS list, I promise I’ll give Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin a fair shake.  But I’ve owned both of them at points in the past, and I hardly ever chrew’em on.

Are you going to give the record a rating or what?

Tom Heerman:

I rate this record a 29.2/3.  Its been given too much value by Rolling Stone for its significance, but for me, its not nearly as great to listen to now than some other Ramones.

Jimy Web:

The Beatles, Stones, Who and Kinks were my brother’s bands. Although I was only five years younger, I needed my own bands.

The early to mid seventies, when I came of age as a rock and roll consumer, was a difficult time for my young sensibilities. I liked my brother’s bands but they were already old, a product of the 60s. To my developing ears I sought any and all comers, searching for sounds that were mine and mine alone.

Looking back, colored by nostalgia, the seventies were heady times for fans of rock. But while smack dab in the middle of that decade I felt differently. Disco sucked. It was at my prom. It was everywhere. Even rock music was lacking to my ears. The energy and newness of the 60s had given way to indulgence and excess.

My suburban mates and I found our rock and roll beat in Foghat, Tull, Queen, and Kiss. It was good. We knew no different. Rock on. The Ramones weren’t the first, last or necessarily even the best punk band. But their arrival and debut album was the most influential and came along at a time when it was needed most. When I needed it most.

I was in the backseat of my buddy Mike’s ’57 Chevy, driving to preseason football practice in 1976.  Mike’s brother Bill was riding shotgun. Mike liked to play music. Loud. But instead of one of his usual selections of Zeppelin, Skynyrd, or Mott the Hopple, he popped in a cassette of something I had never heard. It was loud, rude and awesome.
What the fuck is this? I wondered. I leaned forward to ask Mike what the fuck this sound was, but he couldn’t hear me over the roar and rumble of Blitzkrieg Bop. I would soon learn that the album had been out for four months by the time I first heard it on Mike’s sweet car stereo. The Ramones were not on Milwaukee FM radio in 1976. In fact, I don’t recall EVER hearing a Ramones song on the radio until much later, when they had become almost a nostalgic or novelty to 80s listeners.

For a kid with a hunger for power chords and noise, the Ramones were literally music to my ears. There was nothing on earth that sounded like it. My parents hated it. My girlfriends hated them. They were perfect. I was a pseudo rich kid, living on a lake in an affluent suburb. My biggest life challenge at the time was successfully smuggling beer and booze from my parents without being discovered.

Male prostitutes? Sniffing glue? Beating on people with baseball bats?  This was not my world. Frankly, the lyrics kind of freaked me out. Maybe even scared me. But that music…

But it wasn’t just loud, obnoxious, and powerful; it was also at times melodic, it had a sincere sense of yearning and earnestness and I could hear strains of…what was that…the Beach Boys? It was all here: An awkward love song (I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend). Are these guys Nazis? (Today Your Love. Tomorrow the World). The coolest song in the world. (Judy Is A Punk). A rave up of a familiar song (Let’s Dance).

14 songs. 29 minutes. Insert. Play. Repeat.

That weekend after my first exposure to the Ramones I drove to Milwaukee’s west side and bought the vinyl at Peaches records. Back home, I cranked it. All afternoon. Then I taped it onto a cassette so I could blast it in my car. Men and artists are products of their times. Remove them from their time to judge their words and deeds is a slippery slope. Context is everything. How well does the music of Ramones hold up? How good, really, were the Ramones and the music they produced?

I think Johnny’s guitar work is underrated and under appreciated. The lyrics can at first blush appear….stupid. The drumming seems simplistic. But I think these boys knew exactly what they were doing. We ask a lot of our artists. We demand that each album delivers on the promise of what came before, and then exceed it, building a greater and greater catalog.  The first Ramones album was and is as much audio fun you can have in 29 minutes. It disrupted rock and roll at a time when it was needed most. The world would sound different without the Ramones in it.  Their first album launched a thousand bands. Do they belong in the RS Top 100? There is no reasonable argument that can be made that they don’t.

Rating: 32

McJaggerly:

I agree with most of that, good written. I just don’t listen to it with any excitement. I don’t think it has held up well, and that is what I am trying to advise the youth of America about!

Chris:
Agreed, nicely done. Welcome to the New Top 100.