Icon: The Ramones
Reality is perishable; image is the stuff of eternity. Now transubstantiated into a T-shirt logo – like their home base, CBGB – the Ramones will forever be the mythic distillate of punk. That New York’s finest were no more brat-beatin ‘cretins than the Beach Boys were surfers is immaterial: Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy (and Marky and Richie, even CJ) found truth in the sound of their records: Mad magazine revved up, stripped down and rocked out with indelible melodies. But perfection is its own punishment, and the brudders found punk’s fictional credo more like a curse. They played fast and died young, but left a magnificent body of work.
ESSENTIAL
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Among the many style-defining virtues (need a list? start with breakneck speed, ingeniously simple songwriting, economy of lyrics and cymbals, a wall of barre-chord guitar and four-four pounding, Joey's oddball singing, playful brutality) of this 1976 landmark, Ramones keeps it tight, snapping off 14 three-chord nuggets including a durable sports stadium theme ("Blitzkrieg Bop"), plot sketches for a day-long grindhouse film festival, a courageous admission of Dee Dee's lurid past ("53rd and 3rd"), patriotism ("Havana Affair"), a touchstone cover (Chris Montez's "Let's Dance") and a tender romantic ballad ("I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend") in less than a sitcom time slot. The closeness of seven bonus demos to the final versions should come as no surprise: unreconstructed consistency was Johnny's religion.
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No sophomore slump for these guys: the Ramones' second release serves up another stack of brisk delights, following pretty much the same menu. Z-movie fun ("You Should Never Have Opened That Door," "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment"), comic violence ("Glad to See You Go," "You're Gonna Kill That Girl"), patriotism ("Commando"), tuneful teen dreams ("I Remember You," "Oh Oh I Love Her So," "Swallow My Pride"), a cool cover ("California Sun," delivered by the pasty-skinned New Yorkers free of irony and condescension). The absurdity of lyrics about kosher salami, pinheads and electro-convulsive therapy elevate the headbanging bounce to dada art. The 1976 concert recording added to the original 1977 album is a breathless rush punctuated by Dee Dee's trademark countdowns.
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Fed by two different songwriting styles, Ramones albums yin and yanged between Joey's love for '60s pop and Dee Dee's cartoon savagery. 1977's Rocket to Russia Tommy's last hurrah behind the drum kit is Joey's peak achievement, a rich trove of melodies and lighthearted silliness, with a self-referential streak ("We're a Happy Family," "Ramona") redolent of A Hard Day's Night or The Monkees. The joyous "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" and "Rockaway Beach" display the desire (if not the way) to introduce punk to the Top 40. In other hands, a third album with titles like "Cretin Hop," "Teenage Lobotomy" and "I Wanna Be Well" might verge on self-parody, but the Ramones had created their own world and were inhabiting it with untrammeled sincerity. Best bonus track: the otherwise non-album "It's a Long Way Back to Germany."
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Johnny, who always clung to a strict vision of what the Ramones should represent to their fans, chose the songs for this two-disc 2002 compilation. So out went pop tunes not solidly anchored to ramalama power, traded for some less-memorable numbers that must have been among the guitarist's personal faves. It's by no means a complete representation of the band's vast catalogue (one can only guess how different Joey's selection might have been) but it does field the classic canon, and proves how organically connected the band's pop and punk poles were. The Ramones were constitutionally incapable of hardcore's tuneless bark; even the "toughest" of the 30 tunes here have workable melodies. The eight-song live set from 1985 is an entertaining addition.
![Ramones [Expanded] album cover](http://images.emusic.com/music/images/album/117/494/11749477/300x300.jpg)
MERELY GREAT
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Maybe it wasn't the safest idea to put the Ramones in a studio with Phil Spector, but it didn't turn out badly. Rock's very own Colonel Kurtz perversely and presciently amplified the Ramones' rudiments into layers of thickly textured pop fuzz and birthed a lovably gentle monster. End of the Century (1980) is a mixed-up mess of conflicting goals and mismatched signals but, track-by-track, a lot of it works. So while Joey can't exactly sell Dee Dee's junkie lament "Chinese Rocks," the not-yet-30 singer brings a lot more conviction to the grumpy nostalgia of "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio" and a cover (with strings!) of the Ronettes' "Baby I Love You." The added demos are especially edifying.
MIXED BLESSINGS
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The titles say it all: "I Wanted Everything," "Don't Come Close," "I'm Against It," "Questioningly." Road to Ruin: with Tommy gone from the lineup (but still on hand as co-producer), Marky just getting comfortable on the drum throne, and Johnny planting the flag for fundamentalist caution, the Ramones founder a bit on their 1978 album, but still manage to come through with the epochal "I Wanna Be Sedated," the delightful "She's the One" and a heartfelt cover of the Searchers' "Needles & Pins." The bonus tracks include the strong live medley and theme song recorded for the band's Hollywood star turn, Rock'n'Roll High School.
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Like other bands frustrated by their lack of commercial success, the Ramones spent the 1980s jumping from producer to producer. After the trauma of working with Spector, they tried Graham Gouldman, a genteel Englishman who wrote hits for the Hollies and then formed 10cc. Under less despotic direction, Joey came up with a second broadcasting broadside ("We Want the Airwaves"), a veiled attack on Johnny for stealing his girlfriend ("The KKK Took My Baby Away") and the surprisingly syncopated "It's Not My Place (in the 9 to 5 World)." Dee Dee's old-school contributions ("You Sound Like You're Sick," "All's Quiet on the Eastern Front") don't have the same impact, which puts things out of whack. Don't miss the surf-rock bonus track "Touring." (Full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes for the reissue.)
