Released: 23 April 1976
I’ve long admired the Ramones from afar while never truly submitting to their tight jeans, chugging guitars and clattering drums. The NYC punk heroes have long been accepted as hugely influential and musically important, but there is also the matter of all of their songs sounding exactly the same. However, with a band like the Ramones that’s kind of the point.
While I have genuinely wanted to sample a Ramones record for a while, I will admit that my main motivation this week was that I was pushed for time and the band’s self titled debut album clocks in at under half an hour despite featuring 14 tracks.
The album kicks off with the Ramones calling card Blitzkrieg Bop, and it is, of course, excellent. As a statement of intent it’s pretty unbeatable and it still sounds suitably brutal today. Joey Ramone and his band could probably make a whole record of proclamations about how different girls enjoy different genres of music. Here we have Judy is a Punk, there is also the classic track Sheena is a Punk Rocker but you could also imagine Lindsay is a Trombonist or Joyce is a Gothic Industrialist. Classic tracks…
The other quirk of Ramones’ song titles, particularly on this record, is they often tell the listener what Dee Dee Ramone either does or doesn’t want to do at any particularly time. This record offers I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement and I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You. So, now we know exactly what the Ramones are up for, we may continue.
On the aforementioned I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, perhaps the albums most tender track, the band combine the simple, lovelorn lyrics of the Beatles early albums with the harmonious melodies of the Beach Boys to create a sound that is indebted to both bands while still not really sounding like either. It’s good.
A flurry of forgettable and samey tracks follow and just as I was losing faith in the record Havana Affair begins… and it’s brilliant. The lyrics are a load of old nonsense but this only adds to the ramshackle glory of what is one of the most arresting tracks on the album. The lads even find time to thrown in a guitar solo of sorts. Not bad going for a song that is exactly two minutes long.
When taking notes on this album like a big ol’ geek, this paragraph was supposed to be about how Let’s Dance is the clearest example of the Ramones other main influence – ’50s rock ‘n’ roll. I was then going to effortlessly suggest that this track wouldn’t look out of place on an Eddie Cochran record, and then I was going to cleverly point out that this probably wasn’t revolutionary even in 1976. At it happens, Let’s Dance actually is a song by a ’50s rock ‘n’ roller, being as it is a cover of some guy called Chris Montez. So that’s ruined anyway.
The record closes with Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World, a sonic boom of a track powered by Dee Dee Ramones’ thundering bass and Joey’s snarled vocals. It is also one of the most memorable, and by extension, one of the best, tracks on the album. When the Ramones find it in themselves to experiment just a little, they often produce their best work.
And so, after 29 minutes and four seconds of three chords, Joey Ramone screaming ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR and drums that sound like they were recorded at the bottom of the sea, the Ramones eponymous debut album comes to an end. The filler is forgettable and many of the songs bleed into one another, but at its best, Ramones is a visceral and iconic debut album.
Hey.
Ho.
Let’s go.