Ramones “End of the Century” 1980. Today, October 8th, is the birthday of both  Johnny Ramone (b. John Cummings 1948 d. 2004) and bassist C.J. Ramone (b. Christopher John Ward b.1965), who replaced Dee Dee in 1986.

“End of the Century” is the Ramones fifth studio album and produced by the infamous Phil Spector, which created a bit of disconnect between the band’s punk lo-fi sensibilities and Spector’s legendary use of high production techniques like overdubbing and, you know, quality (”End of the Century” was the most expensive album of the Ramones’ career). Spector also used less high end techniques like the threat of violence during the recording sessions – he allegedly held the band at gunpoint to get them to continue to work into the wee hours of the morning. The result is a more pop orientated and higher grade sound but a “watered-down” version of the Ramones, according to Johnny. It even contains a cover of The Ronettes’ “Baby I Love You” that Johnny claimed the band didn’t even perform: just Joey and studio musicians.  The album did well though, charting at #44 on Billboard and #14 in the UK. Our vinyl went through a punk rock blender: this copy is scraped to all hell and in places barely playable.

My favorite track is “Chinese Rock,” which Dee Dee wrote in 1976 and Richard Hell/The Heartbreakers recorded with lyrical revision in 1977. There remains contention over the writing credits: on “End of the Century” the song is credited to D.D.Ramone/R.Hell. However, it later appeared on the CD rerelease credited to the Ramones as a whole, with no mention of Richard Hell. According to Dee Dee in ‘97, the credits to Hell were false. He wrote, “Johnny Thunders ranked on me for fourteen years, trying to make out like he [Hell] wrote the song. What a low-life maneuver by those guys!”