Ramones “Leave Home” 1977. Today, May 19th, would have been Joey Ramone’s 70th birthday (b. Jeffrey Hyman, 1951, d. 2001). Their second album, Leave Home is filled with breakneck, fuzzed-out surfy-pop-infused punk tracks, three of which became single releases: “I Remember You,” “Swallow My Pride” and “Carbona Not Glue” (not released until 1991). Leave Home went to #148 in the US but hit #45 in the UK, their first album to chart. Our original issue of Leave Home has the track “Carbona Not Glue.” That song was pulled soon after the initial album release and replaced with “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” in the US and “Babysitter” in the UK. Ramones’ manager Danny Fields realized Carbona was the stain remover’s registered trademark and pushback by the producers of the product (who were likely against kids huffing their cleaning solution) would be forthcoming, even though the lyrics suggest that Carbona was a superior high to regular old glue-sniffing. Other noteworthy tracks on Leave Home include “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment,” “Suzy is a Headbanger,” the cover of The Rivieras’ “California Sun,” and “Pinhead.” The Ramones’ signature rallying cry “Gabba Gabba Hey!” comes from the last lines in “Pinhead” and provided endless audience call-and-response at Ramones shows for the rest of their career.

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A bit slower, more surfy and poppy than previous releases, it still epitomized the punk ethos of simple snottiness while commenting on social issues, in the case of “Rocket to Russia” family dysfunction (“We’re a Happy Family”), being a social outcast (“Sheena is a Punk Rocker”) and suicide (“Why is it Always This Way?”)

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