Ramones “End of the Century”

sfilzen — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 21:37:29 +0000

Ramones “End of the Century” released 40 years ago today, February 4th, 1980. Produced by Phil Spector, End of the Century was their fifth album and went to #44 in the US and #14 in the UK, their highest chart showing. The Spector production is heavy and obvious: echo chambers, wall-of-sound, etc., especially on tracks like “Danny Says” and The Ronettes cover “Baby, I Love You” (Ramones’ version went to #8 in the UK). There’s a really great article about the collaboration (Spector had been asking to work with them since ‘77, enamored with their irreverent and basic rock-n-roll sound) at Pitchfork – linked here – but some of the best quotes/info: “Marky Ramone described the producer rolling up to his hotel room with a cape, bodyguard, bottle of kosher wine, and unprompted tirade about the 1966 death of Lenny Bruce…While Marky Ramone described Spector as a drinking buddy and friend, his bandmates had a far more acrimonious relationship with the producer. Dee Dee and Phil hated each other. The bassist and songwriter was taking lots of sedatives at the time, which may have contributed to his paranoia about Spector’s guns. In his memoir, he told a story about Phil pointing a gun at his heart before forcing the band to stay all night at his house while he sang them “Baby, I Love You.” Marky would later deny stories about the Ramones being threatened or held hostage by Spector, though Dee Dee always remained firm in his account. The drummer confirmed that multiple guns were present throughout the recording process: Spector apparently carried four on his person at any given moment, which doesn’t include what his bodyguards had on them or the turrets mounted to his house…One of the most famous scenes from the album’s sessions transpired when Spector forced Johnny to play the opening chord of “Rock‘n’Roll High School” repeatedly for hours on end. It was an attempt to get the same sustained chord effect from the “Hard Day’s Night” intro, and it was taking forever. This band was used to bashing out albums quickly, and now, they were being asked to draw everything out—to ponder the resonance of every chord. At some point, after appearing to grow increasingly agitated with Johnny’s performance, the producer started laying all of his guns out on a table in the studio. “After he shot that girl, I thought, ‘I’m surprised he didn’t shoot someone every year,’” wrote Johnny.”

My favorite tracks are the great punk classics including “Chinese Rock” (written by Dee Dee and Richard Hell, though I do prefer The Heartbreakers version), “This Ain’t Havana” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” (#67 UK; the first version was recorded by Ed Stasium for the Rock ‘n’ Roll High School movie soundtrack).

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Ramones “End of the Century”

sfilzen — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 12:29:54 +0000

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!”

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Ramones “End of the Century”

Ramones “End of the Century”