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Ramones “Leave Home”

sfilzen — Wed, 19 May 2021 19:44:21 +0000

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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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 “Ramones”

sfilzen — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 19:44:45 +0000

Ramones “Ramones” 1976. Today, October 8th, would have been Johnny Ramone’s 70th birthday (b. John William Cummings, 1948, d. 2004). Today is also C.J. Ramone’s birthday (b. Christopher Ward, 1965) who replaced Dee Dee on bass in 1989. Ramones was the band’s debut album and is considered one of the great punk rock – all rock – classics, introducing the super up-tempo punk rhythm, short and snappy songs based on 50′s/60′s pop melodies delivered with a snotty adolescent attitude, basic simplistic chord structures…even the album cover – all have been imitated by countless punks, metalheads, alt-rockers, post-punks and pop rockers for 40+ years since its release. It barely made a commercial dent at the time of its release, not even cracking the top 100 on the album charts in the US (this was during the height of bloated, self-absorbed arena and prog rock which the Ramones heartily rebelled against) but posthumously can be credited for just about all of the “alternative” music that followed it.

Ramones did release a couple of singles from the LP in ‘76, “Blitzkrieg Bop” (which gave us the endearing and enduring “Hey Ho! Let’s Go!” anthem) and “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” I’m fairly certain neither single charted at the time. Besides those two songs, the whole album really is a stream of classic tracks back-to-back. I’m particularly fond of “Beat on the Brat,” “Judy Is a Punk” and first songs of many more over the years that gave insight into what the Ramones wanted to do: “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and what they didn’t want to do: “I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement” and “I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You.”

Approximately a million people have written/said about a million things about Ramones and it’s been included on almost as many best-of lists, but of note is The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame around the time of the Ramones’ induction in 2002: “The Ramones got back to basics: simple, speedy, stripped-down rock and roll songs. Voice, guitar, bass, drums. No makeup, no egos, no light shows, no nonsense. And though the subject matter was sometimes dark, emanating from a sullen adolescent basement of the mind, the group also brought cartoonish fun and high-energy excitement back to rock and roll.” Allmusic states in its 5 star review, “Ramones is all about speed, hooks, stupidity, and simplicity. The songs are imaginative reductions of early rock & roll, girl group pop, and surf rock. Not only is the music boiled down to its essentials, but the Ramones offer a twisted, comical take on pop culture with their lyrics…”

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The Ramones “Leave Home”

sfilzen — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 18:36:22 +0000

The Ramones “Leave Home” released 40 years ago on this date, January 10th, 1977. 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). “Carbona Not Glue” appears on our original-issue LP. The track was pulled soon after the initial album release and replaced with “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” in the US and “Babysitter” in the UK. Danny Fields, The Ramones’ manager, realized Carbona was a stain removal 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.

Gabba-gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us
Gabba-gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us

I don’t want to be a pinhead no more
I just met a nurse that I could go for
I don’t want to be a pinhead no more
I just met a nurse that I could go for

I don’t want to be a pinhead no more
I just met a nurse that I could go for
I don’t want to be a pinhead no more
I just met a nurse that I could go for

D-U-M-B, everyone’s accusing me
D-U-M-B, everyone’s accusing me

I don’t want to be a pinhead no more
I just met a nurse that I could go for
I don’t want to be a pinhead no more
I just met a nurse that I could go for

Gabba-gabba-hey, gabba-gabba-hey
Gabba-gabba-hey, gabba-gabba-hey
Gabba-gabba-hey, gabba-gabba-hey
Gabba-gabba-hey, gabba-gabba-hey
Gabba-gabba-hey, gabba-gabba-hey

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