Album Review: 'Ramones' by The Ramones
Celebrating its 40th anniversary just last year,
it seemed appropriate to review one of the most iconic punk bands’ debut album.
The Ramones are still very vibrant in punk culture, having influenced bands such as Green Day and Bowling For Soup. They had a career spanning over 20 years, but it is mutually agreed between fans and musicians that the 70’s was the decade in which the Ramones shone.
They captured the teen angst and youth culture in America- which at that time was very different to ours. Whilst the Sex Pistols’ music reflects the riots and anger amongst young people in Britain, the Ramones sang more about sniffing glue, surfing and even things such as lobotomies, pinheads and shock treatment. Quite weird and not your average subjects, but somehow the Ramones managed to turn them into catchy, fast paced songs.
I was brought up with this album and have listened to it more times than I can remember; I see it as a breath of fresh air, a breakaway from the current music charts which have been clogged up with the same monotonous, manufactured sugar pop.
From the get-go, ‘Ramones’ doesn’t hold back. ‘Hey-Ho! Let’s Go!’, shouts Joey Ramone in their most famous song, ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. It’s a song which people can go mad on, yelling at the top of their lungs with Joey. It gets the listener hyped up, inserting that energy and punk spirit deep into their veins.
The songs in this album aren’t dragged out, lasting between 1:30 and 2:30 minutes, in true punk style. It’s a wonder how Johnny Ramone’s guitar didn’t catch on fire, the rate at which he strums the power chords in songs such as, ‘Judy is a Punk’. It’s very difficult to maintain that constant speed and rhythm, but of course, being the Ramones and this being their genre, they pull it off.
To some, this album could sound repetitive, the same style of drums in each song and repetition of the same verses or choruses…however that was their sound. It was raw and that was punk. It needed to be loud, fast and repetitive so that the younger generation could pick up on it, and the lyrics needed to be simple to carry a message.
Further highlights of this album include ‘Havana Affair’, the pound of the bass drum in the chorus of this song gives it so much more power. Then you have ‘53rd & 3rd’, a song much slower in tempo, more sludgy. It features DeeDee Ramone and his unique vocals which always sound like he is straining to sing. It’s a mild break in the album before they hit you with a simply amazing cover of ‘Let’s Dance’. This song genuinely makes you want to get up and dance, it’s so feel-good, which is what the Ramones do. Their music- especially on their debut album- doesn’t get you down, it doesn’t make you sad.
‘Ramones’ was an album that started an incredibly successful career for the band, it will always be great and it will always be iconically punk.
The Ramones are still very vibrant in punk culture, having influenced bands such as Green Day and Bowling For Soup. They had a career spanning over 20 years, but it is mutually agreed between fans and musicians that the 70’s was the decade in which the Ramones shone.
They captured the teen angst and youth culture in America- which at that time was very different to ours. Whilst the Sex Pistols’ music reflects the riots and anger amongst young people in Britain, the Ramones sang more about sniffing glue, surfing and even things such as lobotomies, pinheads and shock treatment. Quite weird and not your average subjects, but somehow the Ramones managed to turn them into catchy, fast paced songs.
I was brought up with this album and have listened to it more times than I can remember; I see it as a breath of fresh air, a breakaway from the current music charts which have been clogged up with the same monotonous, manufactured sugar pop.
From the get-go, ‘Ramones’ doesn’t hold back. ‘Hey-Ho! Let’s Go!’, shouts Joey Ramone in their most famous song, ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. It’s a song which people can go mad on, yelling at the top of their lungs with Joey. It gets the listener hyped up, inserting that energy and punk spirit deep into their veins.
The songs in this album aren’t dragged out, lasting between 1:30 and 2:30 minutes, in true punk style. It’s a wonder how Johnny Ramone’s guitar didn’t catch on fire, the rate at which he strums the power chords in songs such as, ‘Judy is a Punk’. It’s very difficult to maintain that constant speed and rhythm, but of course, being the Ramones and this being their genre, they pull it off.
To some, this album could sound repetitive, the same style of drums in each song and repetition of the same verses or choruses…however that was their sound. It was raw and that was punk. It needed to be loud, fast and repetitive so that the younger generation could pick up on it, and the lyrics needed to be simple to carry a message.
Further highlights of this album include ‘Havana Affair’, the pound of the bass drum in the chorus of this song gives it so much more power. Then you have ‘53rd & 3rd’, a song much slower in tempo, more sludgy. It features DeeDee Ramone and his unique vocals which always sound like he is straining to sing. It’s a mild break in the album before they hit you with a simply amazing cover of ‘Let’s Dance’. This song genuinely makes you want to get up and dance, it’s so feel-good, which is what the Ramones do. Their music- especially on their debut album- doesn’t get you down, it doesn’t make you sad.
‘Ramones’ was an album that started an incredibly successful career for the band, it will always be great and it will always be iconically punk.
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