Happy to take my lead from the great Ms. Bach, who correctly castigated Rock NYC for ignoring what may be the best New York band of all time and would be the best band of all time West of Liverpool. So wanting to butt my nose in where it wasn’t really needed after definitive overview, let me remnd you all of the 1979 It’s Alive album. 28 songs in 45 minutes and all killer no filler.
This is the Ramones as we know and love em, recorded live in concert (in England) in 1978, it pulls the best moments off their first three albums (just for kicks let’s name em Ramones, Ramones Leave Home, Rocket To Russia) (and I realize best moments is a redundancy -all three albums are nonstop glorious) and leaves the band to toar thru em with no chatter, no let up, no breather.
Sure lotsa bands do that now but how many did it then? And anybody can play fast, the ramones played GREAT SONGS at the speed of speed.
Helen said in her post that the Ramones remind her of summer. Here’s why. The Ramones are early Beach Boys without harmonies or ballads played twice as fast. Listen the BEACH Boys cover of “Do You Wanna Dance” and follow it with the ramones version and you’ll hear exactly what I mean.
The Ramones own songs sound great because they are great rock anthems that for all the cartoony aspects of the band, either the fake brothers, or the geeks in black leather jackets, or the punk rocker, cretin hopping, blitzreig boppin’, Gabba Heying, satiric aspects of the ramones function first and foremost as a distillation of everything rock is best at. It is simple songs about complicated stuff.
It’s Alive could work on a loop, you can begin it anywhere, end it anywhere, it wouldn’t matter: it neither peaks nor valleys, it goes round and round all of a piece -one long rock song: all fast loud rangy melodies and on this album headed by the Ramones most perfect drummer (Helen finds them interchangeable but it is Tommy who drew the blueprint) and sung by Jooey -one of the greatest lead singers in rock n roll history.
I’ve always found it odd the Ramones weren’t more popular. Though big in England and Japan they never really took off here and as late as 1979 I was fronting Joey drinks at CBGB’s and catching their show a coupla times a week. But as It’s Alive attests to, and as their influence which never seems to wane at all proves, these guys rewrote the rules of rock and It’s Alive is one of a handful of greatest live albums of all time… Here is the track list (ir reads like a live dream setlist doesn’t it?) and all I have to add is
HEY HO LET’S GO:
“Rockaway Beach” – 2:24 “Teenage Lobotomy” – 1:55 “Blitzkrieg Bop” – 2:05 “I Wanna Be Well” – 2:23 “Glad to See You Go” – 1:51 “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment” – 1:37 “You’re Gonna Kill That Girl” – 2:28 “I Don’t Care” – 1:41 “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” – 2:16 “Havana Affair” – 1:35 “Commando” – 1:40 “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” – 2:55 “Surfin’ Bird” (Al Frazier, Sonny Harris, Carl White, Turner Wilson) – 2:20 “Cretin Hop” – 1:46 “Listen to My Heart” – 1:36 “California Sun” (Henry Glover, Morris Levy) – 1:45 “I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You” – 1:25 “Pinhead” – 2:46 “Do You Wanna Dance?” (Bobby Freeman) – 1:39 “Chain Saw” – 1:29 “Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World” – 1:55 “Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy” – 2:03 “Judy Is a Punk” – 1:14 “Suzy Is a Headbanger” – 1:53 “Let’s Dance” (Jim Lee) – 2:03 “Oh Oh I Love Her So” – 1:40 “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” – 1:18 “We’re a Happy Family” (Joey Ramone) – 2:07
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