HEY! HO! LET'S POLL: Ramones Memorial Poll nomination, discussion and voting thread for glue sniffing, headbanging, brat-beating and howling at the moon - voting closed

I like "Pleasant Dreams" a lot more than he does, but I'm more of a pop guy than Johnny. Plus I know that was a bad personal period for the band -- Johnny "stole" Joey's girl, Marky/Dee Dee on heroin, etc. I still like the record.

I thought his appraisals were unusually fair, too, although the very thing he doesn't have much use for on Pleasant Dreams--that it's a pop album--is what I like about it. (As opposed to the hardcore-sounding stuff on Too Tough to Die, which I don't like.)

His baseball lists are excellent. Projecting from his musical tastes, never would have guessed he'd have Maddux #1 for the '90s--the professorial pitcher in the midst of all those guys hitting 500-ft. home runs. Punks dig the professors.

yeah i'm a big fan of Pleasant Dreams

It's probably hard to like an album where another guy in the band casts you as the KKK.

Yeah I didn't know the backstory of that song for years. Respect to Johnny for going ahead and recording it and playing it in concert anyway.

voted!

I've had a number of ballots in later the same day, but I don't think even I've had one in that fast. Very apropos for a Ramones poll.

yeah all you simps going on about the ballads resulted in me ranking johnny over joey, i hope you're happy w/ yourselves. also it's alive (which is easily easily my first choice for how i consume ramones) isn't on spotify which probably means it's out of print which sucks.

It's Alive is my #1 album easy.

fuck i forgot to put it on my albums ballot, um change my #1 to it's alive and bump everything else down

You got it.

i will probably be the only person that votes for multiple tracks from Adios Amigos. strong career ender imo.

― some dude, Sunday, August 3, 2014 10:00 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's a fine record. One track will be high up on my ballot, and I have a second in mind that might sneak in.

can I just

The Ramones' willingness to do certain things poll

Original 45 art

http://www.ldwt.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Ramones_Blitzkreig-Bop_Design-by-John-Holmstrom-of-Punk-magazine.jpg

Asking price for that on Discogs is $100+, so it's probably worth half (which would match the record guide value). I've got a "Do You Wanna Dance"/"Babysitter" original picture sleeve, though I bought it a few years after the fact. "Babysitter"'s excellent, so it was actually worth having at one time, but eventually it turned up on a compilation or as an extra track on Rocket to Russia.

yeah Babysitter is great, I first heard it on that "All The Stuff And More Vol. 1" CD, which also has "I Can't Be" and some other early demos

Weird seeing Dee Dee on the left and Johnny on the right on that sleeve

For your voting consideration: the best song Richie Ramone ever wrote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFdvcF7auY

Speaking of that album, was Johnny already hard right when they recorded Bonzo Goes to Bitburg?

I had this song stuck in my head yesterday. Don't know how many other votes it'll get besides mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eaSRJgIGUI

Yes. Apparently he didn't know the real title at the time (ie not "My brain is hanging upside down") xpost

This is a jam too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x92vv8IDCyM

I got Animal Boy and Brain Drain before I had heard any of the early stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g3e8XwVIYc

Brain Drain takes a lot of unfair shit. It's far from being the band's worst album.

Gary Mudbone Cooper from Pfunk/Sly Fox was a production assistant on Brain Drain. Weird.

I don't know how it'll hold up--I remember it had a funny parody video--but my favourite Animal Boy song other than "Bonzo" was "Something to Believe In."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VV5wFBtC_o

Misheard lyrics from the last one that I guess I've had wrong for the last 25 years or so:

You're never happy, a hypochondriac
as
You're never happy, a hot-dog-hungry act

xps

so what do folks think the worst album is? I'm almost totally unfamiliar with everything after TTTD

Something To Believe in is great. I remember though, getting the album when I was a kid and I had heard all this stuff about the Ramones and how they're the fathers of punk rock and all this shit, and then there are all these synths and bells and shit. I'm like "what is this, Bruce Springsteen?" But I learned to love it pretty quickly. The video is great.

I had to put together a video for one of my editing classes when I went back to school about a topic with an "expert," so I just got my brother to talk about his golf swing. It was a really boring, low-key video until it ended abruptly and "Wart Hog" played over the closing credits. Will be voting for that track for sure—probably my favorite Dee Dee vocal.

xps: I've never really glommed onto Halfway to Sanity, the album in between Animal Boy and Brain Drain. The only track I dig from that one is I Wanna Live.

(which is like, a top ten favorite for me)

Yeah apart from "I Wanna Live" and "Bye Bye Baby," I remember nothing off Halfway to Sanity. At the time it felt like a real end-of-the-road album.

And I love "Something to Believe In" too. As potentially cheeseball as it is, it's pretty open-eyed: "I don't know where to start and I don't know where to begin."

"I'm confused, I'm afraid, I hate the loneliness"

just read monte melnick's book. re bonzo:

We recorded the whole song before Johnny read the lyrics and said, "You can't call my president a monkey!"

Johnny didn't like it one bit. It was bad enough they had recorded it as a one-off single, but when they wanted to stick it on Animal Boy he made them change the name

The video for "Something to Believe In" also marks a specific moment in time, when the charity-record assemblage of famous people was starting to become a cliché (soon after "Sun City").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmHoXqzy8GU

Anyone know who played Robin Hood in the Howling at the Moon video? He creeped me out when I was a kid.

I'm going to vote for one solo track. Don't worry, it won't affect the results at all--I think it's as great as almost anything they did together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf4_-ciaJtk

Whoa, Francis Delia, who directed the Howling at the Moon clip, was the director of Nightdreams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R5v1oDBwxs

(nsfw, as mentioned in the clip title, obvs)

Never seen the video for Poison Heart before. Strongly influential on Anton Corbjin, obviously. I just wanna walk right out of this video. Seriously, this is like my absolute FAVORITE Ramones song and probably the worst Ramones video. Holy hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfIfzVf8t6E

I interviewed Joey and Dee Dee in 1986, over the phone, in conjunction with Animal Boy. I'd scan it and post it, but it was over-sized newsprint, and scanning is awkward. Anyway, just as well--I'm reading it now, and even though part of the piece is worshipful, I also make it clear that I want the reader to know that I know that their moment has passed. That's what you do when you're 24...Canadian publication, so they're not on the cover; Bruce Cockburn is.

Listening to Too Tough To Die for the first time right now. Christgau considers it to be one of their three essential records along with Ramones and Rocket to Russia. Now, I don't always expect Christgau to make sense, but still, WTF?

Didn't care for it then, didn't care for it when I tried again a few years later, never went back a third time. I've already submitted my ballot; the full 25 songs, nothing from Too Tough to Die.

Too Tough To Die was probably my earliest exposure to that hype cycle where an established artist with a couple of recent commercial disappointments is suddenly heralded as "returning to form" with an album that is duller and more misguided than the preceeding ones they want us to forget about. I'd take End of the Century, Pleasant Dreams and Subterranean Jungle over Too Tough To Die any day. Horrible record. Howling at the Moon - easily their worst single to date. I saw them on that tour and the live show was just as savage as ever, but that the Ramones all over - endlessly tweaking their recorded sound with mixed results but in concert - one of the most consistent bands ever.

Hey youz guys, "Mama's Boy" might be my favorite Ramones song. Surely it's my favorite non-fast one. Everyone's a closet lame.

There's the skeleton of a decent album there, it's true. If you took "Chasing The Night" off Side One it'd be about as good as any side from the previous three albums, and would sound like a bit of a refreshing approach.

Pleasant Dreams is my find of the poll so far. "It's Not My Place (in the 9 to 5 World)" is them doing Tom Waits' "I Don't Want To Grow Up" years before they got around to actually covering it.

And name-dropping Lester Bangs six years before R.E.M. (Really name-dropping, as in hanging-around-with, which wasn't the case with R.E.M.)

I always thought the lyric was "Everyone's a closet ned." I'll have to relisten. Anyway, both that one and Howling at the Moon made my ballot.

finally, happily doing the listening to figure out my ballot, you can count on me

ok I better do this soon

Well, we're into double digits but it will be a low turnout poll -- so get those ballots in! Your vote could make the difference!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmCtzatHXvk

more fun with wikipedia

Music[edit]
Like almost all Ramones songs, the time signature is 4/4. It alternates two verses with a chorus; the second chorus is followed by a bridge, after which the first verse and the chorus are repeated with a change of key.

The results thread should be titled "Have The Rolling Stones Killed"

argh gimme a couple of hours

SENT!

Possibly covered earlier, but--are you sending confirmation emails, tipsy?

I kinda can't bring myself to compose a ballot even though I love them so much because a) I kinda wanna rank everything from the first four records equally and b) I can't really bring myself to listen to the late 80s stuff

c'mon just bite the bullet and rank the early stuff.

OK, sent!

ok fine I voted

http://sp9.fotolog.com/photo/41/60/61/ramonesmania/1137371420_f.jpg

VOTED

did no relistening at all as I was going to Ramones shows before most of you were lobotomized

Possibly covered earlier, but--are you sending confirmation emails, tipsy?

Yep. Just caught up on the latest batch, so if you've sent a ballot and not gotten a response, let me know.

been mostly listening to the original albums and sporadically dipping into the bonus tracks on the reissues but there's some interesting stuff there. there are demos on the deluxe Subterranean Jungle that sound so much better than anything on the overproduced proper album, great otherwise unreleased song called "No One To Blame," the closest thing a Ramones recording ever got to the kind of flat '80s garage band production that almost every Ramones-influenced band has recorded with.

Just voted.

finishing my ballot, just read it aloud to my wife because i just love their song titles so much

Voted.

Sent!

Is voting closed on this?

Yes, but ... If anything shows up by tonight it will still be counted.

i like the dee dee king album a lot. if it were a proper ramones album it should come in just behind pleasant dreams. did debbie harry guest vocal on any other ramones record?

Voted late, but still voted. <crosses fingers>

XP Debbie Harry sings on "Go Li'l Camaro Go" on Halfway To Sanity.

All right, ended up with 24 votes. Tallying now. Will try to get results started over the weekend.

cool!

very upset with myself for forgetting to vote for "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)"

I fit that in near the bottom of my ballot.

I had only one late-career track on mine, bcz I don't wanna be buried in a pet sematary.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8301/7884894328_d95d1f4a41_z.jpg

"Pet Sematary"'s great--right up there with the Beatles "I'm So Tired" or the Replacements' "Rock 'n' Roll Ghost" in the not-sure-I-want-to-do-this-anymore genre (probably many other examples).

There's an interview with Marky where he talks about how Dee Dee wrote Pet Sematary in 40 minutes while they were having dinner at Stephen King's house. I guess Dee Dee walked away from the table while the rest of them were sitting there hanging out with Stephen King, and when he came back he had the song.

OK, tallying is complete. Will try to get started with the side polls tomorrow, followed by two days of tracks results.

http://www.spin.com/articles/morrissey-ramones-greatest-hits-album-curating-cover/

He shoulda waited for the poll results.