The Ramones : Classic Or Dud

But I definitely don't want to buy a 7-LP box set of the 80s Ramones records.

I definitely bought the 7-lp box set of 80s Ramones records.

LOL

https://boingboing.net/2022/08/02/someone-sneaked-a-super-8-camera-into-a-1978-ramones-concert-and-was-able-to-record-for-13-minutes-before-he-got-caught.html

Pretty great!

With all the original members dead and all the albums canonized in box sets, deluxe editions, etc., etc., it's hard to imagine what their impact must have been when they were new. But imagine living in Kansas City in 1978 and that band comes through town. It would have been life-altering.

Oh, this is actual Kansas City! I just looked at the youtube title and assumed it was Max's Kansas City.

haha same

That was awesome, thanks for sharing!

just in case people didn't know, there's a great 26 minute Live At The Rainbow 1977 video on YouTube too, from the It's Alive concert

the start of that is too camera flip heavy + some shots are reused but it gets better

Man, I got to get that Ramones DVD set now. Just looking at the tracklist makes me drool.

This one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3zaeOyL7Q

yeah! (sorry, was on my phone, could have linked that myself)

Saw a little something interesting on a certain substack yesterday, assuming TSF saw it as well.

https://waynerobins49.substack.com/p/ramones-leave-home

would have loved to see dr feelgood. i don't think i saw the ramones until 1977. saw them once at cbgb but it was a madhouse.

Gabba gabba weeks said you weeks said you one of us

Ramones and Dr Feelgood would have been fun. I didn't see Ramones till 79

Fabulous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8sNfCdCAJg

11 songs in 20 minutes. Amazing.

Man, that totally hit the spot. Made my day, maybe my week.

wonderful <3

So great. Thanks.

You see that and you wonder why the Ramones weren’t big stars right away in the US. I think it was down to the radio formatting at the time.

Force of nature. That's why It's Alive! is my favorite Ramones album, it's like a freight train.

that "all downstrokes" rule was punishing.

Did you subject yourself to that rule at any point, TSF?

only long enough to prove to myself those guys were crazy.

There are other situations where people do it, but maybe not ever single bar(re) of every single song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2rJB9lKnr0

Wait, what?

https://www.discogs.com/release/30449795-Ramones-The-1975-Sire-Demos

Cool, April 2024 release . Wow. Had not seen that

The demos sound better than the album imho

I'm guessing the demos just had them all in the same room and let it rip? I always thought Tommy's description of how he had to record their debut album was pretty funny - IIRC because of the way it was set up at Plaza Sound, he was literally running between floors to the opposite ends, which sounded kind of annoying. I guess that's part of the "magic" of any recording where everyone sounds like they're playing together live even when you know that's not how it was done, but I still find it amusing to picture the four of them spread out so far apart - it doesn't line up with the image I have of them packed together and unleashing this unified blast of sound.

It’s a bit shocking to hear Joey singing “I’m a nazi baby, I’m a nazi yes I am” I guess the “schatze” line was chosen for the official release

“I’m a shock trooper in a stupor” has its own poetry I guess

The words are the same on the album.

Hold on though... Wiki says they changed the lyrics after Seymour Stein complained about them, so how come I know the original lyric when I've never heard the original demo?

The words are the same on the album.

Nazi schatze line cribbed from Tom Lehrer, and probably also every Jewish comedian in NY

Maybe there were different versions of the album?

the live version of It's Alive has the original "nazi" lyrics, maybe you know that one?

On the album version the lyrics go:

Well, I'm a shock trooper in a stupor
Yes I am
I'm a Nazi schatzi
You know, I fight for the fatherland

The live version goes:

Well I'm a Nazi, baby, I'm a Nazi, yes I am
I'm a Nazi schatzi, you know, I'm fighting for the fatherland

Yes, I'm just listening to that right now, maybe that's it. The song in my head has the nazi baby line in the first verse and the shocktrooper line in the second, but maybe I've just conflated the two versions.

I played this album to a younger relative of mine and he hated it - thought the woh-oh-oh lyrics were stupid and the whole thing was dumb pop-punk crap. This is what happens when your taste is tainted by hearing Blink-182 and Sum 41 before the originators.

I’m guessing this is a Johnny composition

Dee Dee.

Dee Dee grew up in Germany.

That tracks, this and 53rd are the best on the record