The Ramones : Classic Or Dud

(also, LOL at those reviewers going on about this without looking up the tracklist)

Oof -- might have to pick this up.

wow, overkill but I gotta have it. love dr. c on this thread, can't believe i never read it before.

R.I.T., Rochester, NY (10/8/88)

hmm. i saw them there in may of either '88 or '89. but given their touring at the time i guess maybe they played there twice in a year.

OMG hello birthday present!

The Dr. C breakdown of Ramones songcraft upthread just splattered my mind on the wall. So perfect.

Agreed. But the fact that he had to even MAKE that point makes me sad and frustrated. I'm all for skewering the sacred cows, but c'mon - how can anyone NOT like the fucking Ramones?? Possibly the most classic-est band evah!!! Upthread, all I see is more ILX Contrarian Rally nonsense...

"Tell me son, what is minimalism?"

Ramones are a band that always sound tremendous when I'm out somewhere, but never feel the urge to listen to at home.

They're a sort of necessary blast of rudeness. But not when I'm in a comfy chair.....

Does anyone have this yet? I ordered it online, expecting it any day now.

It's here! The box is very pink.

http://www.ramonesitsalivedvd.com/

I picked it up but it's a present for my brother-in-law so I haven't opened it. Looks really great, and my local record store has it on sale this week for $11 so I might just buy a copy for myself.

Just got it. I started with the archives, but I've gotta go to bed sometime so I used the handy menu to go straight to the 12/31/77 show.

95% of the first disc and the tracks I like on the second one = ULTRA CLASSIC.

Second disc gets progressively more painful to watch. Especially Joey. And Marky's hair.

Finished the New Years '77 show and went on to the second DVD. This first thing from Bremenpalast or whatever is really good. But yeah, I'm afraid of what is to come.

Looking forward to more Road To Ruin stuff, though.

I vote dud. I don't give bands any credit for being "influential," so they don't score points with me there. I just never feel like listening to those albums. Nobody I have ever known likes to play those albums. I find the music average at best, and the singing to be a real downer. Yeah, I guess I find the singing to be a big buzz kill. That said, I don't hate them that much, and maybe I even like 5-10 songs. I just find them closer to dud than to classic.

You can't hate "It's Alive" the album though, or can you?

I don't hate the Ramones. I think I just like them best in small doses. Classic radio should play them a bit more. I never hear them played.

Those first three albums ALWAYS SOUND AMAZING. Doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing, or how you feel. They fucking rule. How many albums in rock history can you say that about?

Bought the DVD but haven't had time to watch...can't wait!

Great songwriters. A pity all of the arrangements on those first albums sound exactly the same though.

The Ramones are one of those "I can't trust the opinions of someone who doesn't like them" bands.

I like all their albums, even 'Halfway to Sanity' (search: "Go L'il Camaro Go"), and they def. had a quality surge at the end.

The Rainbow performance is so nostalgic on the DVD. I wasn't there, but it captures exactly how I remember how people looked in '77: the full cliche punk look, people wearing school ties and having the non-punk shortened fringe look, people with 70s long hair attending punk gigs.

And Joey look so vulnerable when he punches the air, moves around, or even just having trouble keeping up with the music at some points.

How can a guy calling himself "Nicky Lo-Fi" not dig the Ramones 200%?

Why don't "classic rock" stations ever play the Ramones? God knows they're old and classic enough. Q-104.3 in the NJ/NYC area still plays the same friggin Pink Floyd and Eagles crap they've been playing the past 15 years. No wonder radio's a rotting corpse.

unrelated, I just hacked my iPod Touch to get internet radio.

love

I'm going to have to give "It's Alive" another listen because frankly I don't understand all the love for it here (compared to their studio stuff, that is).

yeah I've never heard it, was surprised by all the praise it gets on this thread.

I have been in a serious Ramones-hole for the last few days though, everything up through Subterannean Jungle.

Timely thread - I've been listening to the first 2 albums a lot lately. Need to get Rocket to Russia. You always think that you know what the Ramones sound like - listening for the few well-known elements of their sound - but they can still surprise after so many listens. I guess it's fair to call them minimalists, but only if one keeps in mind that minimalism can be liberating as well as restricting. A monolithic focus can produce something that dwarfs the scale of something that tries to do too much. If the Beatles and their followers had taught rock to be sophisticated (gradually forsaking the innocent rush of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for the irony and multiplicity of the White Album), the Ramones went backward (to the '50s rockers) in order to move forward, though preserving the irony.

I don't know what's wrong with me I've been in a real "New York state of mind" recently - I went from that Dion album to a VU/Lou Reed binge to the Ramones

people that don't understand the ramones don't understand that they were an art band.

"I'm going to have to give "It's Alive" another listen because frankly I don't understand all the love for it here (compared to their studio stuff, that is)."

It's a concentrated shot of the original material, which was already ultra-concentrated: Quadruple strength, with additional live-sound roughage.

The Ramones are one of those "I can't trust the opinions of someone who doesn't like them" bands.

― Colonel Poo, Friday, October 26, 2007 6:00 AM (11 months ago) Bookmark Suggest

OTM

They just seem so eminently likable, like all their famous songs are so hummable and I love Joey's Ronnie Spector schtick.

It's Alive = 28 songs, less than 56 minutes. More like 54: something. Also fun: the sprawling two-CD It's Alive video collection includes film of half the album's tracks. Great!

http://www.geocities.com/geeesevvon/ramones/pics/joey-and-spaceman.jpg

Eminently likeable? Not sure about Johnny...And Dee Dee's books are a bit psychotic in places.

band and their material /= individual bandmembers

Classic band - verging on genius for first few albums. But ultimately I think of them as almost tragic - that Ramones documentary was so sad.

Best bonus track = S.L.U.G

New book by Joey's brother Mitchell, aka Mickey Leigh.

Which is kinda not that well-written.

That "Weird Tales" anthology.

The book you get with it.

It's worth it.

I only really like the first album.

rocket to russia is my fave, the first four are all great tho

This is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1QG8MJ7jv4

This is a segment with interview, live footage and sometimes hilarious fan reactions to a Ramones show in Minneapolis in 1978. I like to imagine that all the '80s hardcore kids were at this show, or at least caught this video on their PBS affiliate.

Was inspired by this thread to listen to some of The Ramones first album. "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" sounds so sincere with its 50s pop sound. I'm surprised an indie film or a TV commercial haven't used it yet.

(xpost) That vid is great, thanks for linking! I grew up in the Twin Cities, but didn't live here '76 - '78. I had forgotten they went from playing at a dive bar in St. Paul in the summer of '77, to a large theater in January of the following year. With The Runaways!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycdreamin/4310636885/

"I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" sounds so sincere with its 50s pop sound. I'm surprised an indie film or a TV commercial haven't used it yet.

It actually got an airing in the late 90s indie flick Whatever, but only me and maybe five other people remember the film. Good soundtrack tho, Pretenders, Motorhead, The Jam...

Almost can't be bothered to contribute, as they were/are so obviously classic .

Agreed,though ,they never matched the first three in the studio. My introduction to them was It's Alive. I bought that, I only had my paper round money and it seemed such great value for money back then.
Sadly, I can't even recall the name of their last 16 albums. For me, they tailed off massively around the only time I ever saw them live in 85 at teh Lyceum (Too Tough to Die)

amazing clip

"they're not the most talented, but they're the most fun" !!! lol

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.