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Ramones: Albums
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Ramonesmania is a relentless collection of 30 tracks from the Ramones' first ten albums, ranging from the classic Ramones to the less-than-classic Halfway to Sanity. Although not all of their great '70s songs are included, it boils down the highlights from the inconsistent '80s albums quite effectively, making it a useful summation of their peak period, even if the sequencing is not chronological.
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The Ramones performed 2,263 concerts – roughly as many as the Grateful Dead, as ironic as that may seem - between their formation in 1974 and final show in Los Angeles on August 6, 1996. They released 21 studio, live and compilation albums over a 20-year period, almost faithfully issuing an album a year. The first four are their acknowledged classics, providing much of their live repertoire even into the Nineties. Rocket to Russia, in particular, was one of the defining releases of the punk-dominated year of 1977. End of the Century (1980) bore the distinction of being produced by the legendary Phil Spector. Later albums didn’t always rise to the genre-smashing brilliance of those first four, but the Ramones were always compelling and entertaining, and albums like the defiant, metal-edged Too Tough to Die insured their relevance well into the Eighties.
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The Ramones had won the battle, but lost the war as their music career had gone into a slump. They started work on their next album Sire-Nara, their first with the Elektra label. They ... decided to go back to touring to promote the album worldwide. Sire-Nara was released to critical apathy, but a commercial success domestically. The international tour turned out to be a mistake, playing in front of half empty rooms of hesistant fans. One night Groucho Ramone was hit by a beer bottle, causing him to say "I'm outta here, bi."
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On Too Tough to Die — with Richie taking over from Marky and Erdelyi returning to co-produce with Ed Stasium (the same tag-team as on Road to Ruin) — the Ramones get serious about stealing back some thunder from the scene they'd inspired. The sound is more ferocious than ever, and the quick-hit lengths of some songs fly the old-school flag. Ironically, the album's best track is "Howling at the Moon," a slick pop number produced by David A. Stewart.
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The Ramones eventually fell into their own trap, of course - with this kind of formula, even more limited than the AC/DC one, it was pretty hard to continue for decades without tumbling down. Even so, they managed four classy albums and one almost-classy one (End Of The Century) before wallowing in mildly pleasant mediocrity and vainly trying to recapture their former glory for almost two decades more; all of their Eighties/Nineties output is only recommendable for diehard fans, although I must add that almost every Ramones record has its share of excellent moments, and a well-constructed compilation of the later material might actually rank up there with their 1976-78 albums, at least in terms of enjoyability, if not historical value and originality.
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Some pop punk bands became so taken by the Ramones that a whole subgenre now dubbed "Ramones-core" has appeared. Bands such as Screeching Weasel, The Vindictives, The Queers, The Mr. T Experience and the Beatnik Termites have all recorded covers of entire Ramones albums; including Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket to Russia, Road to Ruin, and Pleasant Dreams, respectively.
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