Monday, September 30, 2013

More Ramones (I'm In a Mood, Sue Me!)

All's Quiet on the Eastern Front - the best parts of the Ramones: super smooth, more roll than rock, and fucking back and forth singing. Why the fuck they didn't play this every show for 15 years with Joey and Dee Dee trading lines, I'll never know. Added bonus for, as I said in MY MAGNET post, being put between We Want the Airwaves and The KKK Took My Baby Away, the 2 biggest songs from that era, yet being a better song. Shoulda been a hit. - XMASTIME
Earlier I mentioned how amazing Subterranean Jungle is and RIGHT ON CUE I stumble upon this new box set which includes every Ramones album...up to, of course, Subterranean Jungle. The debut, up to Pleasant Dreams. Sigh.

Which is not to disparage Pleasant Dreams - it was, after all, the first Ramones cassette I ever got my mitts on as a youth. It suffers because 1) snobs like to complain about the sound of it, so it appears they're blessed with Phil Spector ears unlike everyone else not in the know, and 2) like Psycho Therapy from Subterranean Jungle, lazy motherfuckers just pick out The KKK Took My Baby Away or We Want the Airwaves when, while they're both great songs, ironically the best track on the album is All's Quiet on the Eastern Front, which is sandwiched right between them in the track sequence and contained the best parts of rock 'n roll": super smooth, more roll than rock, and  call & response singing. Why the fuck they didn't play this every show for 15 years with Joey and Dee Dee trading lines, I'll never know.

There's TONS of great melody buried in the album (You Sound Lie You're Sick, Sitting in My Room, You Didn't Mean Anything to Me), one funny, namecheck-themselves-like-only-The Ramones-can song that sounds like a Thanksgiving Day Parade (It's Not My place in the 9 to 5 World) and hell, a slow song whose lyrics I used to fill out answers to a chemistry test all the way to a ballad which lists one of their own songs!  Camon.


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