it's alive

The Ramones kept a breakneck pace with this monstrous display of blistering endurance and irresistible exhilaration.  Racing through twenty-eight songs in fifty-four minutes, the 'brothers' Ramone barely leave enough space in between for the occasional count off, let alone a breath.  'It's Alive' was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre, London, on December 31, 1977.  One of four different shows that the band recorded during their UK tour, the New Year's show was chosen for the response of the crowd, which included tearing up some of the seats and throwing them at the stage at the end of the concert.  The setlist draws from their first three albums, ('Ramones', 'Leave Home', and 'Rocket to Russia') and shows the band matching the energy of the originals and, in some cases, exceeding it.   With Joey Ramone on lead vocals;  Johnny Ramone on guitar;  Dee Dee Ramone on bass and backing vocals;  and Tommy Ramone on drums,  the recording was engineered by Ed Stasium who co-produced the album with Tommy (Erdelyi) utilizing Basing Street Studios' mobile recording facilities.  

'It's Alive' went to thirty-eight in Sweden and twenty-seven in the UK, not seeing US release for almost a decade.  An abbreviated version of the concert was released as a video.  





http://www.ramones.com/








'It's Alive'
full album:

https://myspace.com/ramones/music/album/it-s-alive-8813547





All tracks written by Ramones, except where indicated.

Side one
1. "Rockaway Beach" 2:24
2. "Teenage Lobotomy" 1:55
3. "Blitzkrieg Bop" 2:05
4. "I Wanna Be Well" 2:23
5. "Glad to See You Go" 1:51
6. "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" 1:37
7. "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" 2:28
Side two
8. "I Don't Care" 1:41
9. "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" 2:16
10. "Havana Affair" 1:35
11. "Commando" 1:40
12. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" 2:55
13. "Surfin' Bird" Al Frazier, Sonny Harris, Carl White, Turner Wilson 2:20
14. "Cretin Hop" 1:46
Side three
15. "Listen to My Heart" 1:36
16. "California Sun" Henry Glover, Morris Levy 1:45
17. "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You" 1:25
18. "Pinhead" 2:46
19. "Do You Wanna Dance?" Bobby Freeman 1:39
20. "Chainsaw" 1:29
21. "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" 1:55
Side four
22. "Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy" 2:03
23. "Judy is a Punk" 1:14
24. "Suzy is a Headbanger" 1:53
25. "Let's Dance" Jim Lee 2:03
26. "Oh, Oh, I Love Her So" 1:40
27. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" 1:18
28. "We're a Happy Family" 2:07

'It's Alive'
video version:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imf25Squ8ro



00:00  Blitzkrieg Bop    
02:24  I Wanna Be Well  
04:44  Glad To See You Go
06:34  You're Gonna Kill That Girl
09:55  Commando 
10:35  Havana Affair 
12:16  Cretin Hop
14:00  Listen To My Heart
15:36  I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
17:00  Pinhead
19:22  Do You Wanna Dance
21:12  Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy
23:04  Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
24:07  We're A Happy Family

road to ruin

The Ramones moved questioningly forward with this neurotic mix of power pop punk punch and sedated countryish ballads.  After three amazing albums (their audacious eponymous debut, 'Leave Home', and 'Rocket to Russia'), the band was ready for a change.  Tommy Erdelyi left the band; but stuck around to co-produce the sessions at Media Sound in New York with Ed Stasium.  Tommy was replaced by Marc Bell from The Voidoids, who took on the name Marky Ramone.  Marky recalls:  “He was only in the band for about three and a half years, the problem with Tommy was they wanted him to leave the group but in reality wanted to kick him out because they weren’t getting along with him. They bullied him, he didn’t like it and I don’t blame him. So one day, he did the right thing and left, and he ended up producing which is great. He produced the first album that they asked me to play on as a Ramone … 'Road to Ruin' and the first song I recorded was, “I Wanna Be Sedated.”

'Road to Ruin'  credits Joey Ramone on lead vocals; Johnny Ramone on lead guitar; Dee Dee Ramone on bass guitar and backing vocals; and Marky Ramone on drums.  Erdelyi reveals:    "I was pretty much on my own. They would come in and do the basic tracks, and Joey would do the vocals, and then I wouldn't see them for about a month or two. I was just left alone to work on the album.  Songwriting and recording went very smoothly. We would be well-prepared, we'd go in, and we'd just put the stuff down. They all had, like, attention deficit or something, they were ready to leave. Everything was done quickly. We didn't hang together too much. Mostly we'd just get together for rehearsals and stuff like that...It was great! We worked well together. I wanted to bring in a drummer so that I wouldn't have to deal with the road. It was hard on the road for me, because those guys were ganging up on me and everything. I was sort of in charge in the studio, and I'd go out on the road and I'd be like just the abused drummer. Let's bring a drummer in who will not take the abuse, and could beat the crap out of them, and it was great.  So I worked really well with Mark, and we combined his style with my style. We spent a lot of time getting the drum parts together for 'Road to Ruin'...We were coming up with these great records that weren't selling well. So we were basically trying to have a hit record, so on that album we were trying to get on the radio. We were trying to put songs together where radio couldn't say, "Oh, we can't play that because it wouldn't fit our format." So on that album there are certain songs that could be played on any radio station. And so that's kind of partially what that was about, but it was more than that. They were coming up with songs like that, and so we arranged the songs to sound radio-friendly."

'Road to Ruin' made its way to number one hundred and three in the US, thirty-two in the UK, and number twenty-five in Sweden.  




ramonesworld.com








'I Wanna Be Sedated' became their most famous song.  Joey explains:  “It’s a road song. I wrote it in 1977, through the 78. Well, Danny Fields was our first manager and he would work us to death. We would be on the road 360 days a year, and we went over to England, and we were there at Christmas time, and in Christmas time, London shuts down. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go. Here we were in London for the first time in our lives, and me and Dee Dee Ramone were sharing a room in the hotel, and we were watching The Guns of Navarone. So there was nothing to do, I mean, here we are in London finally, and this is what we are doing, watching American movies in the hotel room.”



Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco
I can't control my fingers I can't control my toes
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco
I can't control my fingers I can't control my toes
Oh no oh oh oh oh
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated







"I Just Want to Have Something to Do" 




"Don't Come Close"  edged its way to number thirty-nine in the UK. 




"Needles and Pins"  









"Go Mental"  




"Questioningly"    



"She's the One"  







'Road to Ruin' 
full album:



All tracks written by Ramones; except where indicated. 

Side one
1. "I Just Want to Have Something to Do"   2:42
2. "I Wanted Everything"   3:18
3. "Don't Come Close"   2:44
4. "I Don't Want You"   2:26
5. "Needles and Pins" (The Searchers cover) Sonny Bono, Jack Nitzsche 2:21
6. "I'm Against It"   2:07
Side two
7. "I Wanna Be Sedated"   2:29
8. "Go Mental"   2:42
9. "Questioningly"   3:22
10. "She's the One"   2:13
11. "Bad Brain"   2:25
12. "It's a Long Way Back"   2:20

rocket to russia

The Ramones hit the trifecta with the power and the passion of this polished punk projectile.  'Rocket to Russia' completes a trilogy of albums with their eponymous debut and 'Leave Home', all of which contained songs written before they got a record contract and feature the same lineup of Joey (Jeffry Hyman) Ramone on lead vocals, Johnny (Cummings) Ramone on guitar, Dee Dee (Douglas Colvin) Ramone on bass and backing vocals, and Tommy (Erdelyi) Ramone on drums and production.  Tommy  co-produced with Tony Bongiovi (Jon Bon Jovi's second cousin) with Ed Stasium engineering with assistance from Don Berman.  

Tommy remembers:  "Basically, here we were making all these great albums that weren't going anywhere. And I thought from the second album on, especially Rocket to Russia, that they'd be a natural fit - that nationally the albums would be accepted. Certainly 'Rocket to Russia''s not, you know.. So I guess they figured that they had to turn into some kind of a commercial band. They were always going for something that would give them a hit or whatever, so they were on that road and they pretty much stayed on that road on and off for the rest of their career."

Johnny considered:  "You always get pressure to, you know, come up with something. But you can't be worrying about that kind of stuff. The record companies don't know what they are doing. I mean, they're ideal with you when you are a success. But that's not what the Ramones do best. We want to put out records for our fans and do what we like best. What we're identified with is hard, fast, crazy songs and we're not worried about any sort of commercialism. We can worry about commercialism on one song on the album, but the other ten songs should be left alone. So we make them hard ... The Ramones were never anti-Led Zeppelin. Maybe "anti-groups-who-just-aped Led Zeppelin." Everything in the ‘70s was moving towards all that. FM radio was promoting an album rock format. We wanted to record something kids could dance to. But, Jimmy Page: His playing is truly amazing. I could never play at that level. I don’t try to imitate him, but I listen to him a lot."

Dee Dee revealed:   "I loved being in a band, because the band became like famous locally in New York, almost overnight, as a cult phenomenon. And we were like the darlings of the New York underground scene, and we kind of took over from where the Dolls had left off, and we were gaining a big following, playing these clubs in Manhattan.  And along with the clubs came a ticket to a drug addict's way of life. I could stop hustling, and I still wasn't making enough money to support my drug habit, because the band didn't have a hit record or anything, they were just a club band ...  I was just so weak, crying into my beer. I tried to act tough so I became tough. It’s pretty absurd. I should have just been able to be a clerk in bank. I’m a pretty meek person...I thought I was nicer than I was, I was real awful. I wasn’t dishonest, I wasn’t mean. I wanted drugs. I wanted women. I got mad. I was mad. I had no self-control and I'm still trying to learn that one. I had crazy bad examples and I was stupid, I believed everything I saw. How would I know?"

Joey would proclaim:  "I think we're the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world. I mean, it's very frustrating at times. We're the only band that kept the guts, and kept the excitement, and kept the belief, you know. We never side-tracked...I don't personally like sappy, wimpy bullshit from other artists. I like things from the gut. I write and it just comes out. I don't say, 'I'll try to write about this.' I mean...you just know when it's right."

'Rocket to Russia' went to number sixty in the UK, forty-nine in the US, and peaked at number thirty-one in Sweden.  It was their last album with Erdelyi as drummer.  





http://www.ramones.com/









'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' was their first chart single to number eighty-one in the US and twenty-two in the UK.





'Rockaway Beach' became their highest charting single on the US pop chart, peaking at number sixty-six.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaegu_the-ramones-rockaway-beach_music

The Ramones - Rockaway Beach by LeBalayeur






'Do You Wanna Dance' hit number eighty-six in the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfpn_q6318









'Rocket to Russia'
full album:



All songs were written by the Ramones, except where noted.

Side one
1. "Cretin Hop"     1:55
2. "Rockaway Beach"     2:06
3. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow"     2:47
4. "Locket Love"     2:09
5. "I Don't Care"     1:38
6. "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"     2:49
7. "We're a Happy Family"     2:40
Side two
8. "Teenage Lobotomy"     2:00
9. "Do You Wanna Dance?" Bobby Freeman 1:52
10. "I Wanna Be Well"     2:28
11. "I Can't Give You Anything"     1:57
12. "Ramona"     2:35
13. "Surfin' Bird" (The Trashmen cover) Carl White, Alfred Frazier, John Harris, Turner Wilson 2:37
14. "Why Is It Always This Way?"     2:32

ramones

Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy started a punk revolution with fourteen hilarious nuggets of pure rock and roll passion. Clocking in at less than thirty minutes, these songs condense the essence of rock into four chords played at a furious pace. Drawing from the sounds of early rock and roll, doo-wop, surf and garage rock; the Ramones twisted and distorted those influences with their own deliberately offensive subject matter. They were flipping off the cerebral, self-important artists with their fast, loud, lowbrow, no nonsense style; and, in the process, inspired a generation.

Joey would consider:   "Doing an album in a week and bringing it in for $6,400 was unheard of, especially since it was an album that really changed the world. It kicked off punk rock and started the whole thing—as well as us."

http://www.ramones.com/

'Blitzkrieg Bop' compares the punk onslaught to the Nazi "lightning war". 

Hey ho, let's go! hey ho, let's go!

Hey ho, let's go! hey ho, let's go!

They're forming in straight line

They're going through a tight wind

The kids are losing their minds

The blitzkrieg bop

They're piling in the back seat

They're generating steam heat

Pulsating to the back beat

The blitzkrieg bop

Hey ho, let's go

Shoot'em in the back now

What they want, I don't know

They're all revved up and ready to go

They're forming in straight line

They're going through a tight wind

The kids are losing their minds

The blitzkrieg bop

They're piling in the back seat

They're generating steam heat

Pulsating to the back beat

The blitzkrieg bop

Hey ho, let's go

Shoot'em in the back now

What they want, I don't know

They're all revved up and ready to go

They're forming in straight line

They're going through a tight wind

The kids are losing their minds

The blitzkrieg bop

They're piling in the back seat

They're generating steam heat

Pulsating to the back beat

The blitzkrieg bop

Hey ho, let's go! hey ho, let's go!

Hey ho, let's go! hey ho, let's go!

Havana Affair / Listen To My Heart

Chainsaw

I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

'Ramones'

full album:

RAMONES FULL ALBUM from Lax River on Vimeo.


Side A
1. "Blitzkrieg Bop" Tommy Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone  2:12
2. "Beat on the Brat" Joey Ramone 2:30
3. "Judy Is a Punk" Joey Ramone Leigh, Tommy 1:30
4. "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" Tommy Ramone  2:24
5. "Chain Saw" Joey Ramone  1:55
6. "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" Dee Dee Ramone 1:34
7. "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone 2:35
Side B
8. "Loudmouth" Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone 2:14
9. "Havana Affair" Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone 2:00
10. "Listen to My Heart" Dee Dee Ramone 1:56
11. "53rd & 3rd" Dee Dee Ramone 2:19
12. "Let's Dance" (Chris Montez cover) Jim Lee 1:51
13. "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You" Dee Dee Ramone 1:43
14. "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" Dee Dee Ramone 2:09

live