Saturday, August 20, 2011


Ramones- S/T (1976) MP3 & FLAC


"They're piling in the back seat, they generate steam heat, pulsating to the back beat,
the Blitzkrieg Bop."

Joey Ramone: "When we started, we were all disgusted with everything on the radio and the state of rock and all the b.s. It wasn't what we grew up with, and it wasn't what we loved and knew as rock. It wasn't Elvis and it wasn't the '60s, the revolutionary time in the history of rock 'n' roll when so many different styles and things went down and were accepted. Even The Trashmen were accepted. There was the psychedelic thing and T. Rex. In the early '70s there were The Stooges and Elevator, but after '73 or so there was nothing but disco shit, even heavy metal had a corporate sound [....] Everything was safe." While it wouldn't be accurate to say the Ramones "invented" Punk, as there were certainly precursors who had a hand in creating the template for the Punk sound such as the aforementioned Trashmen, The Stooges, MC5, The Velvet Underground, The New York Dolls and others, it is accurate to say that the Ramones were the first band to take the D.I.Y. approach of mid-sixties Garage-Rock to an entirely new level by stripping the music down to its primal components: three guitar chords, relentless tempo, a basic melody and a fuck-all attitude. Tommy Ramone: "By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock 'n' roll." Hailing from a middle-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, the original members of the Ramones had dabbled in high-school garage bands for years before forming the band in 1974 and soon thereafter began playing clubs such as CBGB, which were quickly becoming a catalyst for a new underground music scene that, by the end of the decade, would change the face of rock music. Punk Magazine co-founder "Legs" McNeil: "They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they counted off this song. And they started playing different songs, and it was just this wall of noise [...] they looked so striking. These guys were not hippies. This was something completely new." By 1975, the Ramones were the darlings of the New York underground music press, something that eventually brought them to the attention of Sire Records owner Seymour Stein: "I saw nothing punk in the Ramones. I saw a great band. To me they were a bit influenced by ABBA and Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Sure they were quite unique [...] they wanna be called punk that's fine, but they were a great band." After auditioning for Stein and subsequently signing with Sire, the Ramones set about recording their eponymous debut LP, which, despite being recorded in less than a week on a budget of not much more than $6000, turned out to be a game-changer. Ramones begins with the band in full throttle until Joey Ramone's voice leaps into the mix chanting the famous line, "Hey, ho, let's go!," that kick-starts the band's anthemic "call-to arms," "Blitzkrieg Bop." While it's nearly impossible to hear this song the way it must have sounded in the dire musical context of 1976, it is clear that the Ramones, by taking a basic pre-British invasion rock sound and pushing the tempo and delivery into hyper-gear, created something unprecedented. While the simplistic lyrics wouldn't be out of place in the mouths of a '50s-era frat party band, Joey Ramone's aggressive yet abbreviated delivery and the band's relentless I-IV-V thrash behind him lays down an aesthetic blueprint that would pretty much remain unchanged, even in the context of hardcore Punk. While more or less ignored commercially in the U.S., the Ramones, as a result of their July tour of England in 1976, exercised an incalculable influence on the music revolution that was beginning to take hold in the U.K. at the time. Joey Ramone: "We were attracting all this royalty and all the people who would later become The Sex Pistols and the rest. They came to the sound check and told us they formed their bands after hearing our album. When we left England, the whole British punk scene kicked off."

Ramones  
(Warner/Rhino ~ 2001/1976 ~ Remastered & Expanded Edition)

Tracklist-
 1. Blitzkrieg Bop  (2:14)
 2. Beat on the Brat  (2:33)
 3. Judy Is a Punk  (1:33)
 4. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend  (2:25)
 5. Chain Saw  (1:57)
 6. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue  (1:36)
 7. I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement  (2:40)
 8. Loudmouth  (2:15)
 9. Havana Affair  (1:57)
10. Listen to My Heart  (1:59)
11. 53rd & 3rd  (2:22)
12. Let's Dance  (1:52)
13. I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You  (1:43)
14. Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World  (2:17)
-Bonus Tracks-
15. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (Demo)  (3:02)
16. Judy Is a Punk (Demo)  (1:37)
17. I Don't Care (Demo)  (1:55)
18. I Can't Be (Demo)  (1:57)
19. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (Demo)  (1:42)
20. I Don't Wanna Be Learned / I Don't Wanna Be Tamed (Demo)  (1:05)
21. You Should Never Have Opened That Door (Demo)  (1:54)
22. Blitzkrieg Bop (Single Version)  (2:12)




Ramones  
(Warner/Pioneer ~ 1990/1976 ~ Original Issue Japanese Edition)

Tracklist-
 1. Blitzkrieg Bop  (2:14)
 2. Beat on the Brat  (2:41)
 3. Judy Is a Punk  (1:32)
 4. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend  (2:24)
 5. Chain Saw  (1:56)
 6. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue  (1:35)
 7. I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement  (2:38)
 8. Loudmouth  (2:14)
 9. Havana Affair  (1:57)
10. Listen to My Heart  (1:58)
11. 53rd & 3rd  (2:21)
12. Let's Dance  (1:51)
13. I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You  (1:42)
14. Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World  (2:12)



17 comments:

  1. glorious dumb-ass cartoon rock'n'roll. just perfect. the british bands didn't quite get it. the ramones (and the saints) did.

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  2. bedlam, well-stated. Although, that the Brit bands didn't get, it ended up resulting in Post-Punk, which I'm pretty happy about. But yes, early Ramones are glorious indeed!

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  3. They don't make em like they used to. Now downloading. I wonder if Supergrass is giving a nod to the Ramones with Road to Rouen? One of the best drug scoring songs ever is on this alubm 53 & 3rd! BTW do you have any early 80s Misfits like Walk Among Us, Earth A.D., Legacy of Brutality? :o)

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  4. What's the difference in the Japanese version, besides the extra tracks?

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  5. Barth Bottoms, "53rd & 3rd" is with "Blitzkrieg Bop," my favorite song on this album. I'll see what I can find for early 80s Misfits.

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  6. Anon., the Japanese version isn't remastered. Some people believe first issue Japanese CDs are superior sonically. Personally, I'm not sure, but I thought I'd offer the alternative download option :)

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  7. I bought a Ramones album, Mania, when I was 13 because a girl I liked told me that I would be "cool" if I listened to them. Obviously, I desperately wanted to be "cool." I got a FLAC copy of mania a few months back and gave it a listen just for old times sake. While I can certainly appreciate the contribution that the Ramones made to contemporary music, I must say (and I'm going to get slammed for this) that I think they pale in comparison to their contemporaries in the New York/CBGB crowd; The Patti Smith group, Dead Boys and a little later, Talking Heads.
    I'm a Patti Smith fan through and through. I like songs that are a little more drawn out with some intellectual content. But hey, it takes all kinds. I've already got this one in FLAC and gave it a listen before I wrote this. I must say that I chuckled as I remembered a 13 year old boy pretending to like something that he really did not. Thanks for that. We could all use a little more humor in our lives.

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  8. heya Ol' Foggy, the Ramones don't really stand the test of time for me either (i mean i really really loved them, but i never listen to 'em anymore, probably not for 30 years) - but by god they were SUCH great fun at the time!

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  9. A classic, nothing to add further

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  10. Ol' Foggy, strangely, I felt the same way for quite some time until a few years ago. I re-discovered the Ramones' early stuff and though it doesn't have the arty pretensions of some of the better British Punk of the time, I think many of the songs more than stand the test of time. The Ramones made a point of not changing their sound much, which gave many of the later albums a formulaic feel, but if you want to hear their greatness completely unvarnished, check out the live album "It's Alive," which is the recording of the New Years '77 concert captured in the videos I posted.

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  11. Thanks for the original Japanese edition...will have to try and give it a good listen sometime soon...

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  12. AndieJames, you're welcome. I thought it might be interesting to compare the sound on the two editions

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  13. Just got home from NYC and I am sad to say the music scene is dead. But I spoke with a chap who is putting together a ballet (yes with classically trained dancers) that dance to his original music along with original videos randomly playing, via a computer, on a screen on stage too. So I have hope!

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  14. scurfie, I guess a music scene like the one NYC had in the mid-to-late seventies is once in a lifetime. The L.A. scene is crap these days too :(

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  15. For those who like it: The Ramones - The 914 Sessions 1975 http://www.mediafire.com/?7h1gbywqtzpybhy (192kps, 6 songs, september 9, 1975)

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