Ramones Greatest Hits Live

[Rode Strawther]

Disclaimerthis page is not written fromthe point of view of a Ramones fanatic and is not generally intended fornarrow-perspective Ramones fanatics. If you are deeply offended by criticism,non-worshipping approach to your favourite artist, or opinions that donot match your own, do not read any further. If you are not, please consultthe guidelines for sending your comments beforedoing so. For information on reviewing principles, please see the introduction.For specific non-comment-related questions, consult the messageboard.

The Ramones are special. Not only is there no middle ground when itcomes to the Ramones, there can be no middle ground on that band.You're supposed to either love them or hate their guts, but merely likingthe Ramones or saying "well, they're sort of OK" just doesn'tseem like a possible perspective. At their best, the Ramones were so extreme,uncompromised, and fervently dedicated to pushing music to its absolute"limits of existence", that calling them mediocre or passableseems like an insult. They're either great, or they suck donkey's balls:each of these perspectives has a right to exist, and music fans all aroundthe world are divided in two approximatel equal halves based on this criterion.

To show you just how much in awe I am, let it be known I've entirelywiped out my previous review because it didn't look convincing enough.Nor did it help to understand exactly why I consider the Ramones'debut one of the greatest pieces of music recorded in the XXth century.Yup, you heard.

This is where I quit the general "Ramones Loveboat"... meaningI don't think the Ramones ever did anything better than their debut album,hah hah! That doesn't mean Leave Home doesn't rule my world almostas much as their debut does! Let's face it, though: as I already statedin the previous review, my deep persuasion is that the Ramones in theirbetter stage were essentially a 'one-album' band: everything that's worthloving and respecting about the Ramones' sound can be found on the debutalbum, and in no way can their later output be considered an 'improvement'of that sound, and more than that, it can only be considered 'detrimental'.It's like taking the same anecdote and telling it for the second time andstill getting a laugh out of it, but that laugh is nowhere near as freshas it was before. And then telling it for the third time. And then...

The All-Music Guide called this the best Ramones album ever. But that'sbecause most of the writers within the All-Music Guide just can't believe- and never will - that a band can, you know, like, have its firstalbum as its best. How come? They're still so raw! And unexperienced!And shy! And insecure! No, let all these youngsters suck in a few yearsof studio experience before they can release their best. After all, itcan't be that different from a successful business career, now canit? Do you start at the very top if you're in business? No, of course youdon't... So unless a band just releases one good album in its entirecareer as its first one and all the rest turns out to be prime unpraisableshit, the first album is always 'flawed' and 'raw' and 'immature'. Besides,it makes for a great start when you're still gnawing your pencil and can'tdecide upon the first sentence. Which is why general critical opinion willNEVER concede to the fact that Led Zeppelin I displayed the Zepstersat their most full, or that Procol Harum didn't have such a lot of newthings to say after A Whiter Shade Of Pale... you get my drift.That's why you need me, your patented and glossy shiny guru, to show youthe light. So get out your praying mats and off we go.

YES! YES! This is it! THIS is the album that I've been secretly hopingfrom these guys! Undoubtedly, while Ramones should earn its maximumrating for the breaking of new ground and the unique rawness, it is withouta doubt Road To Ruin that is the most melodically consistent recordthese guys ever produced. True, I can understand some fans who complainabout the record being 'too slow'... but god be praised for this slowness,because I'm not the kind of guy who prays every day that his favouriteband's new album be a carbon copy of the preceding one.

More than quite a worthwhile live document from the Ramones' first andbest era, and it gives you, the listener, ample proof that not only couldthe guys bash out their three chord riffs in the studio, they could kickass live as well (as if anybody doubted that - they spent their early daysin the "training camp" of the CBGB scene). And when I say "threechord riffs", I mean it even more seriously than when speaking ofthe studio records: some of the more 'complex' melodies, when taken outof the calmness of the studio, become even more primitive than you couldever think they could be.

The Ramones' work with Phil Spector is legendary, no doubt, but unfortunately,not always given its due. There's a lot of confusion when it comes to evaluatingthis fact - Ramones? America's punk band number one? Working with Phil"The Wall Of Sound" Spector? Booming drums, zillions of guitaroverdubs, orchestras, brass sections? Production more complex and moretricky than any prog-rock band could allow itself? What the fuck?But then there's the other side of the business, the one that tells usnot to forget how the Ramones were actually the Beach Boys of punk andhow much they dug that late Fifties/early Sixties pop scene in general,and Phil was one of that scene's main heroes, now wasn't he. When you putit this way, the mystery becomes unveiled, although the results still cannotbe predicted.

Wrong turn, the first serious mistake in the band's history (alas, farfrom the last). Again, it's really hard to blame them. With End Of TheCentury, it's like they took the one right chance in a millionwrong ones, and nobody could expect them to be so incredibly lucky twicein a row. So this time around they hooked with Graham Gouldman of "ForYour Love" and 10CC fame - on the surface, another successful association,as Gouldman was a great early Sixties popmeister in his prime and the bandwas obviously hoping to benefit from the fact just like they benefitedfrom Spector's wall-of-sound thingie.

Well, so much with all that retro shit. For their next album, the bandwent to Joan Jett's co-producer, Ritchie Cordell, and the guy took goodcare of Johnny's guitars this time around - not only are they audible,they are loud, ferocious, distorted, and... overdubbed several times, asif this could compensate for the mildness of Pleasant Dreams. Hewas so seriously preoccupied with the guitar sound, though, that he forgotall about the drums. Whether it was a conscious tribute to the spirit ofthe time or just a case of Marky Ramone flipping out too often (he wouldbe dumped for substance abuse around the time of the album's release),the classic Ramones drum sound has all but disappeared, replaced by lotsof electronic echo put on the instruments. Granted, it's not drum machines,but they might as well have swapped guitars for synths, too.

Count this as a very weak 11, given out primarily to distinguish theslight superiority of this album to everything that surrounds iton both sides of the ocean. By 1984, the Ramones were drifting somewherealong the line of the Rolling Stones in early 1968. With their last threerecords (actually, four, if you prefer to rip the "experimental"Road To Ruin out of the Holy Foursome unity), the band was driftingfurther and further away from the simple, unadorned, basic ideals of theiryouth, and it just so happened that at one point they must have shakenoff the druggy haze and said: 'Hey! The punk thing is happening withoutus!'. Indeed. Punk as a worldwide phenomenon combining both rebelliousand commercial aspects had, of course, been long dead and buried, but theminor punk scenes were anything but dead, and zillions of hardcore bandswere now making music louder, meaner, speedier, and simpler than the Ramones.Of course, it was nowhere near as catchy, and, I would say, transcendedthe genius of the Ramones into the absurdity of Minor Threat (okay, okay,so I'm not the biggest hardcore fan, gimme a break), but the fact is, theworld really didn't need the Ramones any more.

Well, at least this one starts out promisingly. The keyboards are stillthere, but they have toned them down just a wee bit, and if I'm not mistaken,the electronic sheen has been almost removed from the drums, giving RitchieRamone a last chance to demonstrate his (lack of) talent - this would behis last album with the band. So 'I Wanna Live' takes itself way too seriouslyto be an undisputed Ramones classic - Dee Dee and Daniel Rey's lyrics area notch above "horrendous" as far as confessional, psychoanaliticlyrics go (well, at least I'm kinda amused at lines like 'I'm a gypsy prince/Coveredwith diamonds and jewels/But then my lover exposes me/I know I'm just adamn fool'), but that doesn't make them genius. Yet the melody is stillundisputably high-quality as far as Ramones simplicity goes, with the chorusreminding me of 'I Just Wanna Have Something To Do' by its sharp, razor-blade-likedelivery. You could also say that the song gets by on its "despairvibe" alone: the older these boys get, the more their humour is washedaway with bitterness, and at this point, the bitterness is so real andsincere it almost makes me experience pity or something.

As close to "shit" as the Ramones ever got, but still notgetting there. It's just that the sound they got on here sucks so much,I don't ever feel like listening to any of these songs. Richie is gone,Marky is back, and now instead of sounding like a cross between a synth-popand a hardcore punk band, they try sounding like a generic hair metal band.Loud, overwhelming drums; power chords a-plenty; riffs that seem oh soaggressive before you realize they have not an ounce of emotionality ormemorability; and worst of all, that lame production style which tendsto suck all the liveliness out of the sound. You know, like you take thatsong and start pounding it with a sledgehammer until all the sharp edgeshave been beaten into pulp and there's, like, nothing at all tomake one second of the song be different from any other second of any othersong. Boom! Boom!

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