Largely considered the first punk rock group in history, the Ramones had it all– black shirts, leather jackets, ripped jeans, and a cool backstory where each member adopted the “Ramone” surname as a pseudonym. Their 1976 self-title debut was the very definition of New York cool. It was loud and fast as hell.
Unlike their fellow punk forebears Sex Pistols and The Clash, the Ramones largely stayed away from overt political statements. Ramones has themes of adolescent trauma and skinheads and drug use, but by and large these stories are playful– there’s a humorous undercurrent in both the lyrics and vocal delivery that renders them somewhat inoffensive. You won’t find a burning manifesto or vision of what they want the world to be on this record.
Instead, Ramones is a collection of two-minute hook-filled pop songs. Simple, catchy, to the point. They took 60’s-era melodies and made them their own, turning up the BPM from 90 to 160 and drilling them into your brain behind a cascade of overdriven guitars. It stripped the pop music machine down to its most essential parts and turned the volume up to 11.
I’d be disingenuous if I said this album has aged perfectly. It would be decades later before the Ramones would really expand into more evergreen material (“Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” off 1986’s Animal Boy is the absolute crown jewel in their catalogue and a must-listen song before you kick the bucket), while Ramones ends up sounding homogeneous in a way that isn’t necessarily compelling after 50 years of exposure to the evolution of rock music. It doesn’t hit in 2023 the same way I’m sure it did when it was first released in 1976.
But that’s not really the point, is it? Change happens, tastes mature, and everything evolves. And a forest of redwood trees, impressive as it may be, owes its entire existence to a single seed that first sprouted in an open groove generations ago.
Ramones was that seed. And a whole helluva lot of impressive forests grew from it.
Standout Songs: “Blietzkrig Bop”, “Loudmouth”, “Beat on the Brat”
