![]() Without Phil Spector’s romantic tropes or the Beach Boys’ harmonies, they wouldn’t have had anything to punk/puke up. Throughout, Ramones rely on old values for base matter to transform from gold to grot. There’s no cessation of relations between then and now in fact, the relationship is symbiotic. Even on Chain Saw, for all the allusions to slasher cinema and punk boredom (‘ Sitting here with nothin’ to do’), the real reason Joey sounds so forlorn is because his girlfriend has gone to watch the titular Texan massacre and he won’t see her for hours (‘ She’ll never get out of there’). ![]() On the cover of Let’s Dance, they nail their colours to the mast and it’s the past: what appears to be cheek and desecration is actually not-so-secret love and guilty pleasure. ![]() I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You (‘ I don’t wanna walk around with you/So why you wanna walk around with me?’) sounds less cruel and nihilistic than childishly churlish, while on I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, Ramones play the part of the submissive, insecure male, in a state of feeble longing (‘ Do you love me babe?/What do you say?’), which hardly suited the punk credo of ‘no feeling’. The controversial exhortations ( Beat On The Brat, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue) are balanced out by embarrassingly timid demurrals (the reason they Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement is because they’re scared!), that employ arcane beatnik argot (‘ Hey, daddio’). Ramones is equal parts homage and sabotage, as much of a launchpad for future generations as it is a love letter to the 50s and 60s. It’s quite an achievement that after four decades of extreme metal and hip hop, the references to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (on Chain Saw), male prostitution ( 53rd & 3rd) and Nazis (on LP closer Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World) still have the power to disconcert, if not outright disturb.īut for all its air of new-era violence, what surprises is how in hock to history it is, and how tame many of its sentiments are. As with Taxi Driver, that other significant 1976 arty-fact, you could pause it anywhere and ‘freeze-frame’ an iconic moment. Even if you’d never heard it before, virtually every note, of Side One at least, is recognisable: the language of cartoon mayhem – Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat On The Brat, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, Chain Saw – and Joey Ramone’s pretty-vacant vocals, the ‘ Eh-oh, let’s go!’ and ‘ Wun-tew-free-faw!’ chants, Dee Dee’s pummelling bass, Johnny’s sped-up dentist-drill guitars and Tommy’s double-time glam beat. Listening to the album today, you have to wade through 40 years of hype before you can make your mind up. ![]()
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