47. Ramones, "Ramones"
Oh hell yeah. This blast of proto-punk might be the single most influential album on this list, and I'm not even joking. I mean, Chuck Berry influenced more artists, but that was a comp, and this single album launched thousands and thousands of bands. Long before the Ramones were on kids' t-shirts, they were a subversive, dangerous, and incredibly fun band.
Just imagine buying this record at your local Sam Goodys and getting back to your room and peeling the shrinkwrap off and dropping the needle on "Blitzkrieg Bop," holy shit what a banger. Turn that shit up, because there are not many pure rock songs better than this one.
They're goin' through a tight one
The kids are losin' their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop
They're pilin' in the back seat
They're generatin' steam heat
Pulsatin' to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop
Like all great rock songs, the song is about the act of rocking, in this case going mental at a punk show. The Ramones are a fascinating band, lyrically, both for good and ill, but I've always thought the lyrics to this song were incredibly evocative. You can actually feel the crowd bouncing around you when you listen to this song.
This album is not quite 30 minutes long and has 14 songs. Take that, Rush. There is not a wasted second in any one of these songs. Although this may have been the first punk album (or maybe it was a Stooges album, depends on who you ask and what day it is), a lot of the songs have a strong 50s and 60s influence. Even leaving aside "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," which could easily be a girl-group hit from 1962, you can hear faint echoes of doo-wop and croon beneath Johnny's absolutely crunching guitar. And that's the appeal! It's not just punishing; the songs have a real pop sensibility, they're engaging, they're sing-a-long-able.
About those lyrics. They got a lot of flack for a lot of the lyrics on this album, some of which could originally be read as pro-Nazi. ("Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" originally had the lyrics "I'm a Nazi, baby, I'm a Nazi, yes I am. I'm a Nazi Schatze, y'know I fight for the Fatherland" but Seymour Stein, the president of Sire Records, made them change them.) "Beat on the Brat" is literally, and only, about beating a kid with a baseball bat. "Chain Saw" is about what you'd expect ("They took my baby away from me/But you'll never get out of there/They chopped her up and I don't care").
But it's not really about the lyrics, is it? It's about the three chords every song has and Joey's insouciant snarl and the unrelenting beat and Dee Dee's bass and the sense of freedom and anger. There are whole books about the Ramones and it's impossible to sum up what a towering shadow these guys cast over rock and the New York scene of the 70s and fuck I just realized I haven't even talked about how integral New York City to this music, like can you imagine this coming out of Los fucking Angeles or Dallas or Miami? No you cannot. (San Francisco at the time had its own nascent punk scene, but that was a different flavor than this.) Anyway I could go on and on.
Now the sad footnotes. All of the original members are dead. CBGB, the pioneering punk bar in Manhattan where the Ramones played their first gig and which became completely intertwined with the history of the band and the punk scene in general, closed in 2006, its corpse later dug up and forced into service as a crappy bar in the Newark airport. But you know what? This record still sounds great.
[A programming note: I will be taking next week off as I am traveling for the holiday. I originally hooped to finish this project in two years, but October 2022 has come and gone and we still have 46 more albums. I'm thinking Jan-Feb 2023 now. Thanks for sticking around with me.]
Is this album in my personal Top 100? No, and LET ME EXPLAIN. I love a ton of Ramones songs but I can't say I love this entire album. OK?
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