Loco Live Addendum

Loco Live was recorded in Barcelona, Spain but I don't know if it was done on the same night or if it was cut and pasted from a few concerts. I do know that the recording had to be cleaned up due to a bad production.

There's two versions of Loco Live that are available to the public:

The 1991 Chrysalis Edition

• The cover art is a wide shot of the stage, with the band playing after removing their jackets (Joey still has his on). The bottom of the picture has the words "Loco Live" in white, bold letters with a red star on the second O in Loco.
• The back cover has the track list separated by stars (i.e. Durango 95*Teenage Lobotomy*Psycho Therapy*etc.) The picture is of the band playing while encased in smoke and lit with red, white, and blue lighting. The colors are over-saturated bordering on the smudgy, with the white light coming off as yellow. The bottom has the usual copyright info with "Chrysalis" written in larger font size.
• The four tracks exclusive to this edition are "Too Tough to Die", "Don't Bust My Chops", "Palisades Park", and "Love Kills".
• The CD has the full track list with the length of each song printed as well.
• It is available internationally and it is also part of "The Chrysalis Years" compilation.

 The 1992 Sire Records Edition

• The cover art is of a farther wide shot of the band in concert, but Johnny and CJ are still wearing their jackets. The top of the picture has the word "RAMONES" written in bold, red letters with "LOCO LIVE" written in bold, red, white, and blue letters. (LOCO LIVE)
• The four tracks exclusive to this edition are "I Just Want To Have Something to Do", "Havana Affair", "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", and the hidden "Carbona Not Glue" that plays on the same track as "Pet Sematary"
• The back cover has a numbered track list with three differences: 

1. The upper part of the cover has a production credit and recording location.
2. The picture is the same as the one on the Chrysalis edition (band playing while covered in smoke and red, white, and blue lights.) However, the colors are not over-saturated, making this picture clearer and sharper than the Chrysalis edition.
3. The copyright information is smaller and the Sire Records logo is added instead of "Chrysalis".

• The liner notes include a brief introduction by Debbie Harry of Blondie fame. 
• This version is the one that's easily available in the United States.
• The CD has the same production credits and copyright information as the back cover.

Here's my commentary on the CDs:

• If you want choose between the two instead of buying both, then the purchase will depend on the exclusive songs. Both CDs sound about the same with only slighter louder sound on the Sire edition and it's almost indistinguishable to the ears.
• The Chrysalis edition has a more comprehensive look the band's career with a mix of both old and new tracks. While "Love Kills" is available on We're Outta Here, it is still the only CD with the officially released live versions of "Don't Bust My Chops" and "Palisades Park". It also has the only easily available live version of "Too Tough to Die" to purchase, as the Smash You: Live '85 is hard to come by.
• The Sire Records edition clearly goes for the nostalgic/familiarity route with tracks that should be known to those who listened to the the first four albums. The hidden "Carbona Not Glue" was a bit of a bonus treat for audiences who bought Leave Home after the first printing and prior to the release of the Expanded Edition of that album. This album still holds the distinction of having the only official live recordings of "Carbona Not Glue" and "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement". A live cut of "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do" is also available on We're Outta Here, and "Havana Affair" is available live on It's Alive, NYC 1978, and the Expanded Edition of Leave Home.
• If you're interested in the the Harry letter on the Sire edition: it's bad. There have been better liner notes in the Expanded Editions and the guest letters included in We're Outta Here.  This should not be a deal breaker.
• In the end, you're getting 33 tracks on any version so enjoy your choice. I bought both and put the all the tracks together for a 36 track behemoth!

Album Length

Times are taken from Windows Media Player and my iTunes track list.

Album Length
Chrysalis - 69 minutes
Sire Records - 67 minutes

# of Tracks
Chrysalis - 33
Sire - 32 ("Carbona Not Glue" is on the "Pet Sematary" track but it is not listed)

Longest Track
Chrysalis: "Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?" - 2:59
Sire: "Pet Sematray" - 4:16 (If it wasn't for the bonus, "RnR Radio" would also be the longest)

Shortest Track
Both Editions : "Durango 95" - 0:47 (Chrysalis lists it as 0:48, but it always appears as 0:47 on my players)

Length of "Blitzkrieg Bop": 1:45

NEXT: MONDO BIZARRO!

Loco Live!

With Brain Drain gone, we have officially made it to the fourth and final era of the Ramones -

Legendary Ramones, an era fueled by nostalgia and a younger worldwide fan base focused in their final attempt to recapture their earlier sounds in order to achieve the one goal that fueled their entire careers - Mainstream Success.

The band's final era got off to a bumpy start with the departure of Dee Dee Ramone. Dee Dee was carrying the group with the ridiculous amount of contributions in each album from Too Tough to Die all the way to Brain Drain, but the endless touring and the abuse from other members made him quit. In typical Ramones fashion the show went on without him, but he still gave the band material for their later albums. His replacement was C.J. Ward, a young chap who grew up listening to the band. C.J. would be the final addition to the band, thus cementing him in the final Ramones line-up of Johnny, Joey, Marky, and C.J.

C.J. would make his debut on Loco Live, the second Ramones live album released during the band's lifetime. The last live album, It's Alive, showcases the band's idealized peak as the four young men from Queens who assaulted the ears of British audiences with blistering minimalist rock and roll. Twelve years later, two of the young men were gone, and the two that were left continued the band despite their deep-rooted hatred for each other and the years of wear and tear that the road had given them. The Ramones that were captured playing in Barcelona for Loco Live are older and brutally fast, lacking the playfulness of their younger selves in exchange for the quickness that can only come from years of experience and continuously playing the same songs.

By this point in the timetable, Johnny and Joey have played Blitzkrieg Bop more than a thousand times. The song had become as intuitive as sleeping than another bit of muscle memory. What started out as a two minute-13 seconds long song, Blitzkrieg Bop was becoming shorter and faster each year they played it. In Loco Live, the band reached a milestone by making the song 1:45 seconds long. Marky and C.J. were probably happy to go along with the speed increases as both held their own ground without skipping a beat. Anything that was on Loco Live will have a noticeable speed increase.

The speed increase is not bad if not for the few pieces were Joey doesn't completely sing the songs and instead stretches the chorus or does some sort of scat singing. He does have his growl on some of the tracks, but it does not offend as it did on the later studio albums. Another issue with the speed increase is actually something that has bothered me since End of the Century. Johnny Ramone was an excellent rhythm guitarist, but he had some trouble playing lead guitar pieces. If a song had a complicated, note-driven riffs on the studio tracks, they most likely would have been recorded by someone else and later played offstage by a roadie live or pre-recorded. The faster playing has resulted in some of their later songs losing their riffs and solos, such as "Somebody Put Something in My Drink" and "I Believe in Miracles". I enjoy these stripped versions as that's probably the way those songs would have been played during their minimal years. The songs that benefit from this arrangement are "Pet Sematary" and "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg", songs that were so overproduced and long on the albums that the reduction makes them tolerable, and in "Sematary"'s case, enjoyable.

I can't complain much about the setlist. The first nine songs, minus "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" were the Ramones standard from Loco Live on to We're Outta Here. They never changed position and were ingrained in their subconscious, so there's nothing much to add. Ramones is mostly represented here, followed by Rocket to Russia and the rest. Pleasant Dreams, Subterranean Jungle, and Halfway to Sanity are the least represented with one song each. It's unfair to both Pleasant Dreams and Halfway to Sanity, as those albums had more than one good track on them. Two omissions that I found interesting were "California Sun" and "We're a Happy Family", songs that have been played live for years. "We're A Happy Family" would return in We're Outta Here, but "California Sun" was gone. They still played it around that year and it was actually part of the Greatest Hits Live full recording, but it doesn't appear again on future live recordings.

In general, the band as it's portrayed in Loco Live are men who have mastered their craft of live playing. While Loco Live may not have the acclaim or romanticism of It's Alive (or the gritty authenticity of NYC 1978), what you're getting is a good album full of rare songs that you would not have heard them play again, mixed with the usual Ramones repertoire that had been sped up a bit.

Brain Drain Addendum

Extra Material

I could not find any extra material that was made for this item's release. If anyone finds foreign-only singles or any info of note, I'd gladly post it.

Album Length

All time references are taken from my iTunes tracklist.

Album Length: 35 minutes
# of Tracks: 12
Shortest Track: "Learn to Listen" - 1:51
Longest Track: "Come Back, Baby" - 4:02

No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.

Brain Drain

Ramones album covers sometimes give away the quality of an album. Pleasant Dreams, Subterranean Jungle, Animal Boy, Acid Eaters, Adios Amigos - they all are flawed albums with craptastic covers. Brain Drain joins the group as another album whose cover says too much about the album than it has any right to. The cover portrays a man screaming as he's fading away from his head, colored in brown, red, yellow, and black. This cover is not as ugly as the previously mentioned albums, but there was a member or two of the band who probably felt like the man on the cover.

Dee Dee Ramone had enough of the Ramones by the time this album was done. In the documentary End of the Century, Richie Ramone remembers that Dee Dee and him were thinking of leaving after Halfway to Sanity. Richie did leave after that album, but Dee Dee decided to stick for one more year. His last full album with the Ramones is Brain Drain, arguably the band's darkest album. The songs are still fast and some are even catchy, but when only half of the album is about things other than relationship issues, you have a problem.

It all starts with "I Believe in Miracles",  a song about (presumably Dee Dee) being lucky at being alive and touring with band with love at his side. This song is better compared to the trail of mentally draining relationship songs the album will soon dish out, but this track is an ominous sign of what's to come. It reminds me more of "Mental Hell" and "I Wanna Live" in that the tracks sound great, but Joey's vocals and the chords sound confessional and dire.  The song is followed by "Zero Zero UFO", a  fun song about UFO sightings and nothing else.

Nothing on this album is as disturbing as the lyrics to "Don't Bust My Chops". You listen to this song with no prior knowledge of the band's work and still be shocked with its misogyny and harsh language. The Ramones had songs where a girl would meet an unfortunate end (Glad to See You Go, Chain Saw, You're Gonna Kill That Girl), but their love songs far outweigh the number of violent songs. "Don't Bust My Chops" comes across as a song where a man doesn't know how to properly end a relationship and instead lashes out on his significant other in the worst way possible. I think this song even has the most cursing of the Ramones's entire catalog. Joey sings this song with vitriol unlike any songs prior as if he's actually cursing you out of his life. With all it's negativity, this song is quite catchy....it's complicated.

"Punishment Fits the Crime" has Dee Dee singing his last Ramones song (prior to Adios Amigos), and he goes out with a wacky song about...crime, death row, and destiny. Yes, Dee Dee is still writing wacky lyrics but at least he has a Lou Reed-like delivery that works. Pleasant surprise on the album.

"All Screwed Up" is, by now, the typical bloated 4-minute Ramones song, but this one is about, from what I can understand, the harm a girl is doing to her lover and the pains of not having her back. I'm not sure who wrote this one as there's a lyric about hating the music business and how the person admires his woman's hip shaking in the same verse (Dee Dee-style wackiness), but has Joey, Marky (he's back), and Daniel Rey as writers, so take it for what it's worth.

Next is a cover of "Palisades Park", a song about the Palisades Amusement Park that was located in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The amusement park was closed in 1971, about 9 years after this song was first recorded and about 18 years after the Ramones covered it. Therefore, if you ever decide to make a tour of locations referenced in the Ramones discography, be prepared to see condominiums where the park once stood (I think they have a monument in the park's honor.) Back to the cover - it's another fun song with a fantastic circus-sounding riff. Unfortunately (and obviously), that riff will not make it to any live album.

"Pet Sematary" debuts and it was the Ramones most successful song since "Baby, I Love You" and that is a shame as this song sucks on the album. If you want to hear a song that's spooky and atmospheric, try "Garden of Serenity". The movie of the same name gave it the popularity, but get a live version instead as it's upgraded in speed and palatable. After "Pet Sematary", is "Learn to Listen", a song whose riff is 99.5% ripped from "Eat That Rat" from Animal Boy. This is not only a copy of an older song, but its lyrics are so nonsensical and unfocused that it makes "I Wanna Live" feel like Homeric poetry. This may also sound repetitive, but the chorus is catchy. There was one mondegreen for me on "Learn to Listen". I always though Joey said "stay out of Tijuana" instead of the correct "stay out of deep water". I think Tijuana is better.

The last third of this album is Joey based material. If you own the expanded Pleasant Dreams, then you would have listened to "I Can't Get You Out of My Mind", a previously unissued song that made its "debut" on Brain Drain as the awkwardly titled "Can't Get You Outta My Mind". They didn't change "Touring" into "Tourin'" on the next album, so the name change was probably not well thought out. The version on Brain Drain sounds flat, lifeless, boring and forced. The version done 8 years earlier sounds better by leaps.

"Ignorance is Bliss" is a goofy political track, but the riff is fantastic. Joey is straining his voice a bit, but everyone else is in high gear. I think Richie's drumming might have been made for this track as Marky should have sped it up and probably add a fill or two. Next up is "Come Back, Baby", bloated track number two and one where the boredom probably kicked in for everyone as it just drags into tediousness. This could have been done in two minutes instead of four. Finally, the album ends with "Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna fight Tonight)" in what could only be a Ramones Christmas song in an album released in May! It's a depressing song that hides itself on the upbeat sound it gives off. What else did you expect on this album? "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire"?

This album is not as good as Halfway to Sanity and marginally better than Animal Boy. Besides the depression almost everyone on the band was in during this album, what dampers it the most is that the sound is flat. There are good riffs, catchy choruses, and the usual crap you come to expect on an album of this era, but it sounds as if it's coming from a filter. Maybe this album (and a few others as well) needs a good remixing to boost it out of its rut. I don't want a raising of volume that will just cripple the sound, but a genuine clean up to fix the muddiness of it all. Overall, its another album in which a few tracks are of interest and the rest is skippable.

NEXT: CJ debuts in the tale of two versions of LOCO LIVE!

Halfway to Sanity Addendum

Extras

This album is bare-bones, so I did some research and found that there was an extra track that was only available on the "Real Cool Time" single. It's entitled "Life Goes On", a song about going on after rough times, a classic Ramones songwriting topic.



If anyone knows about moving on in life, it's the Ramones.... I don't enjoy the song one bit as I find Joey's vocals to be as tired as his work on "Real Cool Time". The clapping on this song irritates me as much as the clapping on "Sheena is a Punk Rocker", and "The Return of Jackie and Judy". (I remember these things.)

Album Length

# of Tracks: 12
Album Length: 30 minutes
Shortest Track: "I Lost My Mind" - 1:34
Longest Track : "Bye Bye Baby" - 4:35

No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.

Halfway to Sanity

The "Tough Ramones" era reaches its ultimate stop with Halfway to Sanity, one of the band's misunderstood works and it also marks Richie Ramone's last album as drummer.It's a sad departure as Richie was the best drummer the band ever had and probably the most musically talented Ramone out of them all. It's a shame that Richie wouldn't return to the music scene until this decade, as the guy aided the group during this darker period and also cemented their turn from the experimental pop to the speedy hardcore/hard rock sounds of the "Tough Ramones".

I have trouble reviewing Halfway to Sanity because this is the Ramones album I listen to the most. Leave Home is a best album lyrically and musically, Ramones is almost untouchable due to its status, and Too Tough to Die has one of my favorite songs on it (the title track). Halfway to Sanity somehow captures my interest in a way those three albums can't. It's a mess production-wise as sound is tiny and almost lifeless. The band isn't near as energetic as they were on Animal Boy. However, the band somehow makes a product that can survive this down era.

This is not an album that may be easily accessible to new fans or fans stuck in any "era rut". It's the type of album you would own and listen to if you stay with the band for the long haul and faced every small break in the road. You can listen to it and catch some of the goofiness and even pass out laughing after reading the unintentionally humorous lyrics to "I Wanna Live". This is not the band at their most creative or exciting, but it's the band at a point where they just rock for the sake of rocking. In approximately thirty minutes, the Ramones go through every stage in their career and come back with perhaps the most underrated results of any of their work.

This Ramones album is the mash-up of every other Ramones album before it - if you stayed with them for this long, then you know the tricks of the trade:

You want songs about desperation? Got it.
Crave for more mental music? Look no further
You miss the surf rock hits? Got one here.
Enjoy the 60's style Joey love songs? There's one here too.
How about the recent hardcore stuff? Yep.
You want it all in 30 minutes? You got the idea.

The only surprises here is the strength the songs. The first three tracks on Halfway to Sanity are what I consider to be the finest opening tracks on any Ramones album. "I Wanna Live" has a fantastic riff and the melody here is prime Ramones, and Dee Dee's bizarre lyrics don't hinder it one bit (he does have one great line in there about a prince being broken down). "Bop Til' You Drop" is one of my all-time favorite Ramones songs, and I honestly see it as good as any Ramones song during their prime. The lyrics are either about commercial failure or being used and abused, but like "Swallow My Pride" before it, the song's protagonist continues to rock on. The song just kicks ass - it's as close to the original Ramones formula as you get at this point in their career (no solos or leads, fast playing, quick lyrics) and it's a shame that this song is often put under a bus when this album is dissected for compilations (At least it's in Ramones Mania!). "Garden of Serenity" finishes the trilogy with a song reminiscent of their horror film songs but with a stronger atmosphere than previous efforts. While this song is not specifically about a horror movie, the lyrics are about walking in a graveyard at midnight with a psycho. Joey sings with absolute force on this one as the creepiness of it all comes to an awesome resolution with him yelling "IN THE GARDEN OF SERENITY!".

After those songs, you get songs that range from good to poor. I'm not a fan of "I'm Not Jesus" and "Weasel Face" mostly because of Joey's vocals and the overall staleness of those tracks. "I Lost My Mind", the final "hardcore" Dee Dee song, is hilarious, and for once I enjoy Dee Dee's horrible vocals."Go Lil' Camaro Go" is something I listen to with joy in some days or I skip past it in others. I don't mind Debbie Harry's guest appearance, as I enjoy her on this song more than on "Chop Suey", but her voice is so low that you really have to pay attention to hear her. Joey does his "ooh-mow-mow" singing and it's cool, but this song is walking the Cheese tightrope with recklessness. I enjoy "Bye Bye Baby", Joey's song that's a pastiche of 60's/Phil Spector music. It's a sweet song in an otherwise dark album and it stick out a bit. Speaking of sticking out, "Real Cool Time" is another fun song, but it too is sweeter than the norm. Finally, "Worm Man" finishes the album, a song that captures a bit of the early minimalist lyrics infused with their metallic playing style. It's a good surprise ending that I did not see coming and I enjoyed it greatly.

As much I enjoy this album, I am not blind to its faults. There are points in this album where the band sounds tired. I don't know if the band is to blame or if it's the production, but for tracks like "Bye Bye Baby", you can tell that there was potential for that song to sound as close to a Spector song as anything out of End of the Century. The song on this record sounds slow and never reaches a high point. The same goes for "Real Cool Time", a fun song that seems to sound as if the boys ran out of gas late in the album with Joey putting minimal effort on the vocals. In general, the sound on this album is low and not even raising the volume does it justice. It sounds muddy.

Nothing really comes close to giving the complete Ramones sound after Halfway to Sanity. Brain Drain is akin to Animal Boy, and Mondo Bizarro/Adios Amigos is a strange hybrid of their earlier sound with a 90's power pop update. While the band would continue some of the motifs of the "Tough Ramones", Marky's return in Brain Drain would also bring with it a return to softer sounds. Therefore, Richie's departure also marks the end of the band's metalesque/hardcore sounds. I love this album. I can't type all of my emotions as clear I want them to be on this post, but I've tried. There's absolutely nothing new or surprising on this album. It's just the guys doing what they do best - quality songs with catchy riffs and hooks, and that's all there is to it. This may not be a good album for new fans, but older fans should give it a try.

NEXT: Dee Dee Ramones's Last Stand - BRAIN DRAIN!

Animal Boy Addendum

Extras

The Animal Boy CD is the same as the vinyl therefore no extra material. As I wrote in an earlier entry, Johnny Ramone was behind all the Expanded Edition releases. While going over the band's later works, Johnny realized that there wasn't much extra material to be added since they refused to make demos for the executives to choose from by this point in their careers. The only b-sides that I know about are "Go Home Ann", the B-Side for "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" produced by Lemmy (of Motorhead fame and a longtime friend and supporter of the band) and "Can't Say Anything Nice", a Richie Ramone sung track that was a b-side to "Somebody Put Something in My Drink"



"Go Home Ann" is an atypical song lyrics-wise as it's about a girl who slept with one of the band members and refuses to leave the premises after the band member asks her to. While there have been tracks like "Glad to See You Go" and "You're Gonna Kill That Girl", the band rarely turned the romance songs to the opposite direction as this song does. The closest song that compares to this is probably "Don't Bust My Chops". Musically, it has a sad, eerie mood to it that borders on their creepier tracks like "Garden of Serenity".


The second B-Side, "Can't Say Anything Nice", is rare in that RICHIE RAMONE SINGS! If it wasn't for this blog, I would have never known about this track and others where he had sung. Holy crap does he sound more like a punk kid than Joey or Dee Dee. For what it's worth, I like his vocals more than Dee Dee's but he's a different singer compared to Joey. The lyrics are about leaving a hateful relationship with some girl who is described to be an animal. (Youtube users think it's about a band member or the band in general). Music-wise, the riff is similar to "Hair of the Dog", except the the last few notes change a bit. It's also out of the norm for the group, but an interesting bit of history nonetheless.

I don't know why these songs are not easily available for purchase, but problems with Richie may the the reason why "Can't Say Anything Nice" won't be released anytime soon. As for "Go Home Ann", it's probably a contract issue, laziness, or a presumed lack of interest in the track.



Album Length  

All time references are based on my iTunes tracklist.


Length - 39.2 minutes
# of Tracks - 12
Shortest Track: "Freak of Nature" - 1:34 
Longest Track: "Something to Believe In" - 4:07

No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.

Before I end this post, I should point out one thing. This album marks a brief return to the short songs the band used to play. Three songs are under two minutes ("Animal Boy", "Eat That Rat", and "Freak of Nature"), but "Animal Boy" is the only track of those three that feels as if it was completed. "Eat That Rat" and "Freak of Nature" both come off as fragments and not as well-written as the short songs found on the earlier albums. It's not completely fair to compare "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" to any of these three as the band had changed the way they write and played since that era, but the difference in quality is apparent. They had a longer song mentality and the days of minimal lyrics and fast playing were relegated to their live shows.

Animal Boy!

At the moment of this writing, Animal Boy has reached its 29th anniversary (released in May, 1986, recorded on December, 1985), and I have a feeling that no one will commemorate its release with a special 2-CD edition. Prior to Animal Boy, most Ramones albums barely hint at the age of their conception. The first four, for the most part, sound as good and timeless as they did in the Seventies. End of the Century was probably as retro then as it is now due to the efforts to make their album sound like it was made by Phil Spector in the 60s. Pleasant Dreams continues the retro sound with a few songs that stand out of that theme, and Subterranean Jungle was stuck in the '60s-'70s hard rock/pop sound for most of the album. Too Tough to Die has some '80s influences in it, primarily in the synth-driven "Howling at the Moon" (and "Planet Earth 1988" just on title alone), but there's enough tracks to make the album free of the decade it was made in.

Animal Boy wears its age on its sleeve like no album before it. Look at the cover and tell me that it was not made in any era other than the '80s. Those horrible pastel blue letters should be the warning sign, and the script used to write Animal Boy could not have been used prior to the decade. After you get over the cover, the album is a mixed bag. Animal Boy is not as bad as Subterranean Jungle, but not as good as the album preceding it, Too Tough to Die. The album starts well, but the quality plunges towards the middle and never comes back.

It's quite a shame that it's nowhere near as good as Too Tough to Die, as that album was supposed to be a comeback of sorts after the experimental pop era. Half of the songs here are clearly influenced by the pop of the era and whatever is left ranges from tolerable to good. The album itself opens with the fast rocking "Somebody Put Something in My Drink", a catchy tune made by Richie Ramone about receiving a spiked drink (LSD?). Joey starts his growling vocals in this album, and it works for this song. Next is the title track, "Animal Boy", and it's another fine track. The lyrics are the usual Dee Dee nonsense for a Ramones song in this era, but it's just dandy. Those two tracks are the best on this album and they give the impression of a promising album. It's all smoke and mirrors as the rest of this album collapses on the weight of its overproduction.

The Sid and Nancy ballad "Love Kills" irritates me with Dee Dee's annoying hardcore voice and I really couldn't care for this song past the subject matter (Dee Dee was good friends with couple). The same goes for "Eat that Rat", as Dee Dee is just barking everything to the point of it being incomprehensible. I didn't like "Wart Hog" on the last album, and while I understand the context of his voice on those tracks, it just stinks.
The first bomb on this album is "She Belongs To Me", a bloated love ballad that is so synth-ridden and cheesy than not even Joey's vocals can save it from the cesspool. "Crummy Stuff" is a song that I wish would have a live version that I could listen to as it's probably ten times better than the crap that was put on this album. It starts off well and sounds like a genuine Ramones track, but then the synthesizers hit. I don't understand what happens next but let's just say it's the closest to a musical suicide as the band would get. It's a shame that they butchered that song without thinking twice about playing it straight.

"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" suffers of the same problems that "She Belongs to Me" has - long, bloated with every '80s bell and whistle and barely a hint of the Ramones's sound. While I'm in the subject of bloated tracks, "Something to Believe In" is another poor song that just becomes a chore to listen to. Both tracks are commentary on then current events, ("Bonzo" is about Reagan, "Something" is supposed to be a satire of "We Are the World") and they both suck. It doesn't mean that boys can't do good political tracks, but they didn't cut it on this album. "Planet Earth 1988" is an example of a good current events track, and those two are not as good as that song.

Special mentions should go to "Mental Hell" and "Apeman Hop"."Mental Hell" is tolerable musically, but Joey's vocals save the day. "Apeman Hop" has a good riff, but the stupid animal noises get irritating (I think Dee Dee is one of the apes, I can't tell who the other ape is.)

As for the rest of this album, Joeys barks out the lyrics to "Freak of Nature" and it's just short enough to be forgetful in the "I'm glad that's over" way. "Hair of the Dog"'s opening is similar to "Daytime Dilemma" from the last album, and Joey sounds bored while singing which pains me because it makes the song banal (in a Ramones-esque way) and a little oomph on his part could have made it fun. (Yes, it's another song that could probably be better live.)

With all said and done, I count 2 good tracks, 3 tolerable ones, and 7 stinkers. My praises go to Joey, as he makes some of the worst songs sound tolerable, but even he couldn't save this album's production problems. The synthesizer kills songs like "Crummy Stuff" and the ape noises on "Apeman Hop" are tripe, and some of the production choices make bad songs like "She Belongs Me" brutal to listen through. Animal Boy is one of the Ramones's worst albums, but the good tracks on this album should be on any Ramones fan's collection. Give those songs a shot.

NEXT: Halfway to Sanity
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NOTE
When I write that some tracks may sound better live, they probably would. Live tracks prior to Loco Live are generally faster, energetic, and it's usually the four dudes playing their instruments. (Unless there's a complex solo or riff other than the riff on "California Sun") The crappy bells and whistles are gone, leaving the boys alone to rip through tracks as best as they can.