Ronnie Spector - She Talks to Rainbows

I originally posted this on my other site, but I decided to include it here as it is Ramones related.

Ronnie Spector - She Talks to Rainbows (1999)

I've reviewed a few live albums recently, therefore I'm turning my attention towards an EP that came out a little over a decade ago. Ronnie Spector, former lead singer of 60s girl group the Ronettes, partnered with longtime admirer and former Ramones frontman Joey Ramone (and longtime Ramones collaborator and producer Daniel Ray) to create a fun, but short cover album of 60s classics and some surprising punk covers. "She Talks To Rainbows" combines some of Ronnie's Sixties charm with modern production values, creating an updated sound that is enjoyable for both older and younger fans.

The Ramones covers and the collaboration with Joey are what first attracted me to She Talks to Rainbows. The choice of Ramones tracks, both originally penned by Joey, are from the Ramones's later, less popular eras. "She Talks To Rainbows" was one of the darker and better tracks off the band's final album ¡Adiós Amigos!, but "Bye Bye Baby" comes from one of the Ramones' darker albums, Halfway to Sanity. I love that album despite its gloom, but even I know that "Bye Bye Baby", a pastiche of 60s love songs, is unfortunately not a highlight. Joey sounded tired and the depressing, bass-heavy, arrangement lessened the song's possible impact.

"Bye Bye Baby" gets the biggest upgrade as it's turned into a successful duet between Joey and Ronnie. Gone is the dull bassline and the pessimistic atmosphere, and in comes an uplifting guitar sound, a piano, and Joey sounds alive evoking feelings of a lover's nostalgia and farewell. Ronnie even gets a bit of a solo in the middle eight! The improvements are what the song needed back in 1987 as it now seems like a finale of sorts for the Ronettes classic "Be My Baby". "She Talks to Rainbows"'s atmosphere is unchanged, but the Johnny Ramone chainsaw guitar is replaced with a cleaner, arpeggio-centric riff. Ronnie's voice is naturally sweeter than Joey's vocals in his recording, but she does a fine job bringing out the inherent sadness of that track.

"You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", Johnny Thunder's ballad, gets an upgrade. I'm not a fan of the studio original as Johnny wasn't a good singer and he makes that song drag on, and even the Guns N' Roses cover sounds just as horrid. Maybe some of you would be angry and say that I'm missing out on the song's sleazy charm, but Ronnie's version adds the beauty and gravitas that Johnny couldn't give. She retains the sadness that was in the original (Sadness is this album's m.o.) and the jump in tempo towards the chorus, but she doesn't speed up the chorus vocally as Johnny did, making this version ten times better in the process. (Plus, Joey returns to sing in the background towards the end!)

The Beach Boys's "Don't Worry Baby" was written by Brian Wilson as a pastiche of his favorite Ronettes track, "Be My Baby", therefore Ronnie is quite at home. Gone are those amazing harmonies and Brian Wilson's lead vocals, but Ronnie does a fine job with her version (and her backup singers aren't bad either). The final cover is a live rendition of the Ronettes's "I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine" and it is an interesting track. Gone is that grandiose "Wall of Sound" that Phil Spector had in the original, now replaced with a lead piano and a less bombastic backing band. Ronnie's performance in the original was fine, and this one isn't that far away from the original. There is a crackle in her voice here and there serving as a reminder of her age, but it's been a graceful aging.


Joey passed away in 2001, thereby making this his only collaboration with Ronnie. He left her with a fine comeback EP and groundwork that she used in her later album, Last of the Rock Stars. Thanks Joey!

Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone

Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone Review

Is there any Ramone that is as ripped on by the majority of Ramones based retrospectives as Johnny Ramone? I've heard the terms quiet and abusive used to describe him, and his falling in love with Joey's girlfriend made a rift in the band that didn't even end with the band's split. Whether it's the End of the Century documentary or Vera Ramone's memoir, Johnny comes off as a dick. The descriptions and stories of Johnny are so consistent that it's surprising to see something like Too Tough to Die where the man is getting a tribute. It appears that this was originally thought out as a documentary on the Ramones 30th Anniversary Tribute and Benefit Concert, but Johnny Ramone was too weak to appear and passed away two days later, therefore the project became a tribute to Johnny as well. (I think that's how it happened)

At 76 minutes, you're not getting much here outside of a couple of songs and some interviews. Unfortunately, this documentary mixes the music and the interviews, therefore you'll be watching the Red Hot Chili Peppers play a Ramones song, and the middle of song gets interrupted by someone who's either in the band or a random celebrity fan. There's few uninterrupted tracks, and the quality of the performances is all over the place (X was horrible, RHCP were passable, and the Dickies were shoddy), but the set done by CJ, Marky, and Daniel Ray with rotating guest singers was as close as you'd get to a modern day Ramones set. The set was helped with some great performances by Henry Rollins, Eddie Vedder, and Dicky Barrett, making it the centerpiece of the documentary.

In the interview front, there's no mentions of anything critical or negative. Everyone is in praise mode and even the Joey/Johnny problem is passed off as a band issue that barely affected the band's work. The three dead Ramones are only seen through archival photos and film footage, and Johnny's only heard through an old interview. I wonder why he wasn't even shown planning the concert nor was there any footage of him listening or seeing the concert (as there's ways to do that). All you get is a scene during the concert where Rob Zombie calls him up so everyone can cheer for him. As mentioned earlier, Johnny was weak by this point so I won't go any further with that. You also see the footage of recorded announcements about Johnny's death and some key moments of the unveiling of his cenotaph during his memorial service.

Something that bothers me about this documentary is the continuation of making Richie Ramone an Unperson. The only time Richie was mentioned was by Tommy Ramone in his speech about the band. No archival footage or even an interview was done with him, but Clem Burke, WHO WAS WITH BAND FOR TWO SHOWS ONLY!!!!!, was interviewed and appeared in more than one spot. You can say that it's because he was in Blondie, one of the Ramones' peers at CBGBs, but Chris Stein and Debbie Harry were both interviewed and they're far more important than Clem. It's such a sore spot for me as only a hardcore fan would know that Clem was even a Ramone, but RICHIE WAS IN THE BAND FOR THREE FULL ALBUMS!! At least he got one of those lifetime Grammy awards they gave to the group last year, and they allowed him to talk for a bit. (Fuck, how come he always gets pushed away from Ramones products?) Maybe a notice of "Hey, we couldn't contact him on time" would have been better than the lack of mentions.

There isn't much to this unless you're a fan of the band. I rented this documentary a while ago, and the DVD is bare bones with a promo piece and a lackluster commentary track (still listenable for one part where the punk rocker asks Linda, Johnny's widow,  a question about one of Joey's songs that gets close to the Joey/Johnny problem). If you can rent it, find it for a cheap price, or watch it when it's on a Starz-affiliated channel (it's also On Demand sometimes) then watch it, but don't go out of your way to view it.

New Site!

First, there's more work to be done in this blog. I still have a long way to go in terms of books and documentaries and that's all coming in slowly.

In the meantime, I've started a new blog: Walk Among Us Music Reviews. It's more of an exercise than major work, but any comments and suggestions are accepted!

Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone

This is the first post in the new Books category for the blog. Ramones books aren't rare, but most are from family, friends, or biographers/scholars. Aside from Monte Melnick's On the Road with the Ramones, and the upcoming book Johnny was writing prior to his death, you know what you'll be getting isn't directly from any of the members of the group.

Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone oozes of the family and friends category to a fault. Vera Ramone, Dee Dee's first wife, writes about her long, troublesome relationship with the the band's most unstable member in a conflicting dichotomy throughout the whole book. In one side, her relationship with Dee Dee is full of lovely anecdotes of Dee Dee being goofy and an amicable husband, but the other side is pure horror. The horror is all based on his barely controlled drug use and his deteriorated mental condition, and how it leads to the brutal stories of domestic (physical and psychological) abuse that trumps some of the stuff that I've read in Pattie Boyd's Wonderful Tonight or John Lennon's biographies. The problem with the two opposing sides and the book in general is that, after writing about those impressionable moments, it all feels as it's swept under the rug with her unabashed love for the man. It's a battered wife story that unfortunately is common in life and in rock, and it never comes off well when it all sounds excused. It's great that this is not a hagiography of one of punk rock's infamous pioneers, but it's off-putting either way.

If you're looking for new bits of non-Dee Dee related Ramones dirt or stories, you won't find much here other than expanded information on older tales (The day when the band realized Johnny and Linda were together, some stuff on Joey's personal life). Her opinions on the band members and those around them coincides with what others have written about (Johnny Ramone is cold and distant, Joey was a romantic, etc..). If there's one story that unfortunately sticks to mind about the band in general, it's the 7-11 incident in Texas where Dee Dee savagely assaults Vera in front of the band, and no one but Monte gets involved.

I recommend the book to Dee Dee fans who want more information on his personal life and stories behind some of his later Ramones work, and I also recommend it to those that want to confirm stories and character portraits as Vera doesn't paint in broad strokes. However, her overall attitude about Dee Dee creeps me out, but...

Her book says enough to make my own opinion.

(On a side note- Is there anything outside of that Too Tough To Die Tribute DVD where Johnny Ramone doesn't come off as an asshole?)

Ramones: It's Alive 1974-1996 Review

After a plethora of album retrospectives, it's time to go into other forms of Ramones media!

Ramones: It's Alive 1974-1996 is a 2-DVD live show set that sets out to be the ultimate retrospective of the band's many live performances. This is a collection of fan recorded footage (primitive era recording!), actual film footage of the famous 1977 It's Alive concert (thus this collection's name), and other recorded concerts and international TV show appearances. As much as it wants to be the ultimate retrospective, this DVD collection feels like someone is dangling a bigger collection of concert footage above you, only to take it away when you try to reach for it. It's a good, albeit incomplete retrospective of the band's concert run.

The available footage is good as you do get a retrospective of the band's progress and evolution from playing "Blitzkrieg Bop" in CBGB to headlining at River Plate Stadium in Argentina. The early fan footage on Disk 1 is the hardest to watch and listen as it was recorded with early camcorders and the tape those shows were on had aged significantly. It's also unfortunate that only one piece of footage was included from their initial year, as everything else on the disk (1976-77) has been well documented and represented. Setbacks aside, it's fun to watch the fan footage and the TV clips of the guys.

The compilation's marketed pièce de résistance is the 1977 It's Alive concert that was only seen in 30-second clips on numerous documentaries and Ramones related programs. I've written about the qualms I've had with the live album that was recorded from this concert, and I can unfortunately also write the same sentiments about the film footage. Yes, you are seeing the band play on stage in front of a live audience in England but you are not listening to the actual music that was played that night, and at this point you probably wont listen to the actual recording of the show's audio unless you dig deep somewhere. Again, I have to reference the Mark Prindle interview with Marky Ramone and the discussion about It's Alive's re-recording. The footage is also far from complete, but some of the missing songs have appeared on Youtube, and the footage itself appears to have been sped-up in some points.

Disk 2 jumps between different band eras, from the start of Marky's run all the way to CJ replacing Dee Dee and the end of the band's incredible run. The footage is better as most of it was professionally recorded and none of it is damaged. It's always great to get some bits of the brief time Richie was with the group (more would have been gladly accepted), as it always feels as if he's an unperson when it comes to Ramones merchandise. The songs vary greatly compared to the last disc, but it's fine to see how "Blitzkrieg Bop" became an experiment in speed playing.

While the rest of the footage is good, there's two great bits of footage missing: The rest of the River Plate Stadium concert, and the We're Outta Here footage. Again, you can see this footage on Youtube so there probably was a rights issue or a timing constraint that prevented the rest of the footage to come out. It puts a bit of a damper on things as those two concerts were a big deal for the band and need to be seen.

This DVD looks to be out of print, but you can get it for as low as $8 online on a few sites. It's a bargain price for what you're getting and I gladly recommend it for fans and even newcomers. Casuals listeners may be annoyed by the thirteenth version of "Blitzkrieg Bop", but you're getting a ton of music and history for a cheap price.

NEXT: Probably a book...

For my review of the It's Alive live album and its comparison to NYC 1978, click here!

We're Outta Here Addendum

We're Outta Here Box Set

When the album was first released in 1997, some copies were bundled with a "Ramones Film Crew" VHS. It's reported to be a long documentary about the final concert with interviews and prior concert footage in between. I own it but I haven't seen it due to not owning a reliable VHS player (Mine is older than the documentary). It hasn't been re-released in the US, but it's available in Europe on DVD (It's possibly PAL and Region Coded, so importers beware).


The Final Update?

No, this is not the final update. There's still a ton of Ramones products that I've yet to purchase and there may even be new releases to pick up. I still don't own the You Don't Come Close live CD, Weird Tales of the Ramones, and tons more. I might not get to it all in a weekly or even monthly basis, but I'll still review the stuff as soon as I get it.


"Blitzkrieg Bop"
This is the final Blitzkrieg Bop performed by the four Ramones, and it comes in at one minute, 36 seconds. Compared to the 2:13 original, the band eliminated 37 seconds of slowness! Quality-wise it's subjective, but the impact is amazing. If you are really picky about it, there's a two second intro to this song, making it about 1:34 seconds. Yes, it's that fast!

Album Info

All times are from my iTunes tracklist.

Album Length: 1 hour, 4 minutes
# of Tracks: 32
Shortest Track: "Gimme Gimmie Shock Treatment" - 1:16
Longest Track: "Any Way You Want It" - 3:17
Length of "Blitzkrieg Bop": 1:36 (-37 seconds from original studio cut)


NEXT: WHO KNOWS??

We're Outta Here! (the album)

We're Outta Here is the live recording of the Ramones's final concert that took place on August 6, 1996. The band was finished after the River Plate Stadium event in Argentina earlier that year, but they were offered a spot in Lollapalooza and thus their retirement was halted for a while. This halt gave us the final product that was made when the band was active - We're Outta Here!.

What separates this recording from the rest of their live albums (besides the historical value) is the guest stars that appear. We get Lemmy from Motorhead playing his own song "R.A.M.O.N.E.S", Tim Armstrong and Lars Fredericksen of Rancid on "53rd & 3rd",  Chris Cornell and Ben Shepard of Soundgarden on "Chinese Rocks", and Ramones Fan Club member Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam, of course) on the final track, "Any Way You Want It". Before I forget, Dee Dee Ramone makes a surprise return on "Love Kills", but Dee Dee screws it up and...it's a Dee Dee thing. The inclusion of all these guests is strange, as the Ramones didn't have many guests on their albums (outside of singles, "Go Lil' Camaro Go" on Halfway to Sanity and the few tracks on Acid Eaters), but they add their own touches here and there (My favorites were Lemmy and the guys from Rancid. Eddie sounded a bit off.).

The setlist is the same as what a full Greatest Hits Live would have been, with live cuts of that album's bonus tracks included ("R.A.M.O.N.E.S.", "Any Way You Want It"). The only qualm that I found in it was that there is very little breathing space between the songs as one song starts right after the other with no cuts in between. I don't think the band was able to pull off this feat at the end, when Joey's singing was not as it used to be and we get that strange style where he stresses words out to fill in parts.

Unless you're a completionist, this is the definite second live album to obtain. It's the band's final product while they were active, and at a 32 song length, this is a good value as well. Not as great as NYC 1978, but better than Greatest Hits Live or even Loco Live.

Greatest Hits Live Addendum

Extras

As far as I know, this album holds the first release of "Any Way You Want It" on any album. "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." was already available on different versions of Adios Amigos. Both songs are also available on Weird Tales of the Ramones, and their live versions are on We're Outta Here.

Album Info


All time references are based on my iTunes tracklist.


Album Length: 37.6 minutes

Shortest Track: "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." - 1:24
Longest Track: "Pet Sematary" - 3:40


"Blitzkrieg Bop" is on the album. Coming in at 1:37, it is eight seconds shorter than the Loco Live version and 36 seconds shorter than the original cut on Ramones.


NEXT: It's officially the end of the Ramones with WE'RE OUTTA HERE!

Greatest Hits Live

Again, let's get this out of the way: The Ramones never had hits in the vein of the Clash or the Sex Pistols. The band was excellent, but they rarely got something to chart well enough. If this was a "Greatest Hits" compilation, then there would only be three songs on it ("Baby, I Love You", Pet Sematary", and "Poison Heart"). Of course, the band does not mean hits in the charts, but hits among the fans of the group...(Lampshade, please.)

With the last album being their final studio release, the band set out its final tour which gave us two different live albums. The first was "Greatest Hits Live", an album that's often considered to be a record company mandate and not something the band cared about - and it shows. What you're getting here is not a complete concert, but half of what was one of the final New York City concerts for the band.

The songs and albums chosen for this album were:
Ramones - 3 ("Blitzkrieg Bop", "Beat on the Brat", "53rd & 3rd")
Rocket to Russia - 4 ("Sheena is a Punk Rocker", "Rockaway Beach", "We're a Happy Family", "Do You Wanna Dance?")
Road to Ruin - 1 ("I Wanna Be Sedated")
End of the Century - 1 ("Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio?")
Too Tough to Die - 1 ("Durango 95")
Brain Drain -1 ("Pet Sematary")
Mondo Bizarro - 1 (Strength to Endure")
Adios Amigos - 3 ("I Don't Want to Grow Up", "Cretin Family", "The Crusher")
Singles -3 (The live rendition of "Spider-Man", plus the two bonus studio cuts: "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." and the cover of "Any Way You Want It")

If you were around/ conscious of the band during this time, then you already had Loco Live and It's Alive available to you. Do you really need Greatest Hits Live today? If you are a fan/completionist, then yes. Casual fans and those who want to start listening to the band need not apply. Outside of the live versions of a few Adios Amigos songs, there's nothing new on this album except for the studio cuts that can be found on compilations like Weird Tales of the Ramones. Plus, you're getting a few songs compared to the monster tracklists of the other live albums. Even the bonus concert on the Leave Home expanded release has the same number of songs available to you for a lower price, and that one is justifiable as the band was still young when it was recorded.

If you decide to purchase this record, then I would say that there are some great things about it. For one thing, I enjoyed this performance more than the one on Loco Live. Every member sounds lively, and Joey does bring in a few great performances. I especially enjoyed his kick ass performance of "Pet Sematary", as I can't stand the studio cut. The rest of the songs have been done to death, but the band had slightly increased their speed again, so there's always a reason to give it a listen.

"Cretin Family" however, is still a horrible song even if it's done live.

It's a fifteen year old album that would hold up well if it was the only Ramones live release. There are so many recordings available to the consumer at this point that it makes this release unnecessary. If they would release this album in a complete state, then I would gladly re-evaluate it. At this state, stick to NYC 1978 or Loco Live.

Adios Amigos Pt. 2 - The Other Members

(It's been a while since I last promised the complete Adios Amigos review. I never expected the review to go past 2010, but it's better late than never.)

What about the other three members's input (Joey, CJ, and Marky)?

Joey brings two great songs in the mix, starting with the T.Rex homage "Life's a Gas". It's a sentimental song, and while it drags for a song that repeats its verses and chorus, Joey sounds like he believes every word he sings. (It's probably the best time to mention that Joey is in great form on most of this album.) It's a deep cut gem, and one that Joey fans shouldn't pass, His other contribution is "She Talks to Rainbows", a song about unrequited love for someone with a mental disorder, and another song whose mood is so thick that it's depressing. This is one of the best tracks on the album, and one of the best songs that Joey wrote for the band in general.

CJ has two songs of his own, "Scattergun" and "Got Alot to Say". Both are not as strong as Joey's input, but they have their own moments of joy. "Got Alot to Say" is a humorous song about someone who really doesn't have a lot to say, and its short length makes it a tight and quick affair. "Scattergun" is slower and sounds like something that would have fit nicely in Mondo Bizarro as it's akin to "Main Man". It's not my cup of tea, but it's better than some of Dee Dee's work on this album.

With Joey and CJ bringing in most of the active member input, Marky wrote one song, "Have a Nice Day". It's similar to his previous work, "Anxiety",  in that both are short and both follow the classic Ramones song structure from their earlier albums. It's a good song, but Joey sounds a bit rough on this one (probably trying to match the speed on it).

Before I finish this up, I would like to mention that "I Love You" is a boring cover in the same vein as most of the Acid Eaters album - an almost note-by-note copy with nothing new except for Joey's horrible vocal performance.

The three Ramones's output brings in one classic song, a great one, and three good ones. Does that mean that they were more than capable of working without Dee Dee? No, but it does mean that the rest of the band were better songwriters by the end. It's possible that Dee Dee sold them the songs and they ran with it instead of making more of their own tracks. They had the potential to make a fun album here, and it's mostly a successful effort. Buy it and enjoy it outside of its historical value. The deep cuts are worth a listen.

¡Adios Amigos! Part One

For a member of a band to quit and continuously contribute songs to which half of band's final album consists of  this ex-member's material, and half of those songs are covers of his previous solo albums, not only speaks about the level of respect and importance this member is to the band, but it also speaks of the position in which the band is in that requires that member's aide.

Adios Amigos is a strong album, but there is an unavoidable shadow that looms on this album - Dee Dee's material. About half of the songs on this album are Dee Dee's, making it the most Dee Dee filled album since Brain Drain. If you put in Mondo Bizarro as the only other post-Dee Dee album filled with original material, it still feels as if Dee Dee never left the band. This would not have been so problematic if it wasn't for two things:

1. Dee Dee's talents had eroded considerably since his early days with the group. Compare the simplicity of Rocket to Russia's "Locket Love" to the abstract writing in Too Tough To Die's  "I'm Not Afraid of Life". It appeared that Dee Dee's mental well-being affected his songwriting. Some of my favorite Dee Dee-written tracks on the later albums ("Bop Til' You Drop", "I Wanna Live") have moments where the lyrics are just plain wretched and abstract and/or his focus wasn't strong enough to be on topic for a whole song. Also, Dee Dee had a habit of writing way too many songs about his problems which plagued the later albums, and some of them were also filled with the abstract lyrics. He still had a gem or two in every album, but you would have to sit through the rest of his material to get into any of it.

2. Three of the songs he contributed were already available, and there is almost no difference between those versions and the Ramones covers. It all comes down to whether or not you prefer to listen to Dee Dee sing.

Dee Dee's material, quality-wise, is all over the place. Starting with the worst song on this album, and in all of the Ramones discography, comes "Cretin Family". It's the laziest songwriting and musical arrangement of any Ramones song with the "Psycho Therapy" hook completely ripped off that song and pasted here as if no one would notice, combined with the saddest attempt at remaking an anthem in the vein of "Cretin Hop", "Blitzkrieg Hop", and the already mentioned "Psycho Therapy". It's insulting that they would try to pass this off as something fresh and new when they continuously played those anthems for most of their careers, with fans memorizing every lyric, hook, and chord change. What were they thinking?

In the middle lie "Making Monsters For My Friends", "It's Not For Me to Know", and "Take the Pain Away". "Making Monsters For My Friends" is a goofy song  with Dee Dee's abstract lyrics about something that's not entirely based on the title. It's not a bad song, but it is puzzling that they allowed this one on the album. The next two share the "Dee Dee's problems" theme, and it sounds as if they were meant to be on Brain Drain or Halfway to Sanity instead of Adios Amigos.

Dee Dee's best are "The Crusher" and "Born to Die in Berlin". Music-wise, "The Crusher" is not as different compared to the version on the Standing in the Spotlight album, but CJ's enthusiasm and the focused lyrics of wrestling in Madison Square Garden make it a winner. "Born to Die in Berlin" is similar to the "problems" themed songs, but it's a focused song, the band doesn't sound as bored as they did in prior work, and this might sound strange, but this song has a feeling of unfortunate fatalism and the narrator's allowance of it that works well with the album itself. Unlike Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" in which the narrator plays with his fate, "BtDiB"'s narrator accepts the fate but is helpless in attempting to fix them. It's a surprisingly strong effort from Dee Dee at this point and one of the highlights from the album.

To say that this album would have been better without Dee Dee is not entirely wrong, as all but two songs were more of the same material that has appeared on all post Subterranean Jungle albums. Still, you'd have to take into account the rest of the material on the album to get a full picture. Was the band better off writing their own material?

NEXT: PART TWO!!!

About Adios Amigos

I started writing the review in August, but it seems that every time I write it, I find something new that I have to write more on, and it seems that this will take me longer than I thought. Hopefully, I'll finish this by next week.

Adios Amigos Addendum

Extras

Th extra on this album is either the hidden track "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." or "Spider-Man", and the addition of those tracks depends on what region you bought the album from and/or which album printing edition it is. My copy, a North American CD, doesn't have "Spider-Man" nor "R.A.M.O.N.E.S.". Captain Oi! Records has their version with "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." on it and the CD also includes liner notes by Monte Melnick.

"R.A.M.O.N.E.S." is easily available live with Lemmy as a guest on We're Outta Here, as a bonus studio track on Greatest Hits Live, and it's also on numerous compilations.


The version of "Spider-Man" on Adios Amigos is the elusive studio cut that's currently only available on the complete Weird Tales of the Ramones box set. This cut is not available as a stand-alone MP3 purchase.


Album Info


All time references are based on my iTunes tracklist.


Album Length: 33.9 minutes

Shortest Track: "Have a Nice Day" - 1:39
Longest Track: "Life's a Gas" - 3:34


No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.


This post wraps up my album reviews, as there are no more studio albums after this one. The last two major releases during the band's active life were the live albums Greatest Hits Live and We're Outta Here. 


UP NEXT: GREATEST HITS LIVE

Acid Eaters Addendum

Extras

The only extra from this recording session was the cover of the Beach Boys's Surfin' Safari, an exclusive bonus to Japanese and Brazillian pressings. However, Captain Oi! Records has the album with this track included, but I don't own it. This track is the only region bonus not easily available in MP3 stores.

It's a good cover, and one that should have been on the album.

The song:




Album Length:

All time references are based on my iTunes setlist.

Album Length: 31:02
# of Tracks: 12
Shortest Track: "The Shape of Things to Come" - 1:47
Longest Track: "When I Was Young" - 3:16

No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.

NEXT: ADIOS AMIGOS!!!

Acid Eaters

It's a common occurrence in rock 'n' roll to return to your roots with a cover album - Metallica has Garage Inc., Bob Dylan has Good as I Been to You, and John Lennon made Rock 'n' Roll. The Ramones took their favorite old tracks and made Acid Eaters, their tribute to the 60's music that influenced their style. The risk with making cover albums is the temptation of making a note-by-note copy of the original track instead of something akin to your style. The Ramones, having a good hit-to-miss ratio with covers, unfortunately fell into the temptation and copied many of the original songs to a tee.

Take "Journey to the Center of the Mind" as an example: The first few seconds sound like a familiar Ramones production with Marky's drums, Johnny's buzzsaw, and CJ's crunchy bass lines in full gear, but  there's the lead guitar playing a familiar fill followed by a note-by-note performance of Ted Nugent's original solo. The song continues, with CJ singing competently and the band sounding like they normally do, but Nugent's second solo is played and I swear it's almost as pitch perfect as any of Nugent's performances of that song. It's an enjoyable cover but it sounds just like the Amboy Dukes's original with no real changes aside from Johnny's downstrokes.

There are more examples of this form of "covering", but the most horrifying is the inclusion of Pete Townshend to sing the background vocals for "Substitute". It's the same thing he did in the original and he still sounds just as nasally as he did before!What's the point of covering a song if the end product will be nothing more than a replica of the original?

The only bright spot on this album is the cover of Dylan's "My Back Pages" that almost brings the boys back to their deconstructive roots. There's a solo in the middle of the song, but I don't mind it that much as the original doesn't have one and it doesn't sound awful. Did the song need the solo? No. However, this is a late-era Ramones song, therefore nothing is shocking about the solo's inclusion. This song is fast, well-sung, and as close as you're going to get to a classic Ramones cover.

Barring the cover of "My Back Pages", this is an overall disappointing album. Some of the covers are enjoyable, but the end product has the appearance of a cover band instead of the Ramones covering tracks in their own style.

A Faster, Modern Take:
The Ramones play well and everything is well produced, but there's no need for emulations when the originals are easily available and accessible. They might have been hard to find in the early 90s, but you can find all the songs on your favorite MP3 store online and skip most of this album, barring the cover of "My Back Pages".

NEXT UP: ADIOS AMIGOS!!!

Mondo Bizarro Addendum

Extras

There isn't anything extra on the CD or vinyl editions of this album unless you buy the Captain Oi! Records CD. From what I've gathered, Captain Oi! Records is an England-based record label that focuses on 70's and 80's punk rock. They recently re-issued the last 4 Ramones studio albums: Brain Drain, Mondo Bizarro, Acid Eaters, and Adios Amigos. Each one comes with liner notes by longtime Ramones tour manager Monte Melnick (who wrote the great book On the Road with the Ramones), one bonus track, and lyrics to every song. They're a bit expensive, so I'll buy one soon to check out if it's worth the purchase.

I don't know if there were any B-Sides released during Mondo Bizarro's run but I've come across the song title "The Ballad of Tipper Gore". I haven't found the song, but it may be a tamer name for the song "Censorshit".

"Spider-Man"

The extra track on the Captain Oi! edition is the studio version of "Spider-Man", the cover of the classic theme song from the 1967 cartoon. This is the version that's available on the Weird Tales of the Ramones box set and the bonus on the initial pressing of Adios Amigos. You can't get it without buying the whole MP3 box set in iTunes and Amazon which omit the comic book and the DVD, so it's probably worth buying the Captain Oi! CD or the physical copy of the box set. I've yet to see a copy of Adios Amigos with "Spider-Man" in it, so those are your choices.The album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits contains the song, but it is a different, slightly longer version.

The song was sung live and recorded for both Greatest Hits Live and We're Outta Here. It is not the same performance released twice as those were two separate concerts.

There are also two videos for the Saturday Morning version. One video is animated in the style of the Greatest Hits Live album art which makes sense why the cover of that album has a spider web behind the band. The other video has clips of the cartoon show mixed with clips of the actual band perfoming the song on a rooftop, and Drew Barrymore and other people are shown talking about Spider-Man.

Album Length

All time references are based on my iTunes setlist.

Album Length: 37:10
# of Tracks: 13
Shortest Track: "Anxiety" - 2:04
Longest Track: "Poison Heart: - 4:04

No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.

Mondo Bizarro

CJ makes his studio album debut along with the return of Ed Stasium as producer (this being his last time working the guys) in what is often considered the beginning of the Ramones's last stand, Mondo Bizarro.

I often find myself at odds with some of the opinions of this album. Mondo Bizarro is seen as a good album and it's sometimes considered a great album (but nowhere near the first 4). The band sounds better and livelier than in previous efforts as those were horribly produced affairs with questionable songwriting and performances by the band. Mondo Bizarro, produced by old Ramones producer Ed Stasium, is a cleaner, sharper effort. Stasium was great at bringing out the best of the band's pop sounds, and Mondo Bizarro continued his impressive streak with the band. My only qualm would be that the band sounds too slick compared to their other work, but that's a minor issue.

The music is still Ramones-esque. Johnny still plays like it's 1974. Marky plays as if it's 1978. CJ's emulates Dee Dee without failing. The only one that's changed is Joey. At first listen, it's Joey Ramone without the depressingly cathartic sludge he burped out for many albums and live shows. After repeated listening, I feel as if his voice was cleaned up a bit, as "The Job that Ate My Brain" sounds way too good to be a late career Joey. It's still great that he was singing again, but did he need that cleanup? Speaking of singing, this album continues the tradition of the singing bassist with CJ getting three songs to sing. His voice is better than Dee Dee's, but I find myself skipping his songs as his voice is whiny and the songs they chose for him are annoying to begin with.

The heart and soul of the band is the songwriting, and most of it is acceptable. There's nothing mind blowing or new in this venture as the guys always found a way to make a great hook in even their most horrible of songs, therefore they would always do their best to make each song a possible radio hit. Marky brings out a few goodies with "The Job that Ate My Brain" and "Anxiety", songs that would have found a home 15 years earlier in the first album due to the subject matter, simplicity, and length. Dee Dee "contributed" three songs on this album (for bail money as the stories go), and I skip most of them as they're not great ("Strength to Endure" has good riff, but that's about it). Dee Dee did contribute the 4-minute bloated Joey song on this album, "Poison Heart". It is the sequel to the equally bloated "Pet Sematary", and it shares the same cheesy production as its brother. Joey brings a ton of work into this album, but most of it is mediocre. They're not bad, but the songs aren't as engaging or well written as previous efforts (similar to Dee Dee's material). There is one cover on this album, "Take It as It Comes", but it sounds so similar to the original that it almost comes off as if the Ramones were a cover band - a bad sign of things to come.

"Touring" and "It's Gonna Be Alright" are the songs that are just negatively effortless. The Ramones understood the art of music-making, and they also were masters of pulling off numerous songs with the same chord progression. However, there were few times in their career where they rip themselves off by having similar sounding songs. "Touring" was not only a completed 11 year old song at the time of Mondo Bizzaro's release, but if it was released then, the connection between it and "Sheena is a Punker"/ "Rock 'n' Roll High School" would have still been as noticeable as the sun. "Its Gonna Be Alright" may get away with its copying as it comes from Too Tough to Die's "Daytime Dilema (Dangers of Love)", a song whose popularity is nowhere near the levels of "Sheena" or "RnR High School". The funniest part of the copying on "Its Gonna Be Alright" is that the song is about fan loyalty, and I think that only the most loyal of Ramones fans will get the connection between the two songs. Both "Touring" and "It's Gonna Be Alright" are listenable songs, but it sucks that they borrow so much from older songs.

Mondo Bizarro was the band's strongest effort in years, but it was nowhere near their best efforts. The album was just better than mediocre. What saves this album is the production values, as the band had not sounded as alive in years. The songwriting is sub-par with only two songs I'd consider classics, 7 uninspired songs, and 4 stinkers. It's better than Animal Boy or Brain Drain, but most albums are better than those two. This would be their penultimate album of original material, as the next album would be a cover album.

NEXT: ACID EATERS

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.