Ramones First Album Turns 50

Wait, what??? The Ramones first album just turned 50! A record made by four young men from the Forest Hills neighborhood in Queens, NY, has gone on to be one of the greatest punk rock records of all-time. Ramones was produced by Craig Leon [Tape Op #151], engineered by Rob Freeman, and recorded at Plaza Sound Studios in New York City over the course of a week for about $6400. It is a top to bottom barn-burner with short, catchy songs that are raucous and distorted, but it also has tunes like "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" and "Let's Dance" that could just as well be on an early Beatles or Herman's Hermits album if you stripped away the fuzzy guitars. Ramones was my first punk rock record, and I still have the vinyl in my "oft played" record stacks. I think I paid $5.99 for it. The album''s opening track, "Blitzkrieg Bop," is one of most pan-generationally recognizable songs in existence. You hear it at sporting events, on TV commercials, movie soundtracks, carwashes, and at Whole Foods and Chipotles. Tracks on Ramones were some of the first songs ever played by kids that just got their first electric guitar and knew a few barre chords. It was also a document that told those very kids that anything was possible. They could be in a band. They could play shows. They could make records.

For all the love that "Blitzkrieg Bop" gets, my favorite tracks are "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement," "Loudmouth," and "Havana Affair." Those songs have a massive amount of "Fuck Off" embedded in the playing and vocal delivery, and feel like what it might have been like to be at CBGB show in the late-'70s.

When I listen to Ramones today, I can smell the sweat, leather jackets, stale beer, cigarettes, and the faint scent of vomit of a small, low-ceiling club packed to the gills. It just simply sounds like energy, attitude, and youth.

You can read our interview with Tommy Ramone HERE.