The Ramones' Ramones: 20 (33 1/3)

As Nicholas Rombes says in his concluding remarks "like all great albums, it resists interpretation. It rejects the tyranny of meaning, whether imposed by the fan or the critic". And so it does; without wishing to make my own attempt, it is one of those very few albums - offhand I would think about only Elvis's first RCA album, the Velvet Underground & Nico and - maybe - Sgt Pepper standing alongside it - which is so unlike anything which preceded it and so influential on everything that followed that almost any kind of criticism risks seeming trivial and irrelevant. But saying that, Nicholas Rombes gives it a damn good go, taking the album - as is appropriate - entirely seriously and devoting less time to the songs themselves than to the context into which it emerged, its influences (largely from writing, film, photography and other media) and its phenomenal impact on the world around it. Refreshing that he respects the amount of thought and consideration that the Ramones themselves put into the album, dissipating any notion that this was a flash in the pan, an accidental catalyst for the emergence of punk and New Wave. You put this essay down very aware that the Ramones knew exactly what they were doing, both culturally and musically. These were no dumb punks.Nicholas Rombes writes about punk with the benefit of hindsight, but that's no crime - it allows him a tremendously sharp and pungently delivered perspective. If you like this, try ' A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982 ', which provides a similarly acute analysis of the broader canvas of punk and the new wave.

this is a great little book about the Ramones and the first album. Full of interesting facts i didnt know such as the Ramones we not actually brothers in real life, hailed from new york and were all strict vegans. essential.

Bought this thinking it was a book about the first album by RAMONES - it is not. For more than the first half of the book the professor of English waffles on about the social changes in the USA and England, particularly from the 1960s to the mid 70s - BORING! If i wanted a book on that subject i would have bought it, instead of this. The book on MADNESS from the same series that i had read prior to this was exceptional and ticked all the right boxes. It detailed how their first album was recorded and what inspired each song etc. This one only has about 20 pages that are actually dedicated to the RAMONES first album (in which he compares running times of the original demos to the album versions) - YAWN! A MISSED OPPORTUNITY. They guy obviously thinks he's clever but seemingly failed to grasp fully what the subject of this book SHOULD have been about and instead makes up the books contents by stealing lengthy passages from other people's work, books and magazine articles and rambling on about 'were the Ramones serious oe were they being ironic'? Who cares? The Ramones were more about having fun, you idiot! He then goes on at length about the political sygnificance of punk and the Ramones. The Ramones were about as heavyweight politically as pond scum. I finished the book by throwing it hard at the floor so all the pages got damaged before chucking it in the bin. I was that annoyed by it.

A great concept for a series, I have read several of these album-books, and particularly enjoy the diversity of prose. "Ramones" is one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands. Nicholas Rombes describes the zeitgeist of the mid-late 70s with his book. Unlike so many boring books and films about the era, Nicolas does not default to hyperbole about punk saving the universe. Instead, the author paints a picture of why The Ramones were an interesting band and how they fit in to the cultural landscape of the 70s. I started reading this on a plane and found myself devouring it within a couple hours and wished that it kept going. I got the sense that the author has a deep appreciation for this simultaneously perfect and flawed band, and put a great deal of heart behind each paragraph. I don't know anything about Nicholas Rombes, but I sure hope he continues writing!

I am increasingly enjoying this series of books. While I have not been so motivated as to pick up the volumes on albums I don't know or much care about, I am more and more drawn into those looking at albums I do know, care about, enjoy, and sometimes love. Here's one now.I was just the right age for the first Ramones album. I was 15 years old and my friend Tony and I had been following stories about these leather-jacketed oddball-looking guys in Rock Scene magazine for close to a year ("Takin' a Subway Ride with the Ramones", and so forth) when we found out they had a record coming out. We had no idea, sitting in our little town north of Indianapolis, what on earth these yahoos might sound like, but we knew we HAD to have the record when it came out. We had to beg the local record store to bring in copies for us. I bought it the day it came in, went home, put in on the turntable (an old BSR record-lathe), turned it up and had my mind blown. Blitzkrieg Bop was over before I got my lower jaw off the floor, but once I did, I started laughing and didn't stop until side one ended. Not mocking laughter, not what-the-hell-is this laughter; Joyous laughter. This-is-what-I-never-knew-I-was-waiting-for laughter. Spontaneous outpouring of I'M ALIVE laughter. I didn't listen to anything else for at least three weeks. Uriah Heep was never quite coming back again, you know?Nichols Rombes' little book on the album is a lot of fun. Not nearly in the same league of fun as actually listening to the record fun, but it served the purpose, as have all the books in the series that I've delved into so far, of sending me back to the record and reminding me some of why I love it so much. Avoiding the temptation of rehashing the history and lineage of the NYC music scene, and the CBGBs scene in particular, Rombes instead puts his focus on how the Ramones (album and band) fit into the changing musical, and musical/social, framework of the day. He does, to his credit, and out pleasure, also spend some time with the actual record itself, which is, in some of these volumes, sort of an afterthought. He writing is clear, interesting, thought-provoking and he has a point of view. He looks at how the Ramones chose to present themselves to the world and, in turn, how the world viewed the Ramones at the time.This is a worthy look at the world the album was thrust into, how the world reacted, and why, to some degree it reacted the way it did. It took the Ramones to make the world safe for the Ramones. Think about their place now, then read about their place then. You'll see.

great book. note it is quite short like all of the 33 1/3 books with a point of argument about the importance of the ramones

Really reads like stream of consciousness of one man's opinion with historical context. Just a journey...no beginning, middle, or end

Great way to kick off--I guess you can say--the 40th anniversary of the Ramones' self-titled debut album. Good read too. :)