Rock – Page 29 – Rock Salted

Ramones – Leave Home

Ramones – Leave Home Sire SA 7528 (1977) / Rhino R2 74307 (2001)

Leave home is a weak spot in the Ramones 1970s discography. It has “Swallow My Pride”, but lots of the songwriting is fairly weak. The band was also still saddled with production values that didn’t quite fit. They were being treated as a neo girl group, and no more. The thoroughly modern pace of the music that I think could never have been appreciated in decades previous was not always being given credit.

The 2001 Rhino reissue features essentially an entire album worth of bonus tracks in the form of a 1976 concert recorded in Hollywood. It’s the bonus tracks that eclipse the album proper. They prove all the legends true. Johnny really was something of a guitarist, and back in ’76 his style was fresh. The producers on the early studio stuff just didn’t get how he played guitar, and up until the group’s masterpiece Rocket to Russia they tended to hem him in to rigid rhythms and a tone without much bite. Live, the guitar and bass could cut loose. Johnny could just rag on his guitar with abandon. Guitar distortion takes control of the music. And Johnny does it all without a single goddamn guitar solo. However, if I had to put my finger on it I would say it’s that guitar sound that gives this live recording a subtext that the studio material was often denied. The pulse is relentless too. The backbeat just never gives up. It’s one song after another, with a frenetic energy that carries everything along. Take even the slower-tempo “Havana Affair” where they drag one riff over another to keep the song trudging along. The band is in sync with the audience, and that translates perfectly to the recording. Joey‘s voice cuts out on the mic occasionally, but who cares. The songs are mostly from the first album, which is a plus, and even weaker material like “53rd & 3rd” sounds fine. “California Sun”, the cover song that is one of only three songs from these live bonus tracks that would end up on Leave Home, is vastly superior live. The music can breathe, with the rhythm shifting to keep the pace just right. The music is totally in the moment. Yet there is nothing complicated about it. They took all the most basic elements of pop music and attacked them ferociously in a way that would never make sense put down on paper. The Ramones are The Ramones because they made this kind of music in its rawest, purest form. It’s loud and fast and catchy. It’ll knock you over. It doesn’t give you a second to second-guess any of it. Yeah, it’s rock and roll!

Ramones – Rocket to Russia

Ramones – Rocket to Russia Sire SR 6042 (1977)

Rocket to Russia was the Ramones album the group was most proud of. Maybe it was the band hitting a special groove in the studio. Maybe it was key that it was the album that hit in ’77, when the whole “punk” thing exploded. Maybe the band was pissed off at each other to just the right degree. Or maybe it’s something unspeakable. Rocket to Russia is a sleek blast of New York City. It doesn’t define the entire city (let’s be real here) but it beats as one with the city’s heartbeat. It’s one unforgettable statement that embodies why The Ramones “didn’t care” and “don’t want to” as so many of their songs proclaimed.

The Ramones were art rockers at bottom. That wasn’t a limitation in the slightest. Their willingness to admit the vileness of their lives — even when drenched in irony — was of such an honest character that made them unassailably great. They weren’t particularly vengeful but were malcontents in the sense of being unsatisfied. They did not wish ill of anyone. They instead sought to preserve individualism and healthy alternatives (that is, if sniffing glue can be considered healthy). It is entirely unsurprising that “Teenage Lobotomy” follows “We’re A Happy Family.” The Ramones declare they were casualties long ago. Yet they remain unafraid to sing about it.

The album holds the definitive version of “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker.” Ramones songs never had many words; a necessity almost for songs under two minutes. They still say it all. If the necessity for the punk attitude ever could be described in less than thirty words it would have to be: “But she just couldn’t stay/ She had to break away/ Well New York City really has it all/ Oh yeah, oh yeah/ Sheena is a punk rocker…now.”

“Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” is a great Joey Ramone song, and a surprisingly slow song for the group. It isn’t their typical wall of noise. Joey gets to showcase his thick NYC accent to the point of perversity. His lyrics are as sharp as they ever were as well. “Teenage Lobotomy” attacks intellectual inbreeding and adolescent brainwashing with the dashing posture of these efficient rebels. All the songs are great. If there is a reason that Rocket To Russia is the Ramones’ most likable album is that it captures the multifaceted talents of the band so often overlooked. It matches varied material with consistent quality.

One problem with the debut albums of both the Ramones and Blondie was the tendency to cram them into “new” girl group records and not to accept them on their own terms. Once the Ramones had some momentum, their third album Rocket to Russia was finally able to sound like an album from a punk band. Maybe a punk band influenced by old 60s girl groups, but a band that came from a distinctly different set of circumstances.

The Ramones stripped rock ‘n’ roll to its bones: everything you needed and nothing you didn’t. The most surprising aspect of the group was how they prove rock ‘n’ roll is the sound of rebellion. The New York Dolls had the bubblegum girl group style blended with loud, dirty guitars but the Ramones were minimalists (there is an overlap between fans of composers like Phillip Glass and The Ramones). The Ramones abandoned all the excess and what was left scared a lot of people. Those in the know recognized the glory of three chords and an attitude. Even though by ’77 “rock and roll” was something you could hear on the radio even during the day, it remained something misunderstood. Having a clear vision of what rock ‘n’ roll means was what made The Ramones great. A band that was nothing but rock ‘n’ roll is rare. No one dared to do it with as much calculated indifference.

Neither during nor after The Ramones existence did they achieve that much more than cult celebrity. Whether you begin assuming The Ramones are a great band and deduce their honesty as artists or the reverse, the conclusion is the same. It’s only the simpleminded who seem unappreciative of The Ramones — the greatest irony for a band that projects a demeanor of simpleminded dropouts.

Perfume Genius – Too Bright

Perfume Genius – Too Bright Matador OLE 1028-2 (2014)

Eclectic pop that moves freely from art rock in the style of Mark Hollis (“Fool”) to heavier stuff (“Queen”), plus plenty of somber yet driven ballads almost like Rufus Wainwright. Mike Hadreas, the man behind the Perfume Genius moniker, has an adept faculty for switching styles song-to-song while sounding convincing with each of them — something of a trend of late among many different artists, like Kishi Bashi on Lighght. Well done.

Iggy Pop – Skull Ring

Iggy Pop – Skull Ring Virgin 80774 (2003)

Well, I checked this out from the library and popped it in a CD player without paying much attention to what was on it and what it was about. It started okay. It felt like a solid if uneventful rock album, like a latter day counterpart to New Values. There definitely were signs that Iggy was making overtures to the wave of post-Screeching Weasel spastic pop-punk that bands like Sum 41 and Green Day were riding. I couldn’t really dislike what I was hearing thanks to Iggy’s blend of genuine interest and detached irony. Well, soon enough I realized that both Green Day and Sum 41 make guest appearances here. Things start to take a turn for the worse as the sense of irony falls away, leaving something that feels a lot more like pandering. Most disappointing is that Iggy doesn’t pull out any songwriting that matches the best of his last album Beat Em Up. Anyway, for what it’s worth, the tracks with a reunited Stooges lineup are a lot better here than on the truly horrible Stooges reunion disc The Weirdness. Iggy would come back strongly with an entirely new more “mature” pop sound on Préliminaires a few years later.

Iggy Pop – New Values

Iggy Pop – New Values Arista SPART 1092 (1979)

Pretty much state-of-the-art 1970s rock, comparable to The David Johansen Group‘s The David Johansen Group Live, Lou Reed‘s Street Hassle or even the harder parts of Harry Nilsson‘s Nilsson Schmilsson. Iggy is reunited here with two former Stooges, James Williamson and Scott Thurston. Things are somewhat uneven, coming up a little short in the songwriting department more than anything. Still, a few songs like “Five Foot One,” “Girls,” “Tell Me a Story,” and “Curiosity” are decent. Iggy has certainly done better, but he’s done worse too.

Prince & The Revolution – Around the World in a Day

Prince & The Revolution – Around the World in a Day Paisley Park 9 25286-1 (1985)

A revealing album in that it foreshadowed the self-indulgent character of a lot of Prince albums to come. Now, this one is still a lot easier to take than the later stuff. It has its moments, as well as a mega-hit in “Raspberry Beret,” but stacked next to Prince’s best work of the 80s this is a little underwhelming.

O(+> – Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

O(+> – Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic NPG 07822-14624-2 (1999)

Very uneven, but, that’s almost a given in this stage of Prince’s career (he was using the moniker “O(+>”). The opener makes this seem quite promising; it’s a solid tune catchy enough to recall his 80s heyday. Well, that fades fast with a tedious amount of guest spots and lame crossover attempts with whatever was considered “hip” that week. But, then again, a lot of this is pleasant enough filler. If trimmed down by about half, this might have been a lot more listenable. As it stands, it’s a bit frustrating.

Elvis – Good Times

Elvis – Good Times RCA CPL1-0475 (1974)

Anyone paying attention to Elvis’ career in the early 1970s, well, more accurately, since his 1968 TV special comeback, should have noticed some fierce music coming from The King. His live shows were rightly a spectacle worth witnessing, and his albums were every bit as good. But all that came to what in hindsight seems like a grinding halt somewhere in late 1972 or early 1973. It was around that time that Elvis performed his historic live via satellite “Aloha from Hawaii” concert, which was good but seemed to still find Elvis starting to slip a little. He wasn’t recording in the studio to speak of, and crummy offerings like Elvis (Fool) and Raised on Rock seem kind of like a slap in the face for fans. Oh, and they hadn’t even been hit with 1974’s scathing tribute to Roe v. Wade Having Fun With Elvis on Stage yet!

So along comes Good Times, recorded at Stax Studios in Memphis, and on paper it looks like Elvis is actually trying again. But then the music plays. This album makes for an excellent case study in how every conceivable decision can be made wrongly during the recording process. The songs, for the most part, are sappy and stupid, the strings and backing vocals treacly and overbearing, and Elvis seems adrift. Case in point is Tony Joe White‘s “I’ve Got a Thing About You Baby,” a song actually suited to Elvis perfectly, but for which there was a superior outtake version that only appeared posthumously on a few collections. The version here has Elvis almost hidden behind strangely echoed vocals, random string passages, dripping piano runs and depressingly satin guitar riffs. Crap-ola like “My Boy” and “I Got a Feelin’ in My Body” seem like the sorts of songs that would be forced on Elvis if he was doing a weekly TV variety show and was running low on material, but an army of largely talentless orchestral arrangers were on hand to adapt cop show background music at the King’s behest. Elvis had, suddenly, become a self-parody. Or so it seems. The same recording sessions produced material for Promised Land, which simply blows this out of the water by comparison, even if Promised Land is no classic. And that really is the final knock on this album. Faced with superior material, it was, for the most part, passed over to release this garbage first. The middle-of-the-road “Talk About the Good Times” sounds alright mostly in comparison to the terrible stuff elsewhere on this platter. But that’s a small consolation. From here on out, Elvis’ problems would be many, both personal and professional. His albums would only intermittently succeed on the strength of a few heartache ballads and down-and-out weepers, on those occasions when his band didn’t spoil the sadness and loneliness in his voice. The good times were mostly over.

Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley’s a Twister

Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley’s a Twister Checker LP 2982 (1962)

Hard to know what to make of this one. The best stuff here is the batch of previously-released singles “Who Do You Love,” “Road Runner,” “Hey, Bo Diddley” and “Bo Diddley.” But those were old news tacked on here as padding. There is also the excellent “Here ‘Tis,” which The Yardbirds would cover shortly. The rest feels like Bo Diddley by numbers, which is still about five times better than most other things you could be listening to right now, but also not as good as Bo at his best.

Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond

Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond PIAS PIL070 CD (2007)

Back at it with another chunk of prime Dino Jr. They haven’t lost a step, though the music does have some of the softened features of a more mature band. Still, they throw in two crappy Lou Barlow songs, just like old times. Although the Dino Jr. comeback has been surprisingly good, this remains the only album from the comeback that really lives up to the best of their original run.