First, Leave Home: This is probably the greatest Ramones album, especially now that it's the 90s and "Carbona Not Glue" has been restored to it. For one thing, it has three of the greatest two-song pairs in music history: "Glad to See You Go" then "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment," "Oh, Oh, I Love Her So" then "Carbona," and "Swallow My Pride" then "What's Your Game?" Oddly this is treated as the weak sister of the first three, judging by the internet and the musical press. The cd version has an entire show from 1976 on the special features, and it is amazing. But that doesn't factor into my judgment of course, that would be wrong.
I never heard "Carbona" until 2005! That is like a little gift from heaven, to be allowed to come upon something like that so late in life. Also, "Babysitter" is included in the special features, and that is also a fantastic song that I never knew until '05.
"I Don't Want You" from Road to Ruin is a song that I knew by heart for 25 years or so, yet it never quite stood out from the pack until recently. But I now realize it is one of the best songs I've ever heard.
By far the most underrated Ramones album is Pleasant Dreams. For one thing, the production is not wimpy even though everyone in the world, including the band, says so--it is for the most part appropriate for the material. It's a very poppy album and needs a little less chain sawing than some of the others, and anyway if you compare the production with Subterranean Jungle or Animal Boy, it's pretty much perfect.
It's important to note that Pleasant Dreams is clearly, far and away, better than Too Tough to Die, the most overrated Ramones album. TTTD is more rocking but great songwriting always beats decent songwriting in my book.
The best song on PD, "The KKK Took My Baby Away," is better than the best song on TTTD, "Howling At The Moon" (which is a marvelous song nonetheless). And every song on PD is good, whereas TTTD has some clunkers.
Subterranean Jungle has weird sounding drums from the 80s, and a couple of dispensable songs (their cover of "A Little Bit of Soul," a song I love but that they don't do justice to, and their cover of "Time Has Come Today," a song I never liked but that they probably do OK with, I usually skip it anyhow). Otherwise, though, it's one of their most interesting albums. Weird classic: "Highest Trails Above," which lyrically is basically Dee Dee having a manic episode. Most underrated widely acknowledged classic: "Psychotherapy," the humor of which escapes a lot of people I know, it seems like. And "In The Park" is an absolute classic, one of the greatest Ramones songs I would even say, that nobody ever seems to mention for some reason. It is definitely the best song on the album.
Speaking of humor, what happened to it on Too Tough to Die? It's not exactly po-faced, but it does seem a bit serious (which makes lyrics to songs like "Planet Earth 1988" and "Humankind" a little painful; although I try to give Dee Dee the benefit of the doubt on the former, Richie's attempts at social commentary on the latter are pathetic).
From there on, the best effort is clearly Mondo Bizarro although that suffers from good-but-not-great syndrome on a lot of the songs. Yet, "I Won't Let It Happen" is in the Ramones pantheon, and "Poison Heart," despite some second-rate lyrics, remains a powerful number.
Animal Boy is better than the production, which is so 80s it's painful. And I go back and forth about Halfway to Sanity. One thing that's clear is that Adios Amigos is by far their worst album, sadly; it starts to sound a little like muscle-rock, the songs are not great, and even the best songs are more forgettable than the best songs on any other Ramones album with the possible exception of Animal Boy, and anyway I prefer Animal Boy.
Anyway, this may be the last you hear from me about the Ramones for a while, I've got to start blogging about something else, and I've finally started listening to other things again.
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