It's Alive is a remarkable live album; it plays like a greatest hits collection, or, since the Ramones never had a hit, perhaps it's better to say a "best of." There are 28 songs culled from the first three Ramones albums. There is no filler, there are no weird outtakes or interesting experiments, and nothing is included to showcase one or more of the musicians--every minute of the album is a full-bore frontal assault on the hypothalamus. There are no low points. It's a remarkable achievement for a band with only three studio albums--every song is taken from the albums, every one could have been a single, the songs are not embellished yet there is never a moment when one is tempted to think "do I need a live version of this?" As if that's not enough, however, take a look at the remaining songs from the first three Ramones albums, the ones not included on It's Alive:
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement
Loudmouth
53rd and 3rd
I Remember You
Carbona Not Glue
Swallow My Pride
What's Your Game
You Should Never Have Opened That Door
Locket Love
I Can't Give You Anything
Ramona
Why Is It Always This Way?
This could be an exceptional "best of" collection. In fact, every song from the first three Ramones albums could be a "best of" selection. How many bands in rock history could have a "best of" collection taken from their first three albums as good as the above list of songs not on It's Alive? Probably none; maybe not even The Beatles, and if we add the other 28 songs, definitely not the Beatles! That's a powerful argument for why the Ramones are on a very short list of the absolute greatest rock bands of all time.
The Beatles' genius was more diverse than that of the Ramones; they were more innovative and adaptable after the initial phase of their career. The Ramones' palette was much more limited than a lot of bands, probably than most other bands. But that was a good bit of the point of the Ramones; every song was a manifesto for simplicity and sticking with what works and jettisoning the rest (although the claim repeated ad nauseum that the Ramones were a three-chord band is simply false). And, if anything, that makes the Ramones' achievement even more impressive: they managed to write the greatest 2-minute pop song anyone had ever heard over and over and over, filling whole albums with them (This wouldn't be an easy claim to make about the albums that followed, but "I Wanna Be Sedated," "She's The One," "Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio?," "Rock n Roll High School," "The KKK Took My Baby Away" and "Psychotherapy" didn't even exist yet when It's Alive was recorded).
Considering that It's Alive was recorded at the end of 1977, and the first Ramones album was released in early 1976, it's positively staggering to consider what the Ramones achieved in less than two years. I doubt any other band, ever, could claim to have produced as many great songs in a comparable period of time (even subtracting the four cover songs, that's still 38 classic original songs). If anyone wishes to contest this claim in the comments below, I'm all ears.
