Ranking Records: The Ramones

[@santtusan6387]

Marky actually returned for Brain Drain already. Richie left during the Halfway to Sanity tour, Elvis Ramone came in for 2-3 shows and then Marky was back. Richie for me was technically the best drummer they ever had, great vocalist too.

[@mbodayle]

Thanks for the info.

[@user-sw4qd2up2s]

Ya don't hear much about Richie or Elvis Ramone.

[@jeffsims8270]

Yea, Ritchie probably doesn't really get the recognition he deserves. IMO, "Too Tough To Die, "Animal Boy" and "Halfway To Sanity" are some heavy, hard hitting albums and I believe Ritchie was an important contributor to 'em.

[@henriksrensen3220]

Leave Home is my favorite

[@leahflower9924]

same here

[@shizuokaBLUES]

Mine too. So consistently good and basically a feel good album

[@mikeface1]

That was a great video!!! Thank you some of the details were misplaced but not many. Still a good job. Thank you

[@leolongtime5671]

That’s a solid review Mike thanks.

[@user-sw4qd2up2s]

It's worth mentioning that Mondo Bizzaro has one of my all-time favorite songs, and no doubt the best from the latter years along with Pet Semetary, and that's Poison Heart. That song just smokes and it's really the last original song they did that was really good. Also Adios Amigos has their cover of the song Lemmy from Motorhead wrote about them called R.A.M.O.N.E.S. which is interesting. *Look up the Motorhead original version, it's pretty great. Sadly Lemmy is also no longer with us.

[@matthewurban7031]

Brain Drain is my favorite Ramones album. I believe in miracles, Zero zero ufo, don't bust my chops, and pet sematary are some of my favorite songs in general. And I like you, aren't really a huge Ramones fan.

[@Victor-em3nu]

Halfway to Sanity is one of my favorites. It's really underrated.

[@sydneyhalliwell2513]

The early Ramones albums are my favorites too. Rocket to Russia being #1 for me. But I really like Adios Amigos too. No my favorite but a good album to go out with

[@arikuusela6716]

9:55 I'm more of a Ramones fan, but it really sounds like a Johnny Thunders song with those lead guitars and drum parts.

[@user-sw4qd2up2s]

Towards the end of their career they did a cover song for a compilation CD of cartoon and kid shows theme songs. That did Spiderman, and it's really fun. That's a worth finding, that CD has some other great covers on it by cool bands.

[@steveshedd7425]

I pretty much agree with you about the Ramones. They were are their best in the 1970's. Their later albums have some good songs, but they weren't as good. Music really changed in the 1980's. Many bands that were popular in the 70's, practically disappeared in the 80's. What's remarkable about the Ramones is their longevity as a band. A very remarkable accomplishment. As you said, they are more popular now than the ever were. It's too bad the original members aren't alive to enjoy their well-deserved fame. A truly great band!

[@mbodayle]

Awesome - thanks for sharing!

[@JUSTMIKE123]

Agree Road to Ruin through Subterranean jungle was too much effort of poppy to get recognized and get hit on radio. Too Tough to Die with Richie was beginning of attempt venture in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal good hard rock beat, but words and sound of Joey's voice in most songs were painful to listen to. Didn't like so many cover songs,. Ironically the song That got me into the RAMONES was cover song I Don't Want To Grow Up and the few albums with no cover songs were their worst albums in my opinion

[@jeffsims8270]

FYI - I'm not familiar with most of the og performers/writers of these songs. Don't forget that they cover 'Let's Dance' on their debut. "Rocket To Russia" also contains the cover "Surfin' Bird". "Subterranian Jungle" also contains the covers 'I Need Your Love' and 'Time Has Come Today'. "Mondo Bizarro" does a great cover of THE DOORS with 'Take It As It Comes'. Funny thing is, other than "Pleasant Dreams", the only albums that don't include covers are the 'Ritchie years'.

[@LetsGoMetsGo33]

Gosh, I love this band. I appreciate their high energy return to early 60’s rock ‘n’ roll at a time when that was not common (1974-1976), but I also appreciate them laying a blueprint for later punk rock, whether melodic (Green Day, the Queers), or more aggressive (US hardcore). When their later albums showed a reciprocal influence with their musical offspring, I liked that. But I get how an album like “halfway to sanity”, which I would rank 4th or 5th, has limited appeal. Here’s my ranking: 1. Ramones (this is Earth shaking!) 2 and 3- Leave Home and Rocket to Russia (tie). I like the songs slightly better on LH, but RtR has superior packaging (the dust sleeve artwork) and arguably better production. 4. Halfway to Sanity. I was about 13 when this hit, and it reminds me of the underground rock of the time- punk, metal, “crossover”. Daniel Rey of Shrapnel really got how to make them sound like themselves, but also of that moment. It’s a cartoonish album, but with this group that’s an asset! 5. Road to Ruin- it sounds great, has a great John Holmstrom cover, and certainly has more classics than my #4 pick, but docked for having 3 acoustic guitar songs. I love 2 of those 3, but 3 is too many! 6. Pleasant Dreams- like my #4, my esteem for this defies consensus opinions… I really like the production. This is a very 60’s pop, very Joey album. My favorite is the teen melodrama “7-11”, other standouts include “kkk…”, “don’t go”, “… sensation”, “…airwaves”. Good bonus tracks on rerelease (some of which would reappear in later albums, rerecorded). 7. Too Tough to Die- Picking up where tracks like “outsider”, highest trails above”, and “psycho therapy” on “…Jungle” (the previous album) left off, this is strong “return to form”, and response to the US punk scene of the mid 1980s. Great production. Faves: the medley of the Johnny-penned instrumental “Durango 95”/“Wart Hog”, the first of several (2 on this record) Dee Dee hardcore shouters. Both of these songs became concert staples, but not paired together. Also, the Elvis-goes-punk of “no go” is special. 8. Brain Drain- some real standouts- “…miracles”, “pet sematary”, “merry christmas”, “zero zero ufo”, “Palisades Park”. A couple of the other fast ones are generic sounding, and not quite as well produced (to my ears) as “…Sanity”. Very thumpy drum sound. “All screwed up” is one of their worst recordings. 9. Subterranean Jungle- 3 covers is too many, but I like all but 2 of the originals a lot. Produced by one of Joan Jett’s producers… sounds like it, and a decent choice. 10. Mondo Bizzaro- great production by Stasium. The Doors cover is killer! CJs 2 lead vocal songs are real good (both written by Dee Dee). Few true classics, but zero subpar songs, most are fairly strong. 11. Adios Amigos- 2 of the 3 covers are standouts (the Waits cover, and the hidden track- Spiderman). Like Mondo B, great sound, many good songs, no real clunkers (the J. Thunders cover is meh though), but sits lower for too many CJ vocal songs (3), and a little less dense, and less cohesive sounding as an album. 12. End of the Century- i wish i loved it, but don’t, really. Spector’s touches work best on “…radio” and “Danny Says”. “Lets go” is a good punk song. The Ronnettes cover has a wonderful Joey vocal, but outdated, corny production. Needs some darn electric guitar! (I’ve seen Joey duet with Ronnie Spector at CBGB on this, backed by a rock arrangement, and that was great.) The rest of the LP is murky sounding and less interesting lyrically than most Ramones fare. 13. Acid Eaters- great selection of 60’s tunes, but too many CJ lead vocals (4… 2 should be max), and inconsistent production. It works on some (the Stones, Love, the Seeds), and misses a bit on some (Animals, CCR, Jan & Dean

[@mbodayle]

Thanks for the awesome insight!

[@user-sw4qd2up2s]

Towards the end of their career they did a cover song for a compilation CD of cartoon and kid shows theme songs. They did Spiderman, and it's really fun. It's worth finding, that CD has some other great covers on it by cool bands.

[@JCStorm76]

Would have been great to see a Ramones ranking. Not many have tackled it on KZbin from what I’ve seen. I agree with your number one choice. My least favourite is probably Adios Amigos. I love all these albums though, I think their two most underrated albums are Subterranean Jungle and Mondo Bizarro.

[@joehobbs3277]

I agree not many people do ramones rankings from first to last albums I guess as a lot of the fans can be very biased and picky about original ramone line up with Tommy only, ramones with marky only etc so I guess they didn’t bit her upsetting them which is sad as I know exactly who I’d have wanted in the band up till 96 and that was the dee dee joey Johnny and Richie ramone to me Richie bought the ramones back to a hard edge with to thought to die my faveroute record and carried on with animal boy and half way to sanity underrated albums for sure but well worth the listen. Nothing against CJ ramone at all he obviously had to replace dee dee and he did a great job but dee dee was just as important. Yeah mando biazzaro and audios amigos are not my faveroute records by any means but that’s just my opinion

[@joshhorvath7151]

I was wondering I have a question if anyone can answer this I am in the process of purchasing the last two Ramones albums the last two Studio albums by The Ramones and one of the one is called Armando Bizarro and adios amigos but they're in a foreign country in Germany but does anyone know what is the international law about ordering records from Germany

[@mbodayle]

There should be none.

[@joshhorvath7151]

@@mbodayle well these Ramones albums are bootlegs their counterfeits and they're fakes but they're coming from Germany but I don't want to take the risk of buying something from overseas and they're not in English you know I don't use discogs or eBay so what would you do if you were me would you either take the Gamble and get them from Germany or what would you do

[@mbodayle]

Hmm - not sure about countefeits. Mybe Google and see if others have done this. Good luck.

[@dreamsburndown9164]

Brain Drain is a kick ass album

[@username-ds6kf]

Great video!

[@JUSTMIKE123]

First cover song was on first Album.

[@letitbeknown8126]

Marky came back for Brain Drain, and i personally feel that Halfway To Sanity is an underrated album

[@andymiles6311]

Road to Ruin is underrated. Great album

[@1967PONTIACGTO]

The first three Ramones albums are absolute classics... the fourth, Road to Ruin, is almost as good, but cracks are appearing... the fifth, End of the Century, is just weird.... after that, every album is half great and half throwaway, but the great half always has essential songs.... Pleasant Dreams has mostly great songs and could have been a great album but is badly produced... the most underrated later album is Halfway to Sanity... Bop Til You Drop, Go L'il Camaro, I've Lost My Mind, Weasel Face, Garden of Serenity, and I Wanna Live are all great songs, but people have a hard time getting past I'm Not Jesus, and so tend to dismiss the whole album..... my personal favourite is number 2, Leave Home

[@gmantramp404]

Shame about the unpunky love ballad album fillers eh? So IMO the cracks appeared from album 1 and onwards

[@1967PONTIACGTO]

the love ballads are what set the Ramones above other punk bands... the Ramones write about the fullness of life, which includes love, and is why the Ramones are the greatest punk band... the idea that a love song can't be punk is a reflection of the reduction of the original punk idea into a cliche. @@gmantramp404

[@postmortemjunkie]

Not a whole lot of ranking going on, but interesting video nonetheless :)

[@bh-zj4yt]

OK before I watch. Gotta be Rocket to Russia at #1. Everyone seems to agree. I would say Leave Home but when considering the first three great albums it’s just nitpicking

[@luvittodeath7031]

Johnny Thunders gave Dee Dee credit

[@leahflower9924]

they had a love hate relationship lol

[@joehobbs3277]

I think the reason i am not a die hard ramones fan is because I’ve been through the entire catalogue of albums and not by choice either the only albums I care to bother with are pleasant dreams to tough to die halfway to sanity and animal boy the rest of there catalogue is not ounknrick it’s to soft and tame to be punk that’s my opinion

[@leahflower9924]

53rd and 3rd is tame?

[@joehobbs3277]

@@leahflower9924 I wasn't talking about 53rd and 3rd at all

[@leahflower9924]

@@joehobbs3277 i was saying 53rd and 3rd was on S/T first album that album isnt tame

[@joehobbs3277]

@@leahflower9924 fair enough personally for me I think it is take but each to there own

[@KlaudiaMaxwell]

Not a good review of the band....you really are not a fan.

[@mbodayle]

Thanks for letting me know that.