Also, not a lot of bands have modulations in their songs, but Ramones did. It has every element of what’s great about them in one song: the big drum intro and the ‘Lobotomy’ chant the little background harmony ‘ooh’s and the provocative subject matter. “If there is a greatest Ramones song I recorded, it has to be Teenage Lobotomy,” Stasium told David Fricke. Yet, while the minimalist aspect of the band’s approach is often acknowledged, that doesn’t mean the group’s music was as simple as it may have appeared to their detractors. The merest exposure to the album’s harder-edged tracks, such as Cretin Hop, Teenage Lobotomy and Why Is It Always This Way, suggested that Ramones were indeed writing some the most exhilarating songs of their career. Personally, I have a fondness for both guitarists, but Johnny’s tone positively rips on Rocket To Russia.” “He considered them the competition and wanted to be sure that his ripping guitar sounded superior to Steve Jones’ tone. “Johnny brought in a 45rpm copy of Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen and played it in the control room before we started tracking,” Stasium told Classic Rock. “He considered Sex Pistols the competition” In fact, a different kind of discussion, held on the very first day of the sessions, coloured the way Rocket To Russia eventually turned out. But that didn’t mean Ramones had lost their edge. According to Stasium, the group’s ever-pragmatic guitarist, Johnny Ramone, even agreed to add acoustic guitars to Locket Love in an attempt mimic Steve Miller Band’s “soft-rock California sound”. Ramones were prepared to make further pop-leaning concessions in hopes of achieving radio play. “Both songs were remixed at Power Station during the Rocket To Russia sessions.” Sheena Is A Punk Rocker was, the producer explained, just one example of the influence The Beach Boys had on Ramones: “Johnny and Tommy asked me to play a plunky guitar bit that was similar to Little Honda.” “Sheena and I Don’t Care had been recorded earlier in the year at Sundragon Studio, where we had recorded Leave Home,” Stasium told Classic Rock in 2017. But through Stasium stepped up to co-produce Rocket To Russia with Tommy Ramone (credited as T Erdelyi), Tony Bongiovi – Leave Home’s co-producer and brother of Jon Bon Jovi – received the official production co-credit with Tommy Ramone. Keen to seize the moment, Ramones reunited with engineer Ed Stasium, with whom they’d hit it off during the Leave Home sessions, and who had cemented his relationship with the group while recording Sheena Is A Punk Rocker. We thought we were only one step away from being successful” “Or else in London when The Beatles and the Stones first hit.” “Our playing was really tight. “To be in New York that summer was to have some sense of what it might have been like to live in San Francisco in 1966 or ’67,” Village Voice journalist Tom Carson said in an interview with esteemed US rock writer Greil Marcus. In Manhattan, punk-friendly clubs CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City were suddenly attracting notably larger audiences, and all involved sensed something very significant was taking place. At this juncture, the band’s fantastic fifth single, Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, had just cracked the UK Top 30, and New York’s punk scene was going overground, with Ramones’ peers such as Blondie, Talking Heads and Television all signing with labels and selling records. Even if it was a little difficult to write the songs because we had to write ’em in hotel rooms, once we got into the studio, we felt we were in control – that we were in our prime.”Ĭertainly, if you try to pinpoint the period in Ramones’ story where they look like becoming major players, you’d almost look to the summer of 1977. “We thought we were gonna make it, that we were on the launching pad. “We were on a roll, in high gear, touring and everything,” Ramones’ original drummer and co-producer, Tommy Ramone, reflected in an interview with Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. “We felt we were in control – that we were in our prime”
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