With the death of Joey Ramone this past Sunday, I got to
\nthinking about how my interest in The Ramones began. I wish I could
\nsay that I had been into them since they first burst onto the scene
\n– but I was only five years old when their self-titled debut album
\nhit the streets.<\/p>\n
Instead, my first full-length Ramones experience came in 1992,
\nwhen I was sent
\nLoco Live<\/i> to review as a college journalist. Granted, I had
\nheard a few Ramones songs by then, but I was hardly an expert in
\ntheir genre. (I’m still not, to be quite honest.) Oh, I liked punk
\n– I had developed a healthy appetite for Black Flag, Husker Du and
\nthe Sex Pistols. But I didn’t realize that without the Ramones,
\nthese bands might never have made it as far as they did.<\/p>\n
In all fairness,
\nLoco Live<\/i> is not the ideal place for a Ramones newbie to
\nstart. It’s not that the disc is bad by any means, but what you
\nhear from this show recorded in Barcelona, Spain, is a band who
\nhave had some 15 years to polish and tighten up their material.
\nIt’s not quite as raw as one might expect.<\/p>\n
At times, the boys – Joey, Johnny, C.J. and Marky – sound like
\nthey are so comfortable with this material that they could perform
\nit in their sleep. This is not meant to be a criticism of the band,
\nbut the way they plow through such classics as “Blitzkrieg Bop,”
\n“Beat On The Brat” and “Psycho Therapy,” it sometimes feels like
\nthe band wanted to move past the older stuff to get to their more
\nrecent albums at that time. (In a sense, this isn’t a fair
\nstatement, since of the 31 tracks – not including the sample of
\n“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” that opens the show – eight of
\nthem come from
\nRamones<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
While the musical tightness does show some of the strengths this
\nparticular Ramones lineup had (Marky Ramone proves to be one
\nhelluva drummer), it sometimes feels like the sloppy urgency of the
\nmusic is taken away. Compare this disc to
\nIt’s Alive<\/i>, the first concert recording from the Ramones,
\nand see what I mean. (Admission: I have yet to get through
\nIt’s Alive<\/i>. Maybe we’ll tackle that one next.)<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s that some people, myself included, prefer the
\noriginal versions of songs like “Cretin Hop” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll
\nHigh School”. Then again, Joey and the boys are able to breathe
\nlife into songs like “Pet Sematary” and “Somebody Put Something In
\nMy Drink,” two songs I can’t say I’m the most fond of. And they do
\nkick even a classic like “Chinese Rocks” into new heights.<\/p>\n
So why would I hint that
\nLoco Live<\/i> might not be the best place for a newbie to start?
\nSimple: there’s much to be learned about the Ramones from their
\nstudio releases, and much to be absorbed. With the rapid-fire
\ndelivery of the songs on this disc, a newcomer might be
\noverwhelmed. I know that’s how I felt back in ’92. But for the
\nlong-time fan, this disc will be like a cool drink of water – or at
\nleast a firehose in the face.<\/p>\n
If anything,
\nLoco Live<\/i> seems to be an accurate picture of what the
\nRamones live experience was like at this juncture in their career.
\nIf you’ve got some knowledge about the band, you’ll definitely want
\nto add this to your collection. If you’re still learning about
\nthem, you might want to start with
\nRamones<\/i>,
\nRamones Mania<\/i> or even the recently-released two-disc
\nanthology. Once you’ve got a little of that coursing through your
\nveins, you’ll be ready for
\nLoco Live<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7214],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39505","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-ramones","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39505"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}