(A quick note: when you reach the end of the review of It's Alive, keep reading. I'm also going to review some really cool deep cuts in this entry, including one of their greatest, most overlooked tunes!)
It was April of 1979. Having laid out a quartet of studio album greatness between 1976 and 1978, the Ramones were gearing up to record their fifth studio album. The one that would usher them into the 1980s and hopefully get them that number one hit they were looking for. In the meantime, though, fans would be treated to an electrifying live album, named after the 1974 horror film, It's Alive.
The cover of It's Alive is a photo of the band playing their iconic New Year's Eve 1977 concert, which was immortalized on the record.
The Ramones are amazing on studio recordings, but those who were around to witness their career as it was happening usually attest that the Ramones' greatness was truly on display live, raw and unfiltered. In order to capitalize on this, the band made plans to record a string of shows at end of their 1977 winter tour around the U.K. Though it wouldn't come out until 1979--the year after Road to Ruin and Marky replacing Tommy on drums--It's Alive captures the New Year's Eve 1977 performance of the band in London, England. This show was in the last few months of Tommy's tenure on the drums and represents the original lineup of the band at their absolute peak. The previous three shows had also been recorded, but this one was selected because everyone involved felt it was their best set of the bunch. And the crowd agreed; when the Ramones concluded their set, the amped up crowd threw 10 rows of chairs onto the stage. Featuring 28 songs (9 from Ramones, 9 from Leave Home, and 10 from Rocket to Russia), this functions as a live greatest hits release of their first three albums. It's an almost perfect encapsulation of the first three years of the band.
The Ramones plow through all 28 songs in 53 minutes and 49 seconds. That's under 2 minutes per song. Each song is played at a tempo that ranges from just a bit faster than it was played on the record it appeared on to significantly faster than on the record. I would expect nothing less from The Fast Four. And the band is locked in super tight. They had their craft down to a science at this point.
The sound of this record is pretty good. Johnny's guitar is loud and lively, Tommy's drumming sounds basically perfect for a live recording, and Joey's voice is immaculate. One of the only knocks I have against the sound of this thing is that Dee Dee's bass is ridiculously low in the mix. It's wild how low it is. Listen to the parts on Teenage Lobotomy (0:06) or Blitzkrieg Bop (0:30) where the bass comes in before the guitar. The bass is there, but it's really quiet. When the guitar joins in, the bass almost disappears. If anything, you might expect that on a studio album, not a stripped back live recording. It's not like there isn't room in the mix for the bass! This record is a guitar, a bass, a drum kit, and two vocal microphones. Because his bass is so low in the mix, the record sounds a bit thin. The only significant bit of low end we get is from Tommy's kick drum. Still, the overall sound is ripping, and the noise from the crowd provides a nice boost of energy.
The set list is very good, but if I wanted to pick at nits--and I do!--there is room for improvement. Here's my list of suggested changes I will be making when I invent my time machine and go back in time to weasel my way into the inner circle of the band. From the first record, Let's Dance and I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You could have been swapped out for Beat on the Brat and 53rd and 3rd. From Leave Home, trade out Suzy is a Headbanger and Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy for Swallow My Pride and I Remember You. They made all the right calls on the selections from Rocket to Russia, though. Still, for a 28 song set list, it's nearly perfect.
I'm not going to review all the songs again, because I've already talked about them at length on their respective album reviews. Overall, everything is a bit faster, with more frenetic energy, but less bass. Oh! And there's none of those annoying guitar overdubs that make a few of the songs on the records sound not-Ramonesy. Instead of reviewing everything all over again, I will be pointing out a few highlights. Here we go.
I Wanna Be Well
Joey opens this song by saying, "Well, after eating that chicken vindaloo, I wanna be well." Before every show on this tour, the band was served Indian food. They were not happy about this, and complained endlessly. The Ramones were an all-American food band. A cheeseburger and fries band. When touring abroad, Monte Melnick, their tour manager, tried his damnedest to get these guys food they actually liked. It was a monumental task all to itself.
This is a really fun mid-tempo singalong on Rocket to Russia, but here on the live record, it has just an extra bit of oomph about it. It's my favorite version of the song, and definitely a highlight of the record. Turns out, it just needed a little live magic to elevate it.
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You're Gonna Kill That Girl
This song really shines in the environment of this record. The parts with Johnny strumming the clean guitar chords and Joey singing the quiet verses is so good with crowd noise to add a bit of ambiance to this tale of murder. It's goosebump-inducing.
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I Don't Care
Dee Dee's backing vocal ("He don't caaaaare") is so, so, so good here. It's even better than it was on the record.
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Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Here's another slower tune that excels on this record. Johnny's cleaned up guitar is absolutely magical sounding. This guy didn't often play lead parts or really anything that wasn't a downstrummed barre chord, but he had serious feel to his playing. He knew how to strum the hell out of some chords, whether that means a breakneck distorted assault or a more tender, discerning approach like we get here. When he turns up the volume and the distortion for the bridge section, and begins actually arpeggiating(!) the chords, it's stupid good. He finishes the song with the distortion dialed up, and it gives it this really satisfying crunch.
Joey's vocal touches are even better than they were on Rocket, and the crowd noise imbues this song with even more atmosphere. More goosebumps to be had on this one.
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Okay, having talked about some highlights, let's address the elephant in the room. This live record is kind of fake. It's got studio recorded tracks all over it. A lot of the instrumentation was re-recorded in the studio. It's a fairly common practice to record a "live" record and then replace some of the live tracks with studio tracks to make it sound "better." The Ramones are not the first or the last to do it. It's a practice that continues to this day, and I kind of hate it. It's not legit. And it's particularly baffling that they did this, and yet the final product ended up with bass that is way too quiet. Still, it's a pretty good sounding live/studio record with a great set list.
Luckily, the 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of this album contains three extra concerts in their entirety. They are the three concert dates that immediately preceded the main concert on It's Alive, and they're actually legit live recordings, warts and all. No overdubs and touch-ups to be found. They just sound more real. Plus, they've got bass! The set lists are even nearly identical. As a cool bonus, you get to hear Joey bitching at the audience for spitting at the band, which was an idiotic way that the British punks showed their adoration for bands putting on a good set. He tells them if they don't stop spitting, the band is going to walk off the stage. You tell 'em Joey!
Set list: 9
Mood/Mix/etc: 8.5
Cover art score: 8.7
Final album rating: A-
Totals (bonus concerts on 40th Anniversary Edtion):
Set list: 9
Mood/Mix/etc: 9.5
Cover art score: 8.7
Final album rating: A
Set list: 9
Mood/Mix/etc: 9.5
Cover art score: 8.7
Final album rating: A
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Rarities and B-sides and Stuff
The first four Ramones records have received several different releases, and many of these releases contain bonus tracks consisting of b-sides, rejected songs, and demos that didn't quite make it onto the records originally. Let's take some time to talk about these tunes! I'm not going to be reviewing alternate versions here. I'll just touch on the best version of each unique song.
I Can't Be - written by Ramones - available on Ramones 2001 Rhino Remaster CD and Ramones 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
This is an early composition that was demoed, but never recorded for the debut album. It features some nice guitar tone from Johnny, but the bass sounds kind of weird and plunky. However, it's a demo so it's not really fair to put a ton of stock in the production. There's a nice crunchy overdubbed guitar on this reminiscent of Havana Affair, though. That's fun. This song feels a bit like a prototype for songs like I Can't Give You Anything and I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You. Some girl wants to get pretty serious and settle down with Joey, but he just can't do that. It's fine, but it's missing some of the charm and fun that really makes their great songs great.
7/10 slugs
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I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed - written by Ramones - available on Ramones 2001 Rhino Remaster CD and 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
This one is another early demo from the first album era, featuring similar sound to I Can't Be. Here are the complete lyrics:
And I don't wanna be learned
And I don't wanna be tamed
It's uh, a song that is 1 minute and 17 seconds long. These guys are great at minimalism. It's a huge part of what makes them great. But this is too minimal. There's not much here. Where's the joke? The fun riff? They hadn't quite figured that part out yet, it seems.
6/10 slugs
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Babysitter - written by Ramones - available on Leave Home 2001 Rhino Remaster CD and 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Sire Records was scared that the Carbona company was going to sue them over the song Carbona Not Glue, so in the U.K. this song replaced it on all pressings of Leave home after the first. That is, until the 2001 Rhino Records remaster, where it was restored. It's too bad that happened because Carbona is a cool song, and this one kinda sucks. It's a downtempo piece of cheese about a girl who is babysitting and invites her boyfriend over for some shenanigans after the kids go to sleep. But then they're prevented from getting down to business by one of the kids who's crept out of bed to spy on them. Booooring. It's the set up to John Carpenter's Halloween, without any of the stuff that made that movie cool. Maybe if they had written this after 1978, they would have realized that the proper ending is a weirdo in a Captain Kirk mask busts in and murders them. Now THAT woulda been a Ramones song!
5/10 slugs
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I Want You Around - written by Ramones - available on Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology and Road to Ruin 2001 Rhino Remaster CD
Time to update our list of things the Ramones want and don't want!
The Ramones want:
- to be your boyfriend
- to sniff some glue
- to be a good boy
- to be well
- to have something to do
- everything
- to be sedated
- you around
The Ramones don't want:
- to go down to the basement
- to walk around with you
- you
- to be learned
- to be tamed
This song originally appeared as part of the soundtrack to Rock 'n' Roll Highschool, and features in the movie during a pretty hilarious scene where the the guys serenade Ramones mega fan Riff Randall (played by the ever-awesome P. J. Soles) in her bedroom.
It's a midtempo ballad featuring Joey singing about how much he wants you around. It's dominated by acoustic guitar, but you know what? I really like this one. The melody is great. The production is a bit cheesy, but Joey sings his ass off. It's a bit of an over-produced I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. It works, though. It's good enough that it largely overcomes the shortcoming of not sounding very much like a Ramones song.
8/10 slugs
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I Walk Out - written by Ramones - available on Road to Ruin 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
On some releases, this song is also listed as Come Back, She Cried aka I Walk Out, but the 40th Anniversary Edition has the best mix, so we'll go with it's version of the title.
Featuring really great sound that fits right in with the Road Revisited Mix of Road to Ruin, this song is a ripper! The song opens with some cleanish guitar and a downtempo beat as Joey sings about another broken relationship. It's not long, though, before the song blasts into hi-speed, hi-distortion territory and we get that trademark Ramones sound. The chord progressions are blazing and the lyrics are playful and fun, despite the subject matter. The chorus, "Ohhh ohhh no, nothing to worry about!" is super cool.
Near the end, we get some strange stream-of-consciousness style lyrics about water rising, a warning from mom, and trying to get clean. It's not clear how this fits into the overall narrative, but this is the Ramones. You need a little weirdness.
Shoulda made it onto Road to Ruin proper.
9/10 slugs
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S.L.U.G. - written by Joey - available on Road to Ruin 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
This is another one that sounds just like it would fit in with the Road Revisited Mix of Road to Ruin. There have been a few different versions of this one on various releases, but in 2018, Ed Stasium was finally able to give it the definitive mix that it deserves. The song opens on a nice, bouncy chord progression in A major. The guitar tone is extra scratchy here, and it's really great. A few quick bars pass by before Joey start singing a whimsical tale of a slug--spelled out "EH-ES EH-EL YOO-OO-OO GEEEEEE"--that begins crawling on him.
The super catchy chorus hits, and Joey tells us that the slug that is crawling on him is actually a girl who went walking in the woods last night. Something was strange about these woods, you see, and she got turned into a slug! The melody, perfectly sung by Joey, is highly reminiscent of the great girl groups of the 1960s, which Joey absolutely loved. It's a blast.
After the chorus, we get a really nice post chorus that begins on a juicy C# minor chord. Joey laments the loss of this girl. "Why is it always this way?" he asks. Guys, we've been over this on the Rocket to Russia review! The whole song repeats until we get to a fun outro where Joey just spells the word "slug" over and over.
This song is the perfect intersection of Joey's pop sensibilities, the Ramones' unique sense of humor, and that gritty punk rock sound they pioneered. It's one of their all-time greatest tunes, and absolutely should have made it onto a record. It could swap places with any song on Road to Ruin--a record that is absolutely stacked--except for I Just Want to Have Something to Do or I Wanna Be Sedated and it would be clearly a better record.
In case you're wondering why this song was cut from the album, the answer is simple: Johnny gave it the ol' thumbs down. I love Johnny, but what a terrible mistake! Why would he do that? In the opinion of John Holmstrom, who did the cover art for Road to Ruin, Johnny did it simply to keep Joey down. Is this true? The answer to that is likely lost to the sands of time. However, consider this: In his book, Commando, Johnny ranks each Ramones record. He gave their 1992 record, Mondo Bizarro, a mere C, stating that it had too many Joey songs on it. Joey has a songwriting credit on six of the twelve songs. Half. Joey was one of the two primary songwriters in the band, the other being Dee Dee. However, when Mondo Bizarro came out, Dee Dee wasn't even in the band anymore. Who did he want to write the songs?
10/10 slugs
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Yea, Yea - written by Joey - available on Road to Ruin 2001 Rhino Remaster CD
Joey, ever the romantic, penned this one about the perfect girl for him. Its fine, but it's a bit like a lesser, wordier version of She's the One. It's just lacking any real kind of excitement, humor, or shock value. The production is subpar, but it's just a demo track, so it's hard to fault it much for that. There's not much to say. It's not bad, but you could just listen to She's the One twice and have the same experience, only with four times as much fun.
7/10 slugs
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Okay, we've done it! We've finished up the Ramones in the 1970s. Honestly, this decade was insanely good for them. Their ratio of absolute bangers to duds is ridiculous. Will the 1980s be as kind to them? Will Dee Dee kick his heroin addiction? Will someone pull a gun on the Ramones? Will Joey leave the band to start a solo career? Will we ever find out what the hell was in that basement? Find out on the next exciting episode of Dragon Ba....err I mean...join me next time as we dig into their 1980 album, End of the Century!
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