Upon returning to America, the Ramones found themselves playing to much smaller crowds than they did in London. It was back to business as usual. Their first album hadn't sold like they had hoped, so if they were going to take over the world, they were going to have to do it on tour. The Ramones were about to LEAVE HOME.
You're telling me these guys are in color?
Recorded in October and November 1976, and released in January 1977, Leave Home was produced by Tony Bongiovi and Tommy Ramone. Mirroring the cover, this one sounds like it's in color, compared to the black and white grit of the first album's production. Johnny's guitar is now double tracked, one guitar track in each speaker. The guitar sound is bigger, but it's lost a bit of it's buzzsaw feel. It's a bit more clean and throaty. Dee Dee's bass is in the center now. The drums sound a little more high fidelity. Joey's vocals are still double tracked, but the double tracking is less obvious. The result is that his voice sounds more focused. It's not fighting against itself. We can more fully appreciate this guy's pipes. And to be sure, his voice rules. Joey gets to shine on this record in a way he didn't on the first. It's a slightly more modern sounding record. It's still raw. It still sounds like the Ramones. It's just not quite as mean as the last record. It's not better or worse. It's different. Like sniffing glue versus sniffing Carbona; they'll both get you high and leave you with a headache, but they're different enough that the Ramones wrote songs about both of them. Or something like that.
The Ramones take D.C. You know, that Schoolhouse Rock about how a bill becomes a law would've been way cooler with the Ramones.
In 2017, Leave Home recieved a new 40th Anniversary mix by Ed Stasium, who was present for the original recording and mixing sessions. (Ed Stasium is involved in most of their best albums and is, for my money, basically the fifth Ramone.) The new mix isn't essential, but it's cool. It tones down the reverb a bit and pulls the guitar tracks in a little, reducing the stereo panning. The end result is a record that sounds just a hair tougher than the original mixes.
Now, onto the songs!
Glad to See You Go - written by Dee Dee and Joey
Leave Home opens with a fast, cheery song where Dee Dee fantasizes about killing his girlfriend and laughing about it. He and Joey were inspired to write this when Dee Dee broke up with his girlfriend, Connie, who everyone in the Ramones hated. She was abusive and once slashed Dee Dee across the ass with a broken beer bottle. Both cheeks, even! (Also, when she was dating Arthur Kane of the New York Dolls, she tried to saw his thumb off so he couldn't play bass anymore.) When she finally left and said she wasn't coming back, Dee Dee replied, "Glad to see you go."
This song immediately sets itself apart from the material on their debut record for one simple fact: it's wordy! These guys figured out that they could actually put more than four or five words in a song if they wanted to. And these lyrics are hilarious. We get tons of that absurd violence we talked about on the last record, and then the chorus kicks in. This chorus is so goooood. "Glad to see you go go go go goodbye!" It's incredibly fun to sing.
9/10 kosher salamis
Left to right: Connie, Arturo Vega (the dude who designed the Ramones' iconic seal logo), Dee Dee
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment - written by Dee Dee and Johnny
With this track, the Ramones introduce a topic that will be a focus of many of their songs, right until the very end: mental illness. Joey had OCD, Dee Dee was bipolar, and conservative disciplinarian Johnny said that they were all--in his opinion--"sick" for being in a punk rock band in the first place. Of course, the Ramones way of dealing with this subject matter was to laugh at it by dialing everything up to 11. I mean, who wants to undergo shock treatment?
This is a cool song. Joey navigates the low to high pattern of the verse lines effortlessly. Then the chorus comes in and Joey pleads to have his brain fried with high voltage. It's a great sing-along.
8/10 kosher salamis
I Remember You - written by Joey
Remember on the review of the first record when I said these dudes would come to write great ballads in time? Well, it didn't take long because here's one of them now! This song freaking rules. It's a slower song with a great chord progression, some really nice palm mutes from Johnny, and tons and tons of atmosphere. Most notably, this is where Joey truly steps out and makes his mark as a great vocalist. The lyrics are pretty minimal, but Joey uses his voice to elevate them to the stratosphere. When he sings, "I remember yoooou-oOo-oo-oo," it's absolutely magical. This is might be a top 10 Ramones song.
10/10 kosher salamis
Oh, Oh I Love Her So - written by Joey
This is a humorous tale about how Joey found true love at Burger King. (They fell in love by the soda machine.) Surely, nobody will ever tear them apart. The chorus is super catchy. The imagery of Joey and his new gal riding a roller coaster at Coney Island is fun. But that damn tambourine bothers me for some reason.
8/10 kosher salamis
Carbona Not Glue - written by Ramones
This fun little number was written by the entire band, and has a bit of a wild history. It was included only on the first pressing of the album. Subsequent printings had the song removed in favor of either Babysitter--the B-side to the Do You Wanna Dance Single--or Sheena is a Punk Rocker because Sire Records feared legal action from the makers of the Carbona cleaning solution. It was once again made available on the 2001 CD remaster of the album and all subsequent pressings.
What does a young Ramone do when he's grown tired of sniffing glue? Why, he turns to the hard stuff: good ol' carbon tetrachloride. It's not quite as musically interesting as Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, though the chords do have a fun bounce, and the lyrics are funnier.
8/10 kosher salamis
Suzy is a Headbanger - written by Ramones
This is another team effort from the guys, and is the second installment of their (somebody) is a (something) series, Judy is a Punk being the first. It's pretty fun. It's got a cool little riff where Johnny does a bouncy thing with single notes instead of the usual barre chords. There's a bit of a false finish before Tommy comes back in with the drums, and then Joey, followed by the rest of the band.
It's fine. It's not a bad song, but it's not a great song. It's a perfectly average Ramones song. It lacks both the humor and the grit of its predecessor, Judy, but it does make up some ground for the few unique sounds.
7/10 kosher salamis
Pinhead - written by Ramones
Inspired by Todd Browning's 1932 horror film, Freaks, this song's opening chant of "Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us" was the Ramones' way of saying that geeks, freaks, pinheads, and all other types of weirdos were welcome in the Ramones fandom. Makes sense, as these guys were big time weirdos themselves. The main riff of this song is most excellent. It's twisty, turny, and a little jumpy. It's got a mean streak, but it's still a lot of fun.
The bridge is maybe even better. "D-U-M-B, everyone's accusing me," declares Joey. Some less enlightened people, who failed to understand the genius of the Ramones, thought they were a bunch of dummies. In his book, On the Road With the Ramones, Monte Melnick--tour manager for basically their entire career--tells a story of the Ramones making a stop somewhere on tour. He was approached by someone who saw the band hanging around their van and was asked "are you taking care of those (slur for someone who has a mental disability) men?"
A less enlightened individual writes a review.
Even better yet, is the outro where Joey breaks into a chant of "Gabba gabba hey! Gabba gabba hey!" Live, this is the part where a crew member dressed as a pinhead would come out with a sign containing the words to the chant. This is an all time Ramones classic.
10/10 kosher salamis
The aforementioned Ramones pinhead.
Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy - written by Dee Dee
Side two opens with this Dee Dee song. We get some dramatic riffage to start the song before it settles into a verse-verse-instrumental-verse-verse-instrumental structure. The instrumental sections do their best to steal show on this one as the drums and the guitars take turns in the spotlight before we get some nice chunky palm mutes and some bouncing chord changes. The lyrics are somewhat minimal, with just two verses that each get a repeat. They seen to focus on Dee Dee's struggles with his personal demons. Overall, it's fine. It just could have used a chorus or something a little more sing-along-able.
7/10 kosher salamis
Swallow My Pride - written by Joey
This is a hugely underrated song. Once again Joey gets to show off his vocal prowess. Accompanied by Johnny's chugging palm mutes on guitar, he sings the verses with a tenderness that until now we haven't heard on a Ramones song. Then the pre-chorus hits, and he takes it up a notch as the whole band builds along with him into the soaring heights of the utterly sublime chorus:
"SWALLOW MY PRIDE, OH YEAH!
SWALLOW MY PRIDE, OH YEAH!
SWALLOW MY PRIDE, OH YEAH!"
We get to hear this cycle three times, but before the last, we get a fun little bridge of repeated "Oh yeah"s. This is a damn good song and it foreshadows some of their more sophisticated songs that they would write later into their career. These guys don't always have to be balls-to-the-wall to be great. (Though they do balls-to-the-wall better than anyone.)
I can't help but wonder if Joey wrote this song in response to the lack of commercial success from their first album. These guys wanted to have a hit song or record. They expected to have one. And they surely should have, but as the story went, the Ramones were always just a little too far ahead of the curve for their own good.
10/10 kosher salamis
What's Your Game - written by Joey
I hate to do this, because I love these guys. But it was inevitable. At some point, even great bands write a not-good song. And here we are. This one kinda sucks a little bit. The Ramones can write great ballads, but this ain't one of 'em. It has none of the fun of I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. It has none of the atmosphere and energy of I Remember You. There's not a hint of grit. It's not funny. It's booooring. It's an aimless low-tempo marshmallow of a song. Okay, I'm done now. I can't stand to rip into it anymore than I have. I love these guys. I love this record. I just don't love this song, and I've tried.
6/10 kosher salamis
California Sun - written by Henry Glover and Morris Levy
This is the lone cover song on this album. Let's Dance on the previous album was alright, but this one rocks! Joey absolutely owns the vocal parts on this one, and the rest of the band knocks it out of the park, of course. Johnny even plays that tricky little guitar lick on the verses. (It's fun watching this one live because you never know if Johnny is gonna nail it, or if it's gonna be just a bit wonky!) This is a really good song selection for these dudes. It seems like it was made to be covered by the Ramones. The most famous version of this song was the 1963 version by The Rivieras, but the Ramones take it to a whole 'nother level. The greatly increased tempo and the distortion of the guitar imbues the song with the level of energy that it needs.
9/10 kosher salamis
Johnny playing the hell out of that guitar.
Commando - written by Dee Dee and Johnny
This song. This song rules. It's yet another one of those all-time Ramones classics. These early albums are just absolutely stacked! The guitar riff on the verses is so good. It's like a relentless ground assault that just keeps coming, over and over. The lyrics on the verses are about soldiers being prepared for action anywhere they're needed. The Ramones are at their best when they're being a little militaristic. The star of the show here, though, is the chorus, where we get launched into a series of nonsensical rules that are immensely fun. Let's review them, shall we?
FIRST RULE IS: The laws of Germany!
SECOND RULES IS: Be nice to mommy!
THIRD RULE IS: Don't talk to commies!
FOURTH RULE IS: Eat kosher salamis!
Here's my totally unsubstantiated theory: each of these rules somehow applies to a member of the band. This first rule is about Dee Dee. I've already talked in the previous entry about how he grew up in Germany. The second rule, I'm gonna say is Joey. I suppose it could be Tommy, but Joey seems a bit more like a sweetheart who loves really his mom. Third rule is Johnny. He was the conservative of the group, and was therefore probably a little more hardcore against commies. The fourth rule I'm gonna give to Tommy. As one of the two Jewish members, maybe he ate kosher? I have no idea. I probably put way more thought into this than these guys did. Doesn't matter. These are fun lyrics. Actual meaning, be damned!
10/10 kosher salamis
You're Gonna Kill That Girl - written by Joey
We get something a little bit different here! Johnny turns down the volume knob on his guitar (I know, it's truly shocking!) to strum some crystal clear guitar chords, as Joey tenderly introduces us to the story of a maniac killer who jumps out and murders the crap out of some poor helpless woman. The juxtaposition of the grisly tale against the beautiful, chiming chords is so good, and it tells us to not take this too seriously. These guys are just having fun. It's a scene from a B-grade horror flick.
But they're still the Ramones. They aren't gonna give us a break from their one million decibel rhythmic assault for long. As Joey finishes the opening verse, the band launches--full power to the engines--into their trademark brand of minimalist, ass-kicking rock and/or roll. "Hey! He's gonna kill that girl tonight," the chorus goes.
10/10 kosher salamis
You Should Have Never Opened That Door - written by Dee Dee and Johnny
To close this album out, we get another B-horror tale of a girl getting murdered. The lyrics aren't as playful and fun as the previous song, and the instrumentation isn't as exciting. There's a weird phase-y effect that gets applied to the hi-hat here. The tambourine works pretty good on this one, though. It's not bad, but it's a bit of a weak closer.
7/10 kosher salamis
Totals:
Average song score: 8.5
Flow/Mood/Production/etc: 9
Cover art score: 8
Final album rating: A-
FIFTH RULE IS: join me next time, when I review Rocket to Russia!
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