i love this band so much it makes me tear up a little.

i need to go vote not crap with my other names.


votes:
jim primate: #100
little atlas heavyweight: #101
primate fly heavyweight: #102

This is the band that wrote possibly the greatest rhyming couplet in the history of the English language:

"Texas Chain Saw Massa-Cree! They took my baby away from me."

Right now for some reason, Bono is caterwauling in my headphones about xanax and wine (which I guess is interesting...), but he must be changed soon without further delay to "Carbona Not Glue." Because Bono is not rock and roll. The Ramones are rock and roll.

SecondEdition wrote:Bono...must be changed soon.

As a parent of two very young people, I think this is an insightful observation. It explains quite a bit.

Maurice wrote:

SecondEdition wrote:Bono...must be changed soon.

As a parent of two very young people, I think this is an insightful observation. It explains quite a bit.

Thanks, I think.

Also, "Carbona Not Glue" is a protest song. Dig these scathing lyrics:

dee dee? wrote:Wondering what I'm doing tonight
I've been in the closet and feel all right

Ran out of Carbona Mom threw out the glue
Ran out of paint and roach spray too
It's TV's fault why I am this way
Mom and pop wanna put me away
From the early morning movie to the late late show
After it's over nowhere to go
And I'm not sorry for the things I do
My brain is stuck from shooting glue
I'm not sorry for the things I do

Carbona not glue

I love the ramones.

Who here remembers the first time they heard the first album?

I started off with an incredulous smile, by the first chorus of Blitzkrieg Bop I was amazed, but the moment it became love was hearing Joey's pronounciation of "Hey Daddy-O, I Don't Wanna Go, Doooowwwwwn To The Base(ment)".

So many sweet (nerd) memories...

The first time I heard the first album was mindblowing.

"Chain Saw" is still one of the greatest songs ever. Probably my favorite ramones song, and I still don't know why.

I never liked them much. I'm grateful for them. That is all.

Not crap.

Somehow I'd never owned Leave Home until a couple of years ago when I got an original "Carbona Not Glue" copy at a yard sale. I had every other Ramones record up through Too Tough to Die but for some reason Leave Home had eluded me, God knows why. It's fucking excellent, especially "Swallow My Pride."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rD1dqGU4PYA

I could listen to the verse riff for days. The lyrics are so goddamn good.

Also digging Johnny's shirt.

(There is no reason to watch the Metallica version in the related links. Seriously, don't do it. I did it and I'm telling you not to do it. Don't.)

The lyrics on the debut album are really interesting.

Just to take an example, look at "53rd and 3rd."

It transposes the situation from "Beat on the Brat," where the kid who was never picked to be on the baseball team is ganged up on, onto the streets of New York City, where, instead of competition to be on a sports team, it's competition to be the most frequented prostitute. "You're the one they never pick." What's strange is that the need to be accepted by a group you respect turns into the need to be the most debased and disrespected person you can be.

"Then I took out my razor blade / then I did what God forbade / Now the cops are after me / But I proved that I'm no sissy." The criminal instinct is the same as the instinct to prove your own bravery. But the former gets no respect while the latter gets the utmost respect. This is akin to the juxtaposition of the Nazis with the outcast rebels in the SLA. The former were doing what the latter were doing, but the first got the official stamp of approval from society while the latter got shunned just like the baseball brat and the sissy male prostitute.

The baseball team an the outcast kid are juxtaposed with the roles played by the U.S. and Cuba in "Havana Affair," the Nazi shocktrooper and his school bullies in "Today your love, Tomorrow the world."

"I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" is, depending on how you look at it, either a beautiful, sincere love song, or the lurings of a sociopath who will say anything for sex.

The grid of New York's streets is juxtaposed with the linear trains of thought and the formation of the racecars in "Blitzkrieg Bop" ("they're forming in a straight line"), and the title itself is reminiscent of a yard position in football.

The album explores issues of whether we have free will and of what deeper societal issues are manifested in violent behavior. It also explores why we give moral approval to certain actions and disapprove of other actions. The dehumanizing role of technology and the herd behavior it creates is another major theme.

The Ramones are very much Not Crap. That guitar sound just destroys. And I love how unpretentious they were. Everyone thought they were dumb, but they were actually very smart.