This is the one you've all been waiting for

This, of course, is the controversial Ramones album that was produced by Phil Spector. Some people love it and some people hate it. Personally, I fall somewhere in the middle. It's a good album, but it's inferior to all the Ramones' previous albums. Spector's "magic touch" certainly gave the Ramones a more "sophisticated" sound, but it's debatable whether or not the Ramones needed to sound more sophisticated. Some songs definitely benefited from Spector's production flourishes, like "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?" and "Danny Says". And some songs probably would have sounded better if Spector had just left them alone, like "I'm Affected" and "All the Way". (Demo versions of all those songs are on the CD, for comparison's sake.) The single most controversial song on the CD is "Baby, I Love You". This cover version of the Ronettes hit is not the least bit punk, which is why many people hate it. It feature Joey singing to the full Spector "Wall of Sound", with nary another Ramone in sight. Ironically, "Baby, I Love You" went on to become the Ramones' biggest hit in the UK. It is actually pretty good, if taken on it's own terms. Which can also be said for the whole album in general. The CD has one unlisted bonus track, which is Joey doing a radio spot for the album.

Too Tough To Die

I like Paul McCartney. I'm still mourning the death of my guitar hero, Johnny Ramone. And, despite both of them, I'm glad Phil Spector produced "Let It Be" and "End of the Century."



"End of the Century" was the first Ramones album I bought, and it's the one I go back to most, time and again. Sure, the pairing of the First Family of Punk and the Wall of Sound producer seemed incongruous, but not really: They have a common bloodline, namely, girl group tunes from the early 1960s.



"Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio?" is their tribute to those days gone by, to the two-and-a-half minute rock-and-rock 45 r.p.m. AM radio hits. Then, in the late '60s and 1970s, rock operas and cheesy album rock FM stations took over, bulldozing those erstwhile catchy tunes. This song is therefore my favorite Ramones anthem: A reactionary and revolutionary call to arms to take back radio from the forces of excessive and pretentious concept rock bands. To those who think Phil Spector burdened the Ramones with "over-production," I suggest they re-listen to the logical end of the "progressive rock" movement: Styx, Kansas, Boston and Journey (bands I otherwise like, but admit it, they were a bit much). Compared to them, the Ramones (even on this CD) come off as a stripped-down mechanized infantry unit.



"The Return of Jackie and Judy." Am I the only one who likes it better than the original which spawned it, "Judy is a Punk"? Maybe, maybe not, but this is one of their best, and is the only song I know that plays like a male version of "My Boyfriend's Back," in which boy crooner Joey waxes about his juvenile delinquent girlfriends.



"Rock & Roll High School." So what if it's "Rockaway Beach" with new lyrics and some chord changes? It works.



"Chinese Rock" is a great song, even if it's about drugs. Marky's drum riffs bring the Beach Boys' "Wipeout" to mind.



It is hard to believe that Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny are no longer with us. May they rest in peace, and may Johnny and Joey have made up and ended their brotherly feud.



But, there is solace, Ramoniacs: Put this CD in your player, and they are suddenly very much alive.

Was it something in the water?

I am one of the folks who thinks that the Ramones were just never the same after "Road to Ruin"...this album is just not that good. The Ramones are about hard-driving punk, not pop music. "Too Tough To Die" and "Animal Boy" were returns to their hard-driving form in the early- to mid-80's, but by then the Ramones had lost their edge, and never recovered it.



What was it about all of the rockers who started putting out weaker-sounding albums around 1980 and never recovered? Ted Nugent, Foghat, Blackfoot, Pat Travers...the list goes on and on. Those performers put out some incredible hard rock in the 1977-1981 time frame, and then for whatever reasons released wimpy-sounding albums that caused their popularity to nosedive, and they never recovered.



While the Ramones' popularity actually increased (maybe because of their legendary status, instead of the albums they continued to release) down the road, they, too, never recovered the magic of their first four albums. "End Of The Century" might be a great album to some people, but if you love their first four albums, you might not like this one.