Review Summary: Perhaps not the Ramones' best-selling album, but certainly their strongest set of songs.
Ah yes, The Ramones. They’re kinda like the Beach Boys of punk, aren’t they? That kind of, bouncy, breezy, fun-loving band nobody ever really dislikes. Even the most hardened of
true-kvlt black metallers will certainly find a place in his heart for the four bros from Queens, and their particular brand of fast, catchy pop-punk, and even their most inconsistent records have a couple of irresistible moments that are impossible not to love.
In another sense, the Ramones are also like those slightly-disreputable neighbourhood kids making noise in a garage two doors down. Older people frown at them, but every kid on the street wants to hang out at their rehearsal spot. They base their music on simplicity and a laid-back, just-for-fun attitude that’s lacking in so many of today’s overserious bands. This is probably what made their success, and the reason they left such a mark on the music scene of the last four decades. In fact, while there were myriads of would-be imitators, nobody has quite grasped
that Ramonian sound. Unlike band such as Mötörhead and Hellhammer, there was never a complete Ramones sound-alike, although bands such as Screeching Weasel came quite close.
However, most of the band’s success was built in the 70’s. The 80’s were sketchy at best, and the 90’s…well, best forget about the 90’s. But in the 70’s, the Ramones were an unstoppable force, charging forward every year with another set of lightning-fast songs and catchy hooks.
Rocket To Russia is just such an assault, and not only that: it’s probably the best of the early Ramones efforts. What we have here is yet another set of 14 songs dispatched in just over half an hour, and where most tracks barely reach the two-minute mark, let alone the three-minute one. In short, it’s a direct follow up to
Ramones and
Leave Home, the group’s first two opuses. But like any good sequel, it ups the ante, presenting better songwriting and even more appealing hooks, as well as a reduction in filler, a problem which plagued its predecessors.
In fact, most of this album went on to be famous. Altogether, songs from
Rocket to Russia made up about a third of the Ramones’ legendary live album,
It’s Alive!. Their presence on this magnum opus of live music helped catapult them to fame, some unfairly (the drab
I Wanna Be Well and the woeful
I Don’t Care), others meritorily (
Rockaway Beach, Teenage Lobotomy, Do You Wanna Dance). Likewise, some good tracks that the Ramones didn’t happen to play that night unfairly fell into oblivion, remembered by only the most devoted fans.
Case in point:
Locket Love. It’s not the best song on the album (those would be
Rockaway Beach and
Teenage Lobotomy), but it’s certainly much better than some of the previously mentioned songs, even if it misses the perfect opportunity to end and overstretches itself a little. It also helps usher in a new feature for Ramones songs: full sets of lyrics. This feature, not present in the first two songs of the album, would later be determinant to the group’s 80’s career, and is reprised here on songs such as
Ramona.
But while the lyrics are getting more developed, musically very little has changed. It’s still the dumb, fast, loud fun-punk the band had accostumed us to. Surf music influences become more evident on tracks such as
Rockaway Beach and the cover of
Surfin’ Bird, certainly one of the most infuriating covers of all time. All the while, mid-tempos and ballads continue to make increasingly less sporadic appearances.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow is probably the balladest ballad the group ever wrote, and even includes a short but sweet solo from Johnny.
I Don’t Care and
I Wanna Be Well make up the rest of the slow contingent, and fare nowhere near as well as
Here Today…. The first is probably the worst song the Ramones ever wrote pre-1980, consisting of a plodding, heavy guitar riff and monotonous beat, over which Joey drones
”I don’t care”. Repeat for three minutes, and you have a snooze-fest. The second is much less offensive, but it’s also quite dull, despite some funny lyrics.
The rest of the album follows the Ramones tradition. Fast beats and dumb choruses come in droves, and songs like
Sheena is a Punk Rocker, I Can’t Give You Anything, We’re a Happy Family or
Cretin Hop will go straight to the heart of any rocker, no matter how hardened he or she thinks he or she is. On the flipside is
Why Is It Always This Way, the worst track after
I Don’t Care, whose only redeeming feature is its mercifully short duration.
Overall, however, this is a more than deserving album. A definite improvement over the already strong
Leave Home, this is, however, afflicted by much of the same ailments, namely the presence of filler. Had the group removed
I Don’t Care, Why Is It Always This Way and – maybe –
I Wanna Be Well, we’d have a 5/5 on our hands. As it stands, it’s still heavily recommended, even if it does fall short of perfection. At heart, the Ramones of
Rocket To Russia are still the same group of goofy, lovable 16-year-olds writing dumb lyrics about girls, geeks and the beach. By the next album,
Road to Ruin, some of the spark and most of the inspiration would be gone, which leaves
Rocket to Russia as the pinnacle and figurehead of the group's best phase.
Recommended Tracks
Rockaway Beach
Locket Love
Teenage Lobotomy
Do You Wanna Dance?
