WOW!
It’s the Ramones like you've never heard them before, unless you were lucky enough to see them live. (I played on a bill with the Ramones on New Year’s Eve, 1980, so count me among the fortunate. And yeah, it was a rush.) 1! 2! 3! 4! is the Rhino Records box set of the band’s first four albums: Ramones (1976), Leave Home (1977), Rocket to Russia (1977) and Road to Ruin (1978), all remixed in Dolby Atmos.
Engineer Ed Stasium waxes eloquent in the liner notes: “When I first entered New York City’s Sundragon Studios in early November 1976 to start recording the Ramones’ Leave Home, I could never have imagined being associated with the band for the next several decades, let alone creating Dolby Atmos mixes…These Atmos mixes present the Ramones’ recordings with the clarity and power with which I always imagined hearing them.”
You and me both. This is the Ramones the way you always dreamed they could be. The music roars at you from all sides. The guitars are a relentless unstoppable machine. The drums pound. The bass shakes the walls. Joey Ramone’s vocals rise above the maelstrom. But most of all, you can hear everything with amazing clarity, even the background vocals (background vocals? Who knew?) and the weird sound effects on "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment." It’s a revelation – and one you can bang your head to. (I could only listen in 5.1 but the impact was still a steamroller.) Sadly, none of the original Ramones are around to appreciate this. I’m sure they would have loved it.
The words “Ramones” and “subtlety” are not usually associated, but on these mixes you can hear newly unearthed subtle details, like the echo on the iconic “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” vocals that kick off “Blitzkrieg Bop,” the pick attack on Dee Dee Ramones’ Fender Precision Bass, and as Stasium notes, “the combination of recent recording techniques/technology and the ability of precise placement in the immersive soundscape has enabled me to extract much more clarity out of the [drum] kit, especially the kick drum, which was practically inaudible in the original stereo mixes.” He also points out that the band got more sophisticated in their production values and overdubbing in the later albums, and he was able to make these sonic elements more audible in the remixes.
Depending on the song, the vocals and instruments can come from the left, center, right, rear, or move around. The engineers must have had great fun playing with the placement of everything and I'm glad they did, rather than present four albums that sounded the same. Curiously, "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" sounds flat and distant – maybe there was only so much they could do with the master tape.
For those not all that familiar with the Ramones, well, they basically invented the template for punk rock, though not without antecedents from bands like the MC5, Blue Cheer, the Stooges, and any number of 1960s garage-rock bands. But it was the Ramones who had the nerve and the will to strip rock down to basic power chords, with the bass playing the roots, the drums blasting out a relentless attack, and Joey’s impassioned yet controlled singing on top of it all. (Some drummers who auditioned for and even briefly played with the Ramones physically could not keep up with the demands of the music.) They said what they wanted to say in short bursts of energetic songs, and with their leather jackets, ripped jeans and sneakers these guys from Queens could not possibly been mistaken for anyone else even before they hit the first industrial strength chainsaw note.
At the time, they were loved by those in the know, and with few exceptions (“Rock and Roll High School” being one of them) ignored by the general public, reflected in their weak record sales. The song titles tell the tale of the band’s shall we say not-entirely-serious approach: “Judy is a Punk,” “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue,” “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment,” “Teenage Lobotomy,” “I Just Want to Have Something to Do” and the immortal "I Wanna Be Sedated." (There are days when I can relate.) They also sprinkled some very cool covers throughout these four albums, like "California Sun," "Needles and Pins," and "Do You Wanna Dance." Now of course, the Ramones are acknowledged as pathbreakers and one of the most important bands in the history of rock.
Rightfully so. Those of you who weren’t around when they blasted out of the gate won’t know how revolutionary they were when they hit the New York scene like a shock wave. And one thing these remixes demonstrate is that these regular guys from Queens were great musicians. At the time, they were derided for being primitive and not being able to play their instruments. Well, hearing them with renewed clarity makes you realize how tight and hard-hitting they are, how precise and powerful Johnny Ramone’s guitar playing and Dee Dee Ramone’s bass playing are, and how skilled a vocalist Joey Ramone was, especially when overdubbing his lead vocals or adding vocal harmonies. That sneering Noo Yawk leer is a crucial element of the band's DNA. (Though he was a nice guy in real life as I can attest.) To say that Johnny Ramone was influential? Listen to every punk album that came after these guys.
Most of all, listening to these songs again in newly revitalized surround is so much fun. It makes me feel like I’m 21 again. This music is an adrenaline-fueled lightning bolt. What energy! Do you wanna dance? Well, hell yeah!
Header image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Danny Fields/public domain.
