Leave Home Sire January 10, 1977 148 45
Yes, the dreaded sophomore album. Although it may not be as wildly catchy or original as "Ramones," this album still packs a strong Ramones punch. Despite featuring one of the most artistic and progressive looking album covers of their oeuvre, most of this album's inability to trump "Ramones" lies in the fact that some time in 1975- 1976, the Ramones wrote about 30 songs all at once. It's easy to figure that, being the lunk-head NYC pragmatists that they were, the Ramones would put the best songs on the first record since it was their first offering to the scene, and put the rest, the not as amazing songs, onto "Leave Home." Johnny Ramone however, disputes this saying, "We recorded them in the order they were written; we wanted to show a slight progression in song structure." Still, be this as it may, "Leave Home" has some exciting and even personal moments. "Glad to See You Go" is about Connie Ramone, Dee Dee's late girlfriend who used to beat the shit out of any poor female who had the ill fortune of even talking to Dee Dee. "Gimme Shock Treatment," another classic, archetypal Ramones riff on mental health, features amazing, unexpected laser noises in the chorus, a post-production addition that is rarely on any Ramones album from their golden period. "I Remember You" is a banal, throwaway Ramones ballad, a style that they would improve on and perfect fully and sincerely on their next album with one of my all-time favorite Ramones ballads, "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow."
"Oh Oh I Love Her So" while albeit a brainless Ramones love song, was an early indication of the power-pop stylings the Ramones would latch onto on later albums like "Road to Ruin" and "Subterranean Jungle." While safe, it is a markedly fun, poppy, catchy and well-produced style that would go on to be one their most reliable in the studio. "Oh Oh I Love Her So" also features the key line "I met her at the Burger King, fell in love by the soda machine." This is notable because further down the line on a song entitled "I'm Against It" on "Road to Ruin," another different attitude altogether towards Burger King is expressed, leaving these two songs to exist as a strange, unresolved dichotomy concerning the fast food establishment. Style wise, however, despite songs like "Oh Oh," "Leave Home," is not as power-poppy as their later work, but rather is very much raw like "Ramones" but more clean.
"Carbona Not Glue" is a great, hard hitting example of the Ramones bratty thought processes. After the song "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" hit the market with the release of "Ramones," many parents became noticeably and predictably alarmed. So what do the genius Ramones do in the face of such controversy? Release a song entitled "Carbona Not Glue," with Carbona being a stain removal product. Naturally the song was left off most issues of the album, making "Leave Home," an otherwise innocuous album, the only Ramones album to ever appear differently from the one originally intended.
"Suzy is a Headbanger" the second Ramones song written in a long line of "Female is a Noun" songs, is a strong offering. It offers a nice, atypical lead guitar lick right before the verses that is a rarity to hear Johnny Ramone play (aside from a similar, well-known lead on their cover of "California Sun," a song also released on "Leave Home"). I've never really liked "Pinhead." It has a singnature Ramones swagger and rhythm to it, but the message is just banal. It's too "d-u-m-b." Plus it makes me think of that ugly costumed fellow that came on stage and carried the "GABBA GABBA" sign whenever they played the song. The same sound and aesthetic works much better on 1977's "Rocket to Russia" in the song "We're a Happy Family." It even uses the same post-song voices at the end.
As much as I dislike "Pinhead" however, the song is very important ideologically for the Ramones. The Ramones here assert their empty minds against the aesthetics and politics that were a part of the English punk scene that was building up steam at the time. The Ramones just cared about getting loaded and getting girls; they could care less about the Queen, "labour" parties, or looking dark like the Damned or "punk" like the Sex Pistols, two bands which were formed in '76 and '75 respectively, and who competed heavily with the Ramones late 70's audiences. Strangely however, in the Sex Pistols' case, the Pistols would not go on to really be a thorn in the side of the Ramones until 1977.
I've always loved "Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy." One of the few "I Wanna" songs with a positive as a opposed to a negative or anti-social message, the song has very few words. But what it does have in spades is a razor sharp rhythm. "Swallow My Pride" sounds a lot like a slightly more sped up version of "I Remember You," but is still quite boring. "Swallow My Pride" however is much worse than either of those tracks, as it features extremely cheesy, high-in-the mix background vocals from I think Dee Dee (or some shitty woman) and that just really kills the song. "What's Your Game" suffers more of the same faults, although Dee Dee has much better back ground vocals when he says "Same" and "Sane" and "Oooo, Oooo." The background vocals are terribly high-in-the mix and terrible during the "Oh yeahs" however.
"California Sun" and "Commando" are two of the best Ramones songs ever recorded. Local punks "The Teeners" still cover "Commando"(http://www.youtube.com/wat
The album end with two unexpectedly, dark Ramones songs, both about murder, "You're Gonna Kill that Girl" and "You Should Have Never Opened that Door." Both sound very bubblegum and poppy, and seeing as they deal with dark themes, follow faithfully the path made by such oldie songs as "Leader of the Pack" and that shitty Pearl Jam song. Both songs are great, and again, are about murder. They are interesting in specific content too, as the former is a lament about someone killing someone else, but the latter is about personally chopping someone's head off. These Ramones: they're big thinkers. You think they are going one way and bam, they are off in another direction.
The deluxe package of "Leave Home" is a little disappointing in that it only features one b-side (Ramones b-sides are usual reliable bread and butter; I guess they ran out of songs!) titled "Babysitter," the song that replaced "Carbona Not Glue," and, if played a little slower and drugged out, would sound exactly like any number of Jesus and Mary Chain songs. Instead of b-sides, we are treated to a live album from August 1976 featuring songs off the first two albums, which is cool if you like live albums. I don't really like live albums.
If after listening to "Leave Home," you feel a little disappointed, that's perfectly natural. Although it really is not such much a "slump" as it is a testament to how fucking awesome "Ramones" is, this album is something you will come back to faithfully later on for it's authentic late-70s loud crunch and style (doesn't at lot of '70s punk sound so much more loud, real and awesome than stuff made in the early 80s? Late 80s do not count; that's when metal ruled the world). Ok fine, those 30 songs written back then were put on the first two records in the order they were recorded, but even still I think it is patently obvious that songs on "Leave Home" just aren't as good as a whole compared to the first record. Ultimately this isn't a big deal seeing as how the year after this record came out, the Ramones would release arguably the best record of their entire career.
Grade: 8.5 out of 10.
Best For: sitting in traffic, being nerdy, hiding in a cubicle.
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