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(SBUnKWEGBOP ml WANNA BE WELL

GLAD TO SEE YOU GO {Q GIMME GIMME SHOCK TREATMENT

C7) YOU'RE GONNA KILL THAT Ga ei I DON'T CARE

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{231 NOW I WANNA BE A GOOD BOY ' {23SUZYISAHEAD6ANGER

(24) UrS DANCE 05) OH, OH, I LOVE HER SO

{26} NOW I WANNA SNIFF SOME GLUE 07} WE'RE A HAPPY FAMILY

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S NYC 1978

If you're reading this, you know that.

Fourteen studio albums, severat of

them rclassics. 2,262 live shows. A million nights spent banging down

the highway in a cramped van,

hauling their over-worked butts from

one dismal gig to the next. Never

breaking through - not big-time, not

the way they deserved to - but never

giving up. ;

A Ramones reunion was probably

never in the cards, but now it's off

forever. Joey Ramone died of

cancer in a New York hospital in

2001. Dee Dee Ramone overdosed

in LA. the following year.

Fortunately, the records remain,

and they don't sound quaint or

dated, not at all.

Their last album, Adios Amigos, true to form, tanked. This at a time when

bands like Green Day, the Offspring,

and Rancid bands a generation

younger than the Ramones, but still

fiercely inspired by their rhiisic - were

selling multi-millions. In, 1996,20 years after the release of their first album,

they poundeiJ but their final performances on a Lollapalooza tour.

The first four Ramones albums are

indispensable artifacts of the late-

Seventies punk world-quake; the

first two, especially, with their

thunderous fusion of Black

Sabbath, bubblegum pop, and

other pinhead preoccupations, are

exhilarating formal triumphs. (If

"formal triumph" isn't too poofty a

term to impose on four guys who

probably couldn't have cared less

about such a thing, and might not

even have grasped it.)

So you still can hear the records. But

if you never saw. the Ramones live,

well, you never will.

However, you can hear them live. The

band put out four live albums over the

course of its career, and the first of

these, an import called It's Alive, is

one* of the most explosive rock

concert documents ever released. It

was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre

in London on New Year's Eve 1977,

“The Ramones came in, looked around and said "Fuck it, let's school them'; and BANG a new genre was created and music was

changed forever.” - lann Robinson

when both the Ramones and punk rock

itself were at a dizzying peak. You have

this album, right? Let's move on.

One week after the Rainbow show, the

Ramones were back home in New York,

- booked into the Palladium, a wonderful

old dump on then-still-scummy East 14th

Street. It was a Saturday night, perfect.

The Runaways and Suicide opened. The

orowd, as you can hear, was mightily

jacked up.

never quite happened. A New York

crowd, all dizzed out about having

them back in town, and about being

part of that big punk takeover too.

(So they thought.) A New York vibe, 1

guess you could say. If It's Alive is

the greatest, of punk concert

albums, then this one is...what, the

co-greatest? Whatever. Be happy

we have it.

And I think that's what sets this show

slightly apart from the one captured on

It's Alive. A New York band, embarked on leading the great punk conquest that

I saw the Ramones a lot back In

those particular days. I don't know

if I actually saw this show (it was

the Seventies, who can

remember?), but I can tell you that

this is exactly what they sounded

like: no guitar solos, no pointless gab,

just a tsunami of sound - great breaking

waves of guitar roar. But clean,,

sculpted, pure. And the songs! Cresting

off of its first two albums, Ramones and

Ramones Leave Home, the band had.'

only recently released its third, the

formidable Rocket to Russia. And so.* •

every song they played that night was.

drawn from three of the most flat-out --

fabulous records in the annals of ■ punkdom. Which is to say, every song-

was a hit. (Well, you know what P,-

mean.) And there were 27 of them - 27 '

songs in a head-snapping 52 minutes.

That's our boys! ‘ ‘, /j

"They really influenced so many rock bands. Even though their music was a very

simple rock n' roll, it created a new genre in rock which of course was punk rock.

There's nothing like them." - Hilly Kristal »■

I guess we can thank the King Biscuit Flower Hour

engineers for capturing this performance with such

admirable clarity, allowing us to thrill anew to Joey's

every lovable faux-Brit vocalism, Dee Dee's inevitable

"one-two-three-four" kickoffs (or "ein-zwei-drei-vier" -

Dee Dee had a thing about Germany), and Johnny's

breathtaking speed-king Mosrite mow-downs.

Drummer-by-default Tommy Ramone is still on-board

here (he would shortly step back into producing), and

Tf his endearingly unadorned thwap-bap

II ■ propulsion is still a mini-wonder.

As I say, a great, great band. I can understand how

some people might pine for those old punk days,

bellyaching about why things just aren't as cool

anymore, as loud-and-fast, as blah blah blah.

Borderline-pathetic, but I can understand. The

Ramones, though? You can't miss the Rampnes. They

haven't gone away. Listen.

Kurt Loder, NYC 2003

w CAUFORNIASUN „ . H Glover/M Levy (EMI Longitude Music, BMI)

{IT) I DON'T WANNA VKALK AROUND WITH YOU

(IS) PINHEAD {») DO YOU WANT TO DANCE

Bobby Freeman (Clockus Music, Inc/Bobby Freeman Music, BMI)

(20) CHAINSAW (21) TODAY YOUR LOVE, TOMORROW THE WORLD (22) NOW I WANNA BE A GOOD BOY

(23) SUZYISAHEADBANGER

^ limlee (Rondell Musit/WarnM-Tamlierlaiii! Pblishiaj Co, BMI)

{23 OH, OH, I LOVE HER SO

(26) NOW 1 WANNA SNF SOME GLUE m WE'RE A HAPPY FAMILY

all songs by D Colvin/l Cummings/T Erdelyi/J Hyman (Bleu Bisque Music Co Inc, ASCAP) except where noted

- MW'^BEWaL

j.^TOSEEYOUGO

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(SIOONTCME

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IHGlrBISGIHT {13} SURFIN'BIRD . y'"t^razier/HarriVWilson(Beechwood Music

'^'''-Co»'P'Atlantic Music Corp, BMI

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{15} USrENrOMYHEARr ; BECOROS

©&© 2003 King Biscuit Flqwer-Hoyr ubSer exclusive license,to King Biscuit Enteriaii

10150. King BisctatFlower Hour-fliTd the KihO Biscuit Logons are trademarks^f Kint New York NY

Executive Producers: Liner Notes:

STEVEN SHIP & KEVIN CAIN KURTLDDER Mixed & Mastered by: Cover art & D

GLEN ROBINSON DAVE BIAS

Technical Consultants:

JIM STARACEK CHRIS BARRY Photos: PAULNATKIN BOBGRUEN (courtesy of Starfile Photo Agency)

King Biscuit would like to thank: Ira Herzog, lann Robinson, Hilly Kristal, George Alexandrou, Lia Starace, Bryan Roman & Viera Rysula

(((((( IN "TOTAL EAR" STEREO SOUND ))))))

KING BISCUIT FLOWER HOUR ARCHIVE SERIES HI-FIDELITY 120mm COMPACT DISC SERIES NUMBER; 8267 8 40019 2 3

,rti HV10150. King Biscuit Fhwe,