Ramones Album: “End of the Century [Remaster]”

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.

Really if you want to hear punk tunes like "Blitzkrieg Bop", don't come here. Hit the first 4 -- those would be Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, and Road To Ruin -- then skip to Too Tough To Die (not my fave, but many people consider it in league with the early stuff) and Subterranean Jungle (for "Psychotherapy", their best update of the early formula).

End Of The Century is Joey ascendant, with all the sentiment and oldies pop he favored. Producer Phil Spector wanted to make a Joey Ramone solo album, but the band (including Joey) thought the time was wrong for such (it wasn't), and wanted to continue promoting The Ramones as a band. So Spector buried said band in session musicians and used arrangements that punk rock fans found dull and infuriating.

And about half these tunes wouldn't be worth salvaging anyway.

For what it's worth, Johnny & Dee Dee (the "punk" writing team on early albums) weren't talking to each other at the time, so a good Ramones album just wasn't going to happen. From this point on, Joey carried about half the songwriting load (communal writing credit to "The Ramones" would end with the next album), diluting their impact considerably.

I'd sooner hear End Of The Century than Don't Worry About Me, which is another good album if you really appreciate Joey as a full-fledged aesthetic concept. Me I enjoy Joey as the goofy singer of punk anthems in front of a loud, fast band, and that's something this album doesn't feature.

According to rock critics, the Ramones made four great albums from 1976 to 1979, followed by 17 years of drivel. End of the Century, they say, was the start of the decline. Don't believe that for a second! This fifth Ramones album is their best ever, a totally solid, brilliantly produced album packed with classic songs.

Phil Spector's production is what elevates the record. Probably the best pop producer of all time (cue the screaming George Martin devotees), Spector made brilliant music with mediocre singers and competent musicianship. In End of the Century, he gets to work with an already great band. Just listen to the first 30 seconds of "Do You Remember Rock N' Roll Radio?". The Wall of Sound meets punk rock, and it's unlike any pop music you've heard. And it sounds awesome.

The band is at their best here, too. "Danny Says", "Chinese Rock", "I Can't Make it on Time", "Rock 'N Roll High School", "This Ain't Havana", and the cover of Spector's "Baby, I Love You" rank among the best Ramones tunes ever. There's not a bad song on here, and for once the band doesn't recycle any riffs.

In my mind, this is the Ramones' best album, the best production by Phil Spector, and one of the top 15 greatest albums ever. It is 33 minutes of pop perfection, run through a blender. I love it.

First off...let me say that I like this album. I am a long time Ramones fan, and no it is not typical Ramones, but objectively speaking the songs are good. "Rock-n-roll Radio" is of course good. I loved "Danny Says" when I heard it for the first time. "Rock-n-Roll High School" the anthem from the movie. And as far as they go...I liked the rest too..."Lets go", "Chinese Rock", "I can't make it on time", "This aint Havanna"...all good.

Now here is the strange part...I read Dee Dee Ramones book Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones. Dee Dee hated this album, and hated Phil Spector. The story as Dee Dee tells it says that Phil and Joey Ramone dissappeared in a separate room in Phil's mansion leaving the other guys sitting. After sitting around for some length of time they got antsy and didn't know what was going on. Dee Dee wanted to go home to NY bad. Eventually he did...the others I don't know. In the last line of one of Dee Dee's chapters goes he says that...to this day he has no idea how the songs on this album were recorded. According to Dee Dee, he was never there for the whole thing.

Who knows if that is the real truth, but it makes sense to me. The album sounds totally different from anything else the band made. Strings? Ballads? I think Joey was into experimenting with new styles...while the rest of the band wanted to remain more traditional. In my opinion this album is a Joey Ramone solo album produced by Phil Spector.

Funny how we re-write musical reality over time. Nowadays it's common knowledge that "The Queen Is Dead" is the best Smith's album, but at the time a lot of us fans thought it was the weakest (and still do). We also believe that the Ramones blundered with this album and attempted to "redeem" themselves with their following two. (Which, perhaps, is true, but whether they needed to--or whether they succeeded--was never a given with fans at the time.)

Here's the deal: as great as the Ramones' first few albums are, it's a formula that can only be milked for so long. They only had three options: to quit, to change, or to suck. (Of course those options weren't mutually exclusive.) They tried to change, and going with Phil Spector wasn't the worst idea. For Christ's sake, it's not the end of the world to try and fail. They got some fresh sounds and fresh songs, so all things considered I think they did OK. No, of course it wasn't a continuation of their legacy, but thank God. Nothing's sadder than bands churning out the same old crap decade after decade, and slugs salivating and waiving their lighters at the first recognition of a 40 year old song's opening chords.

Really, by "Road to Ruin" the signs of same-old-thingness were beginning to sprout, making an attempt at change laudable.

The consensus of American musical lore aside, this is actually a better album than "Pleasant Dreams." Why weren't more people belching in disgust over how "We Want the Airwaves" was just a lame rehashing of "I'm Affected"?

This album is pretty good, and you can't fault the guys for trying. Better to change for the worse than to become an imitation of yourself. End of review.