Disco de Ramones: “Ramones [Bonus Tracks]”

One cannot overestimate the contributions of this band to the evolution of punk and hence heavy metal music. From Iron Maiden to Green Day, the influence of the Ramones is still experienced today wherever rock music is played. As far as debuts go as well, this album has to rank up there with one of the best ever. If you are looking at the gist of the band, this album alone will give you a fairly good idea.

The Ramones were to punk music what Frank Zappa was to classic rock and Mozart was to classical music. They were very, very good at their chosen musical genres and yet did not take themselves too seriously and were able to have a laugh through their compositions. The music was hard enough for punk but the lyrics were often comical and hilarious e.g. "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World." Still, many of the band's famous tracks are here like: "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Beat on the Brat" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" which will show up on any greatest hits compilation that is ever released of the band.

This version comes in a mini-lp replica sleeve design (mlps) which is fairly well done although the cardboard used is thin and cheap and is certainly not the best representative of the mlps format that I've seen out there. It includes a glossy 20-page booklet with an essay on the band and all the lyrics as well as another 10-page booklet with the same but in Japanese. However, most importantly, the sound quality is very good as the disc has been very well remastered. In addition to the 14 main tracks listed above, the following bonus tracks are also included:

I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (Demo)

Judy is a Punk (Demo)

I Don't Care (Demo)

I Can't Be (Demo)

Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (Demo)

I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed (Demo)

You Should Never Have Opened That Door (Demo)

Blitzkrieg Bop (Single Version)

Overall, no fan of punk music should neglect to include this album in their library. If you wanna know where Green Day and their ilk got their inspiration from, you need look no further than this album.

Recommended.