“It inspired everybody”: the album Butch Vig called “the best punk record” ever
Any producer’s job is about capturing a feeling that no one can put into words. The band is usually the ones pulling all the strings, but it takes an experienced producer to take them from a bunch of musicians playing a song to sonic architects playing in a cramped studio. Although Butch Vig always wanted to serve every artist he worked with, he thought that nothing would ever surpass the first Ramones record.
It’s no big shock as to why one of the first major producers of the grunge movement would cater to punk rock, though. The entire basis of grunge was to bring rock back to basics from hair metal, just like the early punk regime was about taking the progressive rock of the time and exposing it for how pompous it had become.
Even though many people like to think of the Ramones as one of the more lighthearted takes on punk rock, they were far darker than most people gave them credit for. They may have sounded lighthearted when listening to a song like ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, but the kind of strange drug deals going down in a piece such as ‘53rd and 3rd’ is enough to make your hair stand on end.
There’s no way the band could have predicted what punk rock would become because it barely had a name yet. Sex Pistols were hardly a pipe dream at the time, and The Clash had yet to pick up their own guitars to start writing songs, so as far as Vig was concerned, this record was ground zero.
Speaking to Line of Best Fit, Vig thought that the Ramones set the blueprint for punk rock on their first album, saying, “The first Ramones record is the greatest punk rock record of all time. It inspired The Sex Pistols. It inspired everybody. A thousand punk rock bands were formed after they saw the Ramones. They were the first true originals to do that, and I’m still a huge Ramones fan.”
As iconic as their debut is today, many people forget that there are some blemished spots to it. Due to everything being separated in the mix, it feels like you’re getting the full blast of every single instrument, which really threw people for a loop who were only used to listening to Bay City Rollers at the time.
The bad attitude and the fashion were enough, leading to John Lydon practically making his answer to this record when assembling Sex Pistols. Although the group never achieved the same career highs as the people they influenced, Vig ensured he could carry on what they had started.
While Vig would eventually work behind the board on projects by Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana, his trademark approach to production is indebted to the Ramones’ debut. Since the sound of the record was meant to sound aggressive and more than a little bit trashy, many of the guitar tones on Nevermind tend to follow suit, toeing the line between the occasional clean guitar followed by a guitar that sounds like a buzzsaw.
Then again, maybe the Ramones were more than just a traditional punk band. They may have all the hallmarks of a punk, but considering how much they turned away from the mainstream and did everything on their terms, they also pioneered the alternative aesthetic without really knowing it.
