“We reached our peak”: The 1977 album the Ramones considered their best
The Ramones are an otherworldly band for two major reasons, as there were two times they defied the odds.
The first was when they started championing punk music in a way that hadn’t been done before. The foundation of the genre had already been built, as there were artists like Iggy Pop and Captain Beefheart who were setting the standard for this new movement, but it was the Ramones who were first recognised as a band genuinely championing the punk movement.
They were making music that leaned into chaos, their live shows a reflection, and it was hard for anybody to listen to them and be anything other than incredibly excited or incredibly confused. While the punk movement really took form in the UK, it was the Ramones who people truly recognise as some of the first punk rockers.
Thus, the band were pioneering such a new sound; it took them a few albums before they really got it right. Most fans will tell you that their debut album is pretty spectacular, and they’d be right, but because what they were doing didn’t really have a blueprint, the Ramones didn’t truly hit their stride until a couple of records in.
This is what Johnny Ramone thinks, anyway. He recognises the bands’ first two records as being pretty important, given they essentially provided a previously undocumented form to the genre that we now know as punk, but musically, he doesn’t think the band put out their best work until album three came around.
“Obviously, they were important records. Rocket to Russia is I think my favorite Ramones record,” he said, “We reached our peak at that point. I think most bands probably peak on their first album. We peaked on our third album. On the first album, I feel like I wish the production was a little better. I’ll always hear a song I don’t like. I look for what I could have done to make it better. It’s always difficult for me to listen.”
Getting to album three is, in and of itself, another way that The Ramones defied the odds. Punk music leaned into chaos, the whole thing thriving on unpredictability and ruckus. As such, a lot of the bands considered pioneers of the genres didn’t stick together very long. Take the Sex Pistols, for instance, who might have released a pretty stellar debut record, but didn’t do anything of substance after that.
The Ramones stuck together for years. Sure, things weren’t always the most harmonious, but throughout that time, they continued putting out decent music and performing their iconic shows. When Eddie Vedder gave a speech about the band, he highlighted how much of an anomaly they were because of their longevity, and while they may have peaked at album three, they also managed to get to it in the first place.
“They existed for 22 years with the same level of intensity for the whole time,” said Vedder, “They may not have gotten along the whole time, but that was touring together for 22 years in a van for fuck sake. So, you have to understand.”
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