RAMONES ROCKET TO RUSSIA FREE
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Though it failed to crack the Top 40, at No. Supported by a volley of monstrously distorted barre chords, “Rockaway Beach,” like its predecessor, “Sheena is a Punk Rocker,” was in the tradition of the best Queens-bred pop, a kissing cousin to the sound and spirit of the Shangri-Las (who, ironically, launched a comeback that summer at the Bowery’s punk haven, CBGB). Hoping to catch the last rays of summer, in late August the band prepared a new single, “Rockaway Beach,” Dee Dee Ramone’s ode to a favored seaside hangout. While Boys/Pistols frontmen Stiv Bators and Johnny Rotten personified the most abrasive elements of the genre, on stage and in the studio the Ramones’ weapon-of-choice was the loud, fast (and barely) two-minute pop song. For the Ramones and the rest of punk-rock nation, 1977 was a watershed year, one that included pivotal works like the Dead Boys’ Young Loud & Snotty and the Sex Pistols’ infamous Never Mind the # Here’s the Sex Pistols. the previous year had established the Ramones (guitarist Johnny, vocalist Joey, bassist Dee Dee and original drummer Tommy) as the leading purveyors of punk and the first palpable response to the effete perfectionism of ‘70s rock. As a teenage kid listening to the Ramones you probably didn’t catch much of these dark lyrics, maybe what did it for you was the instrumentals, even a punk-rock band like the Ramones keeping it simple and fast beats with clean vocals made them a cult classic punk-rock band that is immortal.At the end of a turbulent Big Apple summer of 1977 marked by a garbage strike, a massive blackout and a ritualistic murderer who took orders from a dog, the Ramones, a clad-in-black rock quartet from Queens who all answered to the same last name, entered New York’s Mediasound Studio to begin work on a third album for Sire Records, Rocket to Russia. The last song on Rocket to Russia ‘Why is it Always This Way’ is about a female who has committed suicide “Last time I saw her alive she was wavin,’ wavin’ bye bye, she was contemplating suicide now she’s lying in a bottle of formaldehyde” once again dark and taboo. I think that the Ramones added this cover track to their album because of the similar concepts of the beach and surfing, it’s a bit more faster than the original and more aggressive but it works, listening to it now makes me want to get up and pogo. ‘Surfing Bird’ originally performed by The Trashmen 1963. In Rocket to Russia the Ramones cover the song ‘Surfing Bird’. Through out the years I started to understand that this song is super dark and genius, lyrics are about a teenager who had a lobotomy done because of the brain damage cause by overexposure to DDT. I was in high school right when they had introduced the Internet! It was very new and I had no interest, but I was not going to go into a library and research Lobotomy, I hated school and I hated science. ‘Teenage Lobotomy’ another classic, I remember listening to this in high school not really understanding what this song was about.

‘We’re A Happy Family’ is a bit more of a “joke” song describing a dysfunctional family from Queens that pretends to be happy, “No Christmas cards to send, Daddy likes men, Daddy’s telling lies, baby’s eating flies, mommy’s on pills” again very catchy, jumpy instrumental but the lyrics are a bit dark and cynically humorous. “They got their surfboards and they’re going to the discotheque Au Go Go but she just couldn’t stay she had to break away” “Sheena is a punk rocker Sheena is a punk rocker now”.

RAMONES ROCKET TO RUSSIA FREE

One of my personal favorites in this album is ‘Sheena’ is a Punk Rocker, its about being different and breaking free from the “normal” being yourself and not caring what people think or say. ‘Rockaway Beach’ was the Ramones highest charting single in their career, number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100.

‘Rockaway Beach’ written by bassist DeeDee Ramone in the style of the beach boys is a bit more catchy and it fits perfectly with the Californian Surfer scene, altho the song was written about Rockaway Beach, Queens, where Dee Dee liked to spend his time. The Ramones where about simplicity, hooks, speed and originality. Fourteen songs all under three minutes, fast, hoppy and raw. A similarity to their previous releases, the lyrics integrated humor, black humor if I had to point it out, circling mental disorders and psychiatry. Rocket to Russia is a bit more of what some would call “surf music” or “bubblegum pop” influenced. Rocket to Russia was released November 4th 1977 by the legendary punk-rock band The Ramones.

Ramones rocket to russia