The Ramones

New week and we are gonna jump a letter. Seeing is I only have 2 Q albums in my collection it seems kinda pointless. So we skip ahead to R. And to start things off we feature one of the best known American Punk bands ever, The Ramones. When Punk broke in America in 77 there was no bigger band out of the NYC Punk scene than the Ramones. Known for playing the famous CBGB's along with other legends like Blondie, The Talking Heads, Television and many more, the simple three chord guitar work pulled fans in. Simple riffs and lyrics about sniffing glue and being a typical kid made the Ramones a simple yet influential band. The band had a never say die attitude about them, touring virtually non stop for 22 years and playing somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,263 concerts over their lifetime. The obvious choice for download would be the self titled debut, which features 'Blitzkrieg Bop', but while that album is legendary, I'm opting for the second album 'Leave Home'. Overall this record while maybe not having at many hits, did spawn the whole Gabba Gabba Hey thing, so lets give it that. In addition to the full album, Rhino remastered and re released it back in 01 with a complete Live show from The Roxy in Hollywood on Aug. 12 76. Great album and a full show, you'd be a fool not to pick this one up.

While some may argue that The Ramones were the first Punk band, it goes without saying they were prolly the biggest Punk band stateside at the time. A relentless work ethic over the years it was sad that just eight years after the final show, three of the four original members had died. Joey Ramone is definitely one of the more iconic frontman in any music genre. The same look, the same sound, you knew what you were going to get with a Ramones album. And there wasn't anything wrong with that. Their legacy lives on with several tribute albums and people still sporting their Ramones shirts. Always a great band to put on when ya need some energy or feel like acting like a teen again.

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