Pure Punk Picks
Loudmouth – The Ramones
You know, at this out of commission amusement park on Coney Island that we refer to as Thrash N Bang, I just realized that with one of our more popular rides, “Pure Punk Picks”- we have never covered a single Ramones song!
Well, blow my nose! I’m gonna rectify this abomination, dab splat about now!
But I kind of know why that is and you’re well aware, how unaware I am about everything around me. And that it would appear, I know nothing about everything and everything about nothing, nearly at the same time.
But I think we all take The Ramones for granted and never give a second thought to the band who started it all- one that made it possible for Thrash N Bang to luxuriate in it’s riches and splendor.
Though I try my best to not have any thoughts at all, as I feel they just clutter my brain while taking up valuable space that could be more wisely used for smut. And I’m glad to say, I’m more often than not successful in my quest.
I know I’ve told this story before, how I first came upon The Ramones first album.
I read Creem Magazine in my teenage days, it was my favorite nationwide rock music publication. And they had turned me on to such great bands as Iggy & The Stooges, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, The Modern Lovers and The Dictators- all important proto-punk bands.
So when they reviewed The Ramones first album, they were very complimentary but also, very vague in how it sounded.
It was and still is, the strangest album I’ve ever experienced.
This was when rock bands had three to five minute songs which all contained guitar solos and each song had a full page of lyrics if not more.
The Ramones had two-minute songs, no solos and four lines of lyrics!
I liked it immediately but could not get over the fact that an album like this was allowed to be released! I was very happy, but if my twenty-year old post-hippie brain could speak to you now it would say, “Man, my mind was blown!”
I’m not sure everyone is aware of this- but Tommy Ramone, the original drummer for this band, had the original concept for this group.
He was a full-time working engineer at a studio in New York, Electric Ladyland, while the other guys were glue sniffing amateurs.
He tried to find a drummer who would play straight ahead beats, but in the aftermath of the hippie music over-indulgence, almost all rock drummers would be offended if you requested them to play that way.
So Tommy became the drummer. And though he didn’t produce the album, I do notice now how prominent the drums and cymbals are, while the guitar and bass are more subdued in the mix.
Nevertheless, this was faster and more energetic than any rock music being played at the time. And even though the band, eventually, moved to a hardcore speed to keep up with the times, their original sound was nothing less than revolutionary.
“Well, you’re a loudmouth baby
You better shut it up
I’m gonna beat you up
Well, you’re a loudmouth baby”
Then after three verses of buzzsaw bass and guitar and driving, energetic beats built around some great, garage rock chords-
Suddenly the chords descend down, the music descends into the core of the earth, while the drums throw chopping two accent rhythms like an axe murder chopping away at its’ prey. This is followed by four drum hits to completely stomp us into the ground, making sure we’ll never get up again.
To me it sounds like mountains exploding, firecrackers going off in my brain, out of control white water rafters going down a stream in my nervous system, cars veering and crashing off of a highway.
All the while, Joey Ramone sings in a faux British, bleating voice, “Loudmouth Baby!” So tuneful but still as fey as David Byrne’s chirping in Talking Heads or Devo’s paranoid, excited exclamations.
This song is like the blood being pumped through your mainstream, endorphins shooting up your spine into your brain, joy elevating your heartbeat, fun causing your lips to smile.
I’m a loudmouth, baby! Well, at least with my pen. But I find it hard to shut it up when I hear music that created a genre, a musical philosophy, an art, a style that I’m still obsessed with.
It was common for rock songs in the sixties and seventies to not have a definitive ending but get softer and softer and fade away, much like how this song ends.
But unlike how this song ends it seems what they inspired is not fading away but growing stronger, if not in popularity certainly in inspiration. And I think it will continue to do so and never end.
Yeah, I know, I know…I need to shut it up.
(Slimedog)
