RAMONES - LEAVE HOME @ 45

 

January 10th marks the 45th anniversary of the release of the sophomore Ramones LP, Leave Home, which was issued on this day in 1977.

After the somewhat hurried and low budget production standards for their eponymous debut LP the previous year, Sire Records decided to loosen the purse strings and invest in some next level production for the boys for their follow up album. The result was a major step forward in sound quality, an improvement that was matched by advancements in songwriting which were underway at the same time. In fact, the band decided to record the songs in the same order they’d written them in order to showcase their progression. Most of the songs were written by the individual members at their homes. Johnny, lacking an amp, recorded his guitar demos directly to a cassette deck to bring into the studio to play for the guys. Production duties were shared by drummer Tommy & hired gun, Tony Bongiovi, who’d previously worked with disco queen, Gloria Gaynor as well as on some posthumous Jimi Hendrix releases. The sound quality they achieve certainly put them head & shoulders above their “punk” peers, and the accelerated tempos left the others even further in the dust. The group also sought to broaden their musical palettes slightly with a few more pop oriented songs.

One of the best songs from the album had to be scrapped for some years due to legal concerns over copyright infringement. Carbona Not Glue was originally included on the album as a follow up to Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue from the first album, but concern over possible legal trouble because Carbona was a registered trade mark meant that subsequent pressings of the LP replaced the song in the US with Sheena Is a Punk Rocker and, in the UK, Babysitter was used. The song eventually returned to the album on reissues years later, though it was unofficially released as a single in 1991.

Once the album was released, all the investment and effort paid off with the critical response, but the album failed to generate the kind of buzz in sales they'd hoped. The Ramones were always cursed in some weird way with being masters of crafting these catchy, iconic anthems that only their hardcore fan base listened to, at least until most of the band were in their graves. It was a constant source of frustration that the band could put out songs like Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment & I Remember You, songs that screamed for radio airplay, and then have the masses simply ignore it all. Yet here we are today and people think these songs were always ubiquitous hit singles when nothing could be further from the truth.

Albums like Leave Home remain essential to the legacy of the Ramones, however. You can’t put it on without feeling yourself vibrate with energy as the songs rip out of the speakers. But it will always be a shame that this music wasn’t embraced right out of the gate so that the band could have enjoyed the success they were so desperate to achieve.