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.
