RAMONES Road To Ruin (Sire)

"Sometimes timing is everything, you know?"

"How do you mean?"

"The worst week, that four game humiliation at Fenway, and Keith Moon dying a lunatic's death, and I caught this throat thing, and she couldn't, or wouldn't, find the time to come over—"

"The Girl?"

"The Girl. I've told you about her? Anyway, all this stuff, and I'm obliged to assess a Ramones album. Now, I'm a fan—"

"Fan? Isn't that kind of a demeaning term? You're a reviewer, an ob-

jective, articulate judge of aesthetic value."

"Listen. Another Rolling Rock, Horace, please? We were fans first, before we found our way into the backs of magazines and in my opinion, the trick is to hold on to that, to keep that capacity for wonder-"

"Fitzgerald."

"Yeah, Gatsby. Keep that capacity for wonder, not be soured by the inundation of product, the platinumania of the industry. To temper our scrutiny with some wide-eyed admiration. Speaking of wide-eyed wonders, did I tell you about The Girl?"

"Months ago."