THE RAMONES: Halfway To Sanity...And Back Again!
1987. It’s a full decade after the Summer Of Hate, and we have the 10th studio album from the Ramones. And whadaya know! Even though there must now be a couple hundred Ramones songs thrashing around on various vinyl, the band still has the same sound after all these years. Of course, there have been minor aberrations.
THE RAMONES: Halfway To Sanity...And Back Again!
FEATURES
by Kris Needs
1987. It’s a full decade after the Summer Of Hate, and we have the 10th studio album from the Ramones. And whadaya know! Even though there must now be a couple hundred Ramones songs thrashing around on various vinyl, the band still has the same sound after all these years.
Of course, there have been minor aberrations. The Sound has sometimes been harder, softer, faster, slower, or even drenched with strings and Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” on End Of The Century— but they have never strayed toofar from that original, simple concept of short, sharp, classic pop songs with sicko lyrics and high-octane no-gaps delivery. That, reckons Joey Ramone, is the secret of their success as one of the few survivors of the mid-’70s punk explosion.
Now, with a new generation of hardcore-metal maniacs craving no-frills, fulltilt thrash, the Ramones are finding themselves with a brand new audience, comprised of many who probably weren’t even 10 years old when the band first appeared. Joey reckons they’ve never been more popular than they are right now.