Ramones Tribute Albums
One of My Favorite Things in Life!
I like listening to Ramones tribute albums more than their original recordings. Hey, the juke box in my brain has every track from the first four LPs on auto-play. I listened to those records so much that they’re a part of my DNA. I’ll be hearing Ramones songs in whatever afterlife and/or future lives I end up in.
The thing about a good Ramones tribute album is that musicians interpret the music in such a unique way that I feel like I’m listening to the Ramones for the first time. It’s hearing a Ramones song with new ears. Once in a while a band does something with a Ramones song that makes me think: “Why didn’t the Ramones do something like this when they recorded their stuff? This sounds even better than the original!” On the other hand, there are many more, God-awful interpretations of Ramones songs on most of these Ramones tribute albums, and a lot of attempts to sound like the Ramones… But it’s all part of the fun. Hey, you just can’t take these things seriously.
The newest Ramones tribute albums were just released by Marc Urselli’s Magnetic Eye Records, and both feature a strange but interesting group of musicians. Magnetic Eye did a tribute album with covers of every song from the first album, and another album with covers of songs from other Ramones albums.
Track listing:
1 Mondo Generator - Blitzkrieg Bop
2 Daníel Hjálmtýsson & Mortiis - Beat on the Brat
3 Deathchant - Judy Is a Punk
4 Boots Electric feat. Wayne Kramer - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
5 Ufomammut feat. Bent Sæther - Chain Saw
6 Napalm Death & Thurston Moore - Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
7 GlerAkur feat. Andromeda Anarchia - I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement
8 Imperial Triumphant & Kilter - Loudmouth
9 Zapato 3 feat. Toxic Tito & Rudy La Scala - Havana Affair
10 Volume - Listen to My Heart
11 Altareth feat. Vanderwolf - 53rd and Third
12 Desert Roamers feat. Alain Johannes, Dave Catching & John Stanier - Let's Dance
13 Arthur Brown & The Berserker BlóthaR - I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You
14 Domkraft feat. Ulf Cederlund, Justin Goins & Tommy Southard - Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World
15 Delrei feat. Brian Chase & Kid Congo Powers - Listen to My Heart (CD bonus track)
16 Gezan feat. Eugene Hütz - Blitzkrieg Bop (CD bonus track)
17 Bonaparte & Flake - Judy Is a Punk (CD bonus track)
Me? I bought it for the Arthur Brown cover of “I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You.” I’ve always been a big fan of his, from "The Crazy World of Arthur Brown to his prog rock band Galactic Zoo Odyssey and beyond. And he didn’t disappoint! The guy is still totally insane!
Track Listing:
1 Voivod feat. JG Thirlwell - Zero Zero UFO
2 Destructo Disk feat. Timo Ellis - I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed
3 Impostor Cult feat. Amy Tung Barrysmith - Pet Sematary
4 Oscar Dunbar & The Heat Inc. - You're Gonna Kill That Girl
5 Daniele Brusaschetto & Chvad SB - I Can't Be
6 So Hideous feat. Gary Lucas - The KKK Took My Baby Away
7 King Potenaz & Nefariant - Time Has Come Today
8 Venamoris feat. Eicca Toppinen - I Want You Around
9 Kayo Dot & Ihsahn - Teenage Lobotomy
10 Duel - Chinese Rock
11 Raw Power feat. Sergio Milani - I Don't Care
12 Zeni Geva & Besvärjelsen - You Should Never Have Opened That Door
13 Restless Spirit feat. Jeff Matz - Poison Heart
14 David J & Paul Wallfisch - I Wanna Be Sedated
15 Vicki Peterson feat. John Cowsill & Jonny Polonsky - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (CD bonus track)
16 Tammy Faye Starlite feat. Chris Enriquez - Danny Says (CD bonus track)
17 Aborym & Kaiten - Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (CD bonus track)
So many musicians I wanted to hear play the Ramones, like Tammy Faye Starlight (who also performed at the launch event). Voivod with J.G. Thirlwell, Gary Lucas, and Vicki Peterson with a Cowsill? Too much.
To help launch the tribute albums, Producer Marc Urselli rented a space at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and got some of the musicians on the albums to perform Ramones cover songs. I managed to shoot the last song with my iPhone (the still photos came out terribly, since the lighting was… well, you can see). As you can see it was insane: Luis Accorsi (Toxic Tito), Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello), Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley) and a bunch of people swarmed the stage, performing the most chaotic (and fun!) version of “Blitzkrieg Bop” I have ever seen:
You can listen to both Magnetic Eye tribute albums on YouTube, but if you’re like me you’ll want to buy the CD or vinyl versions:
By the way, I’m not getting anything in return for this review, I just enjoyed the event and the tribute LPs so much that I figured I should do a newsletter about this weird phenomenon. You have to wonder: Why there are so many Ramones tribute albums? There are many tribute albums of music by other bands, of course, but there aren’t dozens of tribute albums for the Sex Pistols, the Talking Heads, Blondie, or any other punk rock band that I know of. Nor even the Beatles, the Stones, or any hippie bands. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ramones can boast having more tributes than any other band in rock ’n’ roll history. There were full-blown weekend festivals featuring nothing but Ramones tribute bands in Australia years ago!
Here’s a list of some of the other Ramones tribute albums you might want to check out:
My favorite is the Bossa Nova Ramones record (which includes Cherie Curry and Angie Bowie):
Mickey Leigh and I have talked about this phenomenon, and for some weird reason he likes the Nutley Brass tribute best of all (the weirder the better, I guess):
Here’s a Ramones Tribute album (that was mastered by the Ramones’ own Ed Stasium) with a lot of great South American bands. This was a double album, and not all of the tracks are available here, but if you want to hear more, just search around YouTube some more: “Todos Somos Ramones”
The best-known Ramones Tribute album is We’re A Happy Family, which was one of Johnny Ramones’ last endeavors. It features a lot of mainstream rock bands: KISS, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, U2, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Garbage, Green Day, Rancid, The Offspring, Tom Waits, the Pretenders and more:
Then there’s the Screeching Weasel Tribute album from way back in 1993, which might have launched the “Ramones Tribute Album Thing”, :
There’s a Wikipedia page about all of these Tribute albums, with The Queers, The Vindictives, Boris The Spider, Parasites, The Mr. T Experience (which I hear is available as an 8-track now!), the Beatnik Termites and the McRackins all doing full-blown covers of entire Ramones albums:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramones_covers_album_series
Check it out: .Here are some weird covers of Ramones by musicians that you might be surprised by:
Morrissey (Judy Is a Punk”):
Weird Al Yankovic (“I Wanna Be Sedated”):
Here’s Metallica covering a bunch of Ramones songs (good stuff):
The oddball tributes are the most fun to listen to, but it’s also amazing that so many musicians love Ramones music!. I hope you agree, and if you have any idea about why this phenomenon is still going strong 50 years after the band was playing at a dingy club on the Bowery, and never achieved commercial success? Please comment.
Okay, weird timing, my fav musician (under 70 har har) just released a cover of "don't come close" this week. It's behind a paywall; otherwise, I would post it. Darren Hayman.