RETRO REVIEW / RAMONES - RAMONES

Stuart Green
2 days ago
3 min read

So I won’t need to tell all of you that are keeping tabs, but today marks a landmark anniversary in the history of modern rock n roll music. 50 years ago today, the debut, self titled album by New York Punk pioneers, The Ramones, was released.

Never before had the world heard, felt or experienced such feral, DIY, hope for the best, real and authentic music but with this kind of flavour, and with a finger on the pulse of 1970s teenage New York to go with it. After famously taking residence at the famous grass roots live music venue CBGB’s and rubbing shoulders with peers such as Blondie, Talking Heads and Television, Ramones would finally get into a studio and record their first ever LP through Sire records. It would go on to change modern music, forever.

If you’re looking for self indulgent eight minute guitar solos, crooning vocals and intelligent thought provoking lyrics, it’s not going to be for you. If you want down to earth, gritty, fast paced fun from four young misguided misfits, covering topics such as sniffing glue, attacking people with baseball bats and romantic misadventure then this self titled first album could be right up your street. With an unmistakeable, soulful vocal style and signature buzz saw guitars, they immediately showed the whole world who they were and what they were about. With 14 tracks to the album and a run time of only 29 minutes, The Ramones set out to record music that didn’t hold back and didn’t take its time. The world’s moving fast and attention spans are limited, so get in and get out with no fuss.

Of course there’s not a music lover alive that hasn’t heard opening anthem, Blitzkrieg Bop and even those that don’t think they have heard it.. probably have somewhere. Other stand out tracks on the album include Judy is a Punk, I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You, 53rd & 3rd, Beat on the Brat… oh who am I even kidding, they’re all great. The album is a classic and The Ramones are the epitome of the term iconic. That's really all that needs to be said.

I first fell in love with them personally in 2006, at 18 years old, after buying a £1.99 greatest hits album and realising I’d just discovered something so incredibly special. I went hermit for a few months and researched everything they’d done, who inspired them and who did they inspire, and before long I’d expanded and developed an incredibly broad and varied love of music, of all genres and all sounds. Nothing was off limits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDJwCtB2TTOf8&v=JwCtB2TTOf8

I was even lucky enough in December 2025 to visit the world famous Ramones museum in Berlin, at the 1977 bar and whilst exploring all of the memorabilia, old photographs and event posters from these early days of their legendary 30 year career, I felt myself fall in love all over again. This album isn’t flashy and it's not conventionally impressive, it’s just real and it’s fun, and its from the people, for the people.

This April is not just the anniversary of the debut album release but it’s also the 25th anniversary of Joey Ramone’s untimely death. If Joey, and the Ramones made any impact, it was that they proved that anything is possible and you don’t have to look a certain way or talk a certain way or even be naturally or inherently gifted at all, but you can still become everything you ever wanted to be. 50 years later, we're still celebrating that idea...