Rocket to Russia

The best thing I can say about this record is that it is so eminently danceable, beginning with "Cretin Hop." This album is chock full of good, fun, songs, that hailed from a time when punk was still tongue-in-cheek enough not to take itself seriously as some kind of "social movement."

"Rockaway Beach" brings back memories of much of my childhood spent there. It's the ultimate surfer song spoof, not about California, but the filthy beaches along the outer borough of Queens, on the rotting boardwalks...stepping on pop tabs in the sand, and swimming in diluted sewage.

"I Don't Care" is Joey's hepcat to British Invasion rock as he affects a limey cockney whine. "We're a Happy Family" is reality radio a quarter century before the farce of "reality TV." Sort of a harbinger to the Bundys.

"Teenage Lobotomy" is also prescient, predicting almost word-for-word personages such as 'n'Sync and Backstreet Boys and their nubile, airheaded, fans.

However, the gem of this one is the bonus tracks "Needles and Pins" (a nice salute to the now late Sonny Bono, who wrote it, and who never knew what a great song he wrote until the Ramones put it down on wax) and the stripped down demo for "I Don't Care."

This is my second favorite, right behind "Road to Ruin," but about 10 of their albums can easily make that cut.

Joey and Dee Dee, your hard work and dedication to rock and having a good time have not been in vain.

You need the albulm, in some form or other. On this, the third of the first four classic Ramones albulms, every minute is relentless early guitar punk brilliance.

But choosing between this Rhino re-issue and "All the Stuff (And More) Vol. 2" is going to be difficult for first-time buyers. The re-mastering available here highlights some craftsmanship in "Rockaway Beach", "Sheena...", and other tracks that careful listeners will appreciate. Older fans might be surprised to hear "Teenage Lobotomy" and "I Wanna Be Well" almost foreshadowing the uberproduced "End of the Century". Is this able remastering a worthy exchange for "All the Stuff... 2", which contains the entirety of "Road to Ruin" (the fourth albulm)?

The best of the 'bonus tracks' on this albulm, "Slug (Demo)", is also available on "All the Stuff... 2", which makes it even more difficult to recommend this release over the earlier two-albulm collection. The booklet, with its touching Arturo Vega salute to Joey Ramone, certainly cannot contribute that much to this release's value, although it's up to Rhino's excellent standard of producing breathless nostalgia-laden hymns to the artists they clearly love as much as we do.

In the end, I'm forced to say that "All the Stuff... 2" is the better buy for most. Truly dedicated fans will, however, want to pick up this albulm for the remastered quality and the four previously unreleased/unavailable tracks.

ROCKET TO RUSSIA was released in mid-1977, the height of the cold war and in the middle of the horrible period in US Music know as Disco. Most ignorant Amricans fail to realize this was also a time for cutting edge music known as american Punk Rock. I love this album (CD) i wore out the vinyl version I had. This is cleanest, leanest, meanest and refined production. Ya have to buy it.

I bought this on vinyl. On tape. On CD. Now I've bought it again on CD -- and the remastering and the bonus tracks are worth every penny I've spent on this title since the '70s.

I bought this on vinyl. On tape. On CD. Now I've bought it again on CD -- and the remastering and the bonus tracks are worth every penny I've spent on this title since the '70s.