An interesting project - along the lines of Big Daddy's albums that re-imagined 70s and 80s hits in 50s and 60s arrangements.
But those worked better.
And the reason that they did is that the originals and their versions were at similar levels of musicianship - the "Star Wars" theme re-imagined as "Duane Eddy Meets the Ventures", or "Ebony and Ivory" as Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis might have done it.
The problem here is that the Ventures were too good, too sophisticated compared to the Ramones to make it work.
Understand - i love both groups; i was sixteen in 1964 and i remember the Ventures original radio hits. And i was around thirty when the Ramones exploded onto the scene, and i was ready for their aggressive brand of minimalist high-speed pop, after the horrors of prog-rock and disco. At the time, it looked almost as if the Ramones - all by themselves - might save popular music.
And they might have if Clear Channel (ptui!) hadn't come along. But that's another story for another day.
But the Ventures' style was almost a definition of smooth and even sometimes slick, and the Ramones were intentionally raw and hard-edged.
And, for me, the two styles just don't combine well.
But not really badly, either - almost all of the tracks are quite listenable; particular standouts being "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Rockaway Beach" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" (though i could have done without the gimmicky vocal inclusions - the count-off at the beginning of "Rockaway Beach" doesn't sound right, and actually seems to me to be the wrong tempo, and the "Hey Ho - let's go!" chant on "Blitzkrieg Bop" just sounds silly.
"Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio" is, as another review notes, well-thought-out ... except for those same stupid voices mangling the "Rock 'n' roll radio - let's go!" chant. (Also the drums sound a little wrong, but i can't quite say why.)
While i enjoyed it, and i'm not sorry that i got it, i can't really recommend this to anyone who's not a fan (to some extent, at least) both bands, and it's not the first thing i'd recommend buying even then - personally, if you want to hear genre-bent instrumentals of Ramones tunes, i'd say you ought to try Rockabilly Tribute to the Ramones by Full-Blown Cherry.. |
