Ramones Rocket To Russia CD

Contains 5 Bonus Tracks. 3rd Album.

The Ramones: Joey Ramone (vocals); Johnny Ramone (guitar); Dee Dee Ramone (bass, background vocals); Tommy Ramone (drums).
Producers: Tony Bongiovi, T. Erdelyi.
Reissue producers: Bill Inglot, Gary Stewart.
Engineers: Ed Stasium, Don Berman.
Principally recorded at Media Sound, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Legs McNeil and Arturo Vega.
Digitally remastered by Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot (Digiprep).
Personnel: Joey Ramone (vocals); Johnny Ramone (guitar); Tommy Ramone (drums).
Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Bill Inglot.
Photographers: Bob Gruen; Robert Matheu.
The Ramones provided the blueprint and Leave Home duplicated it with lesser results, but the Ramones' third album, Rocket to Russia, perfected it. Rocket to Russia boasts a cleaner production than its predecessors, which only gives the Ramones' music more force. It helps that the group wrote its finest set of songs for the album. From the mindless, bopping opening of "Cretin Hop" and "Rockaway Beach" to the urban surf rock of "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" and the ridiculous anthem "Teenage Lobotomy," the songs are teeming with irresistibly catchy hooks; even their choice of covers, "Do You Want to Dance?" and "Surfin' Bird," provide more hooks than usual. The Ramones also branch out slightly, adding ballads to the mix. Even with these (relatively) slower songs, the speed of the album never decreases. However, the abundance of hooks and slight variety in tempos makes Rocket to Russia the Ramones' most listenable and enjoyable album -- it doesn't have the revolutionary impact of The Ramones, but it's a better album and one of the finest records of the late '70s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The third of the Ramones' original quartet of albums, 1977's ROCKET TO RUSSIA is actually a big improvement over the slightly disappointing LEAVE HOME, released earlier in 1977. While not as solidly perfect as RAMONES, ROCKET TO RUSSIA contains very little fat and boasts possibly the finest songs in the band's entire repertoire, "Rockaway Beach" and the immortal "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker." "We're a Happy Family" and "Teenage Lobotomy" are only slightly lesser tracks, and the covers of the Trashmen's gloriously silly "Surfin' Bird" and Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance" are conceptually perfect, linking the Ramones neatly with their garage rock and bubblegum roots.
The bonus tracks on the 2001 Rhino reissue are less revelatory than the 1976 concert contained on the LEAVE HOME reissue, a motley but entertaining collection of demos, single mixes and one B-side, "It's a Long Way Back to Germany," but this disc's carefully remastered sound makes it sound better than all previous incarnations of the album, highlighting the extent to which the cleaner production complements the group's poppier, slightly more complex new songs.
There aren't many bonus tracks -- only five -- on Rhino's 2001 expanded edition of the Ramones' third album, Rocket to Russia, but it doesn't really matter because the album itself is so good and the presentation is so fine. Like the other editions in Rhino's Ramones reissue series, this has a terrific booklet with the original artwork, full lyrics, plenty of photos, and great notes (this time from Legs McNeil). And while the bonus tracks are a little slight -- single versions of "I Don't Care" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" are nice to have but not drastically different than the album versions, while a previously unreleased version of "Needles & Pins" is charming but rather anemic -- the demo of the non-LP "Slug" is really excellent (but probably too pop for the Ramones in 1977) and it's good to have the U.K. B-side "It's a Long Way Back to Germany" along for the ride. Apart from those two songs, these bonus tracks don't pack the punch of the full concert on Leave Home, nor do they have the historic importance of the tracks on Ramones. But that's minor quibbling, since the music is good, the pRolling Stone (12/11/03, p.105) - Ranked #105 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[T]heir first true studio triumph, an exuberant, polished bottling of the CBGB-stage napalm of RAMONES and LEAVE HOME..."
Q (5/02 SE, p.140) - Included in Q's "100 Best Punk Albums".
Q (8/01, pp.156-7) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Amongst their best work....an effort to appear more accessible....a bit of surfing, a handful of girls and some songs about not being very intelligent..."
Uncut (8/01, p.94) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Sustaining the momentum, 1977's ROCKET TO RUSSIA offers a final lick of polish to the machinery..."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) - Ranked #35 in Mojo's "Top 50 Punk Albums" - "...[With] superior songwriting and production..."
NME (Magazine) (6/23/01, p.41) - 10 out of 10 - "...The most toweringly aggressive, misleadingly primitive, perfectly phrased musical statement ever made....The demos and alternate versions included demonstrate how finely honed every gangly gesture was from the very beginning..."