We're A Happy Family: A Tribute to The Ramones

1) Havana Affair- Red Hot Chilli Peppers 2) Blitzkrieg Bop- Rob Zombie 3) I Believe in Miracles- Eddie Vedder & Zeke 4) 53rd and 3rd- Metallica 5) Beat on the Brat- U2 6) Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?- Kiss 7) The KKK Took my Baby Away- Marilyn Manson 8) I Just Wanna Have Something to Do- Garbage 9) Outsider- Green Day 10) Something to Believe in 11) Sheena is a Punk Rocker- Rancid 12) I Just Wanna be Your Boyfriend- Peter Yorn 13) I Wanna be Sedated- The Offspring 14) Here Today, Gone Tomorrow- Rooney 15) Return of Jackie & Judy- Tom Waits [BONUS TRACKS] 16) Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)- Eddie Vedder & Zeke 17) Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World- John Frusciante 

So debatably The Ramones started the punk rock genre of music. Now that I’ve started with that ‘important’ yet hackneyed opening sentence stating The Ramones importance I can talk about how much I like them. True I don’t listen to them much anymore but The Ramones really were a great band. Unique, catchy, DIY and most importantly fun as hell. And obviously completely deserving of a tribute album. But deserving of this one?

Well on the whole I’d say yes. To start with it’s filled with big named artists. Of course that’s no sign of artistic merit but hell it’s enough to give the album some relevance. However aside from that it’s fairly decent. Johnny Ramone in all his humbleness supervised it and smartly told the bands involved to do their own thing with it, because who wants to listen to a bunch of Ramones tributes that sounds like The Ramones?

So on the one hand this gives the album quite a bit of diversity. This is immediately evident with the first song which is a cover of Havana Affair by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I’m really not a fan of RHCP but this is a pretty solid cover. They go for a reggaeish tempo though it's really more laidback rock music. The guitar playing is laconic and clean but a nice crunchy riff shows up at some points. Anthony Kiedis’ vocals don’t do anything for me and the keyboard tone is pretty cheesy but hey Johnny Ramone liked it enough to put it as the first song.

On the other hand this can be a tad hindrancesome. So to get to the most negative portion of the review this, um, ‘originality’ really backfires with two tracks. I’m talking specifically about Rob Zombie’s cover of Blitzkrieg Bop and Marilyn Manson’s cover of The KKK Took my Baby Away. They appear to do their own thing with it until you remember the unoriginality of making bad music. That was cheap but I stand by it. Also I swear I went into this with an open mind, I didn’t set out to hate these. I was optimistic! Anyway in trying to put my thoughts on the Zombie song in a more concrete manner I realised maybe it would be wiser to give the visceral reaction from my notes:

“Hey it’s the Ramones most iconic song and the guy who directed the Halloween remake! So far it’s pretty unrecognisable. It barely sounds like the original riff. Oh Christ this is awful. Tuneless shouty vocals trying to sound glammy, generic hard rock guitar playing and an overall hilarious ‘tough' guy vibe. Ersatz shit. THIS IS FUCKING AWFUL. I think the guitar solo wandered over from a hair metal tribute album. Sluggish tempo, football hooligan asshole shouting the title, y’know, The Ramones! Really unpleasant and funny. Like watching a clown get run over." 

Fortunately Manson’s cover is awful in a more conventional way. Manson, having a reputation for doing serious music figures this is the best approach for covering The Ramones. Look, I’m all for artists trying to put their own visions on things, Christ I think it’s the best recipe for the potentially great tribute albums out there, but in doing so Manson completely misses the essence of The Ramones. Punk! Pop! He has slightly orchestral backing going on, plodding solemn piano playing and the vocals kind of stangle whispered in an attempt to sound…sexy? Ironically the original song- which was upbeat powerpop- manages to sound a lot more emotional due to the contrast between Joey’s tone and the happy music. It feels more honest. This feels contrived and dull.

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame and a band called Zeke do two covers, one a bonus track. They're both pretty good! Especially I Believe in Miracles. The backing music is bright and catchy, the vocals are passionate and...um...why does there always have to be a second description with me? Anyway the song is basically a mixture of hard and alternative rock but it's punkish enough. Oh and there's a Kiss cover. It's good but I can't help quoting what I said to Franco when listening to it: 

"Y'know re-listening to this Kiss cover it feels almost cruel. The Ramones- a band that strived for success whilst debatably creating a new genre of music and finding no success- being covered by Kiss, a band that done nothing new, were blatant about their love of money and became filthy fucking rich" 

Ideology aside the cover is nice but pretty obnoxious. 

I've always considered- and I know I'm not alone in this- Metallica the U2 of the metal world, so it's fitting that their covers are right next to each other. Metallica cover 53^rd and 3^rd. They manage to do it pretty well in the music department, which doesn't stray too far from the original- maybe a bit heavier and less street tough- but still punkish. The problem is with the vocals, James Hetfield doesn’t make any attempt to adjust to this, sounding like he should be singing over Metallica’s typically cluttered heavy proggish metal. It's not terrible but he does sound a bit silly. Same problem with U2 really. The band actually does a somewhat convincing punk impression but Bono still sounds like he’s singing Where The Streets Have no Name. They’re both enjoyable and worthwhile covers though.

You couldn't do a Ramones tribute album without some punk band though! Of course this results in songs that sound much closer to the original versions but there's nothing particularly wrong with this. The bands I'm referring to are Green Day, Rancid and The Offspring. I would call them the Pop Punk bands except I’ve never heard Rancid described that way. This might actually make sense as their cover of Sheena is a Punk Rocker really doesn't work for me. They miss the fun of the song, it sounds unpleasant and self-serious. They’re still playing Pop Punk but with none of the levity, so it creates a potentially interesting juxtaposition, though fails. I know Rancid are Clash enthusiasts but you can’t treat The Ramones that way, which is what is seems like they’re attempting. It just seems rushed and paradoxically bombastic. The Offspring- a much more maligned band- for this reason in my opinion do a better cover (of I Wanna be Sedated), because they don’t take it so seriously and play it with the right amount of fun, so you end up feeling they greatly enjoyed playing it. It’s still not exactly a great cover and I’ve already forgotten it (their version) but it’s a nice experience while it’s on. Green Day do Outsider which I still remember! It’s a really good cover. Pretty similar to the original but much more teenagery.

I feel pretty safe in calling Tom Waits cover of Return of Jack & Judy. He takes a good but somewhat gimmicky Ramones song and does it as a Tom Waits song. Tom Waits is awesome! Bumpy percussion, bluesy growly singing, distorted meaty guitar playing and an overall rollicking and unstable atmosphere. Another great cover- and one which I didn’t initially appreciate- is Rooney’s version of Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. The singer is earnestly emotional, there’s punky rhythm guitar playing, lead guitar that sounds like it could have come from a particularly moody new wave album. The song manages to build up these great moments of catharsis but in a sweet pining way which makes it more heartfelt. It’s great bit of melancholic powerpop.

The album ends with a John Frusciante cover of Today your Love, Tomorrow the World. I've not heard any of the guys solo albums but I find this cover quite enjoyable. It's lo-fi acoustic guitar based music which sounds pretty eerie whilst retaining that patented Ramones melody. At the risk of appearing hipsterish I'm going to say I like this cover. 

So, although the album definitely has its low points and generally unmemorable points when I think about it in aggregate I’d definitely recommend it. It works stunningly well as whole and there’s even a few individually great songs to enhance it. Unfortunately it’s not on Spotify but buy (ordownload) it and you’ll have a good hours’ worth of mixed entertainment.