Customer Reviews

Lifestyles of the Ramones [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This video includes twelve CLASSIC Ramones videos from 1980 to 1990: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?, Rock 'n' Roll High School, We Want the Airwaves, Psycho Therapy, Time Has Come Today, Howling At The Moon (Sha-La-La), Something To Believe In, I Wanna Live, I Wanna Be Sedated, Pet Semetary, Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) and I Believe in Miracles. BUT WAIT -- THERE'S MORE! Commentary by Debbie Harry, Anthrax, Vernon Reid, Little Steven, all the Talking Heads except David Byrne, Vin Scelsa, Joey's mom, Howie Klein, Seymour Stein, Chris Issak, plus Joey, Marky and CJ themselves. It's fun watching the quality of the videos evolve from a buncha kids messing around with a camera to inspired mini-indie films. Don't be surprised if a shiver travels down your spine watching Joey climb into a single engine plane emblazoned with Buddy Holly's name in "I Wanna Live" or crawl into an open grave in "Pet Semetary" (R.I.P. Jeffry Hyman). Alas, this video was released before the videos for Spiderman, Substitute and Cabbies on Crack were made, but hey, gotta save something for volume 2, right? (are you listening George?) Admit it -- you gotta have this in your collection. Don't wait until it's out of print and costs $40 on an online auction!

Yes, it might sound strange at first, but don't be fooled, this was truly a great Ramones video. It was the first non-bootleg video about The Ramones- including interviews with friends, fans, and all previous to 91' music videos from them. Though, it was tough at first for me to know what I was watching and doing, since I got the DVD version of this movie from Brazil.

Where can I start- ah, the interviews. The interviews stretch all the way from Joey Ramone, to Chris Isaak. Many friends come in and voice there opinion about The Ramones- how they relate to them, how they [might] have influenced them, and what they [may have] experienced with them. The cameras get shots with all the current members at that time- Joey, Johnny, CJ, and Marky. They reveal little facts that were mainly already known, but they don't dive into their home lives or anything though. The only real outside The Ramones thing that was shown was Marky's love for working on cars. Other than that, a little of Johnny's love for baseball (known by most at that point). While the interviews do get boring after a watch or to, the music videos make up for all of that.

After compiling all of the pre-91' videos, the film company came up with quite a bit of footage- including the very rare video "We Want the Airwaves". How the company ever found all the videos, I don't know, but they did good. They iinclude all of the classics such as: "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?", "Rock 'N' Roll High School", "I Wanna Be Sedated", "I Wanna Live", and "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight". While bringing in other rarer clips as "We Want the Airwaves" and "I Believe in Miracles". Speaking of "We Want the Airwaves"- this is the Ramones video so cheap and easily made (no offense guys), it's almsot funny :). The main showcase to the whole video, is The Ramones standing on the top of a building, playing, and miscellaneous shots of planes flying. It was latered revealed [in one of The Ramones books] that the video was actually made by a group of college video-photography students hired by Sire to put out a quick video, to try to get The Ramones into mainstream. Nice try, but "Rock 'N' Roll High School" looked just fine to me :).

Anyways, it was nice of the company, and The Band, to try and let us in on some things, but like the Jim Bessman book "Ramones: An American Band", this movie was made a bit early, and missed out on some later to come videos such as "Poison Heart" and "Substitute", and missed out on including Dee Dee King's (Dee Dee's rapping name) video single- "Funky Man"- part of which is featured in "RAW", but other than that, is the hardest to find Ramones video in total completion.

This video received a 4/5; though, if it was just a group of interviews, would have received a 1 or 2, as they provided no real concrete information about The Ramones. But, the videos saved the movie's tail on this one- and hiked the rating from me up quite a bit. I recommend this after seeing "RAW" and/or the final Ramones show extra vid: "We're Outta Here"- it catches the interviews in real-life times, whether outside the final show, or at a person's house, it still dives into the real side of the people. Though, it clocks in around 2 hours.

So, I say that this isn't just for Ramones' true fansd, but for all who want to see Ramones "true" lifestyles, and the videos made for them up until 1991. Also, this includes a bonus track on the ending credits- "Ramones-on-45! 'I Wanna Be Sedated' Remix". It can befound a few places on the net, check it out if you can.

Thanks for reading, "Gabba Gabba Hey", and "Have A Nice Day",

Mikey.

They showed a lot of this footage at the Joey Rmaone Birthday bash,so if you missed that event, get it here! This is great stuff - great videos with really cool commentary. My favorite comment was from Tina Weymouth, who said that promoters used to complain about the length of the Ramones' set, stating that the contract said they were to play for an hour, to which it was answered, "but the ramones play an hours worth of music in 45 minutes". The video is an hour or so, but there is much more material here than that!

This is one of the better professionally made Ramones videos. Mostly because it has a lot of their videos on it. Some interviews. Pretty good. But how good does a video of the Ramones need to be for you to buy it? They are the Ramones! And they are good little bunnies with fluffy ears and tails!

This is great stuff for Ramones lovers and that's quite a lot of 'em nowadays since they're gone by now. To be brief this is a "red book" for fans and those who want to be one.

If you missed the videos from the classic Ramones videos this is your video! Great for Ramones fans but I guess nothing for an outsider. Nevertheless top class if you love the Ramones.

This is an excellent tape of classic ramones circa 1990 line up. The DVD version is now included in the "Wierd Tales of The Ramones" with 6 other videos added from after the original release. This is great, gives a blow by blow history of the ramones, and shows great behind the scenes looks into the personalities of the band. There are 12 videos, as listed here:
Do You Remember,Rock 'n' Roll Radio,Rock 'n' Roll High School,We Want the Airwaves,Psycho Therapy,Time Has Come Today,Howling at the Moon
Something to Believe In,I Wanna Live, I Wanna be Sedated, Pet Semetary, Merry Christmas, I Believe In Miracles.

This is a great score, airtime is 60 minutes, and you will not be dissapointed. Great streat up New York Rock n Roll!!!