Customer Reviews

Pleasant Dreams

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A very gossipy liner-note booklet by Ira Robbins accompanies this re-mastering of the Ramones' sixth albulm. Rhino has been packing a lot of goodies into these re-releases, including, in this case, a picture of the original, and far superior, cover to this albulm. That sleeve art depicts a darkly-shadowed image of the band in much the same pose as on 'End of The Century'. It's a more apt image, by far, for this lacking-in-covers moody pop effort.

There are a number of Ramones gems on this albulm. "The KKK..." and "7-11" are classic Joey tunes. "All's Quiet on the Eastern Front" is the mature culimnation of the horror theme of the first four punk albulms. "It's Not My Place" is one of the most catchy, and yet complex, songs that the Ramones ever produced. "We Want The Airwaves" is top-notch rock, and foreshadows some of the brilliant excess of 'Too Tough To Die'. On the other end of the spectrum, Graham Gouldman's production on "She's A Sensation" and "You Sound Like You're Sick" will remind some of 'Century'.

The re-mastering brings out some of the subtleties of the pop production to good effect. After listening to this version, the older release sounds flat and washed-out, an effect that does nothing to compenstate for the restraint Johnny (the guitarist) shows on this albulm. The bonus tracks are exciting for the serious fan. Early versions of "Touring" and "Can't Get You" are satisfying additions to the albulm. The real treat, however, are the Demos left over from the studio session (although it's not nearly all the material originally recorded). Two are Stasium efforts, and, as one would expect, have a classic Ramones sound to them. Debbie Harry's vocals on this version of "Chop Suey" are a great match for Joey's, and make one wonder why this idiosyncratic track should be as forgotten as it was.

This is a not an albulm that is going to have a lot of appeal for the punk fan, who should look earlier, or even later, for a fiercer sound. It is much more a continuing experiment in the '60s-influenced bubblegum that the Ramones' were tearing up in the '70s. This produced some simple fun songs (like "Come On Now"), and those fans who have an appreciation for a surf or pop sound have a chance to enjoy this improved re-release with some valuable Rhino extras.

The years 1980-1983 were not kind to the Ramones. Struggling to find their niche in a sudden sea-change of musical direction known as New Wave, they tried to keep up without compromising themselves and the sound they were known for. Riding the high from their appearance in the film "Rock'n'Roll High School," and the accompanying hit of the same title, they entered into an alliance with legendary producer Phil Spector. Bad move! The resulting album was a dud (though I personally like it well enough), and the next two Ramones efforts struggled to correct their blunder by gaining back the fan base that had eroded.

"Pleasant Dreams" was the first of these efforts ("Subterranean Jungle" is the other). Unfortunately, this is/was the most ignored of all Ramones albums, which is a shame considering just how tasty it really is. Unlike the following "Jungle," which was dark and fierce, reflecting the Ramones' growing frustration, "Pleasant Dreams" is mostly light and well-humored. The Ramones vent some frustration here too, on "We Want the Airwaves" and "This Business is Killing Me." But on the whole, the album features some very mature, bubblegum rock. What I love most about "Pleasant Dreams" is its uniqueness. The album encompasses a style on to its own.

This is very much a Ramones album when listened to carefully, but on the surface, the pop influences stand out boldly. Perhaps it shows the depth of the Ramones' desperation, considering they recruited 10cc'er Graham Gouldman to produce the album. The Ramones will tell you they formed in 1974 to counter the slavishly proudced fare of bands like 10cc; and here they were, conspiring with the art-rock bassist and even dropping a reference to the band on one of the album's songs ("It's Not My Place"). This is perhaps the funniest joke the Ramones ever played, though just how deliberate it was, I can't say.

Other reviews have mentioned that there is a feel of British Invasion to this album, but that's because, even though they recorded it in New York, the Ramones allowed the album to be engineered and mastered in Gouldman's native England. Hence, the album's quasi-British sound.

For many years, this album was unavailable on CD, and I was desperate to have gems such as "All's Quiet on the Eastern Front," "Don't Go," "It's Not My Place (in the 9 to 5 World),"
"She's A Sensation," "You Didn't Mean Anything to Me," and "This Business is Killing Me." It was worth the wait to replace what I'd previously enjoyed on vinyl.

While performing bubblegum pop rock to almost scandalous levels -- at least by the Ramones' hard rock standards -- and granting almost free license to Dick Emerson's keyboards (Emerson provides some tasty piano licks in "This Business ..."), "Pleasant Dreams" is still a recognizable Ramones album. Although the songs are longer and more musically complex than normal for this lightning-fast playing band, the standard straight-forward guitar-bass-drums formula has not been diluted. It is simply sharing the spotlight with lush backing vocals and synths, but is not watered down by it. Witness the nasty feedback linking the songs "You Didn't Mean Anything to Me" and "Come on Now," or the heavy metal riffs of "We Want the Airwaves" or "You Didn't Mean Anything ...," and you will have no doubts.

"Pleasant Dreams" deserved a lot more attention than it got. I was desperate for this album for many years. Other people should have been too.

The Ramones' 1981 album "Pleasant Dreams" followed "End Of the Century," released the previous year. Produced by Phil Spector, that album was one of the punk pioneers' most curious releases and was later labelled by some of the band members themselves as being their worst album. "Pleasant Dreams" however takes much of the departures in sound that were found on "End Of the Century," and puts them back in tune so that they broaden the Ramones' limited sound, while still appreciating their punk essence.
'We Want the Airwaves' is a perfect example; it finds that Johnny Ramone has forgotten the three-chord buzzsaw guitar hooks that were so evident on their debut. The song remains one of his best guitar moments. The album carries on in suitable form with 'All's Quiet On the Eastern Front' and the grin-inducing but repetitve 'The KKK Took My Baby Away.' Joey Ramones' vocals are most flexible on 'It's Not My Place,' while 'You Didn't Mean Anything To Me' and 'This Business is Killing Me' are worthy additions to the band's lexicon.
As with most of the recent re-issues, "Pleasant Dreams" contains a slew of bonus tracks that are surely worth having, while not overbearing the album's original content, which is worth having even on its own. On the bleaker side, "Pleasant Dreams" was a reminder at the time that proved the acts that they had inspired (i.e., the punk bands that ripped them off) were now unrightfully overshadowing their punk forefathers.

Joey Ramone was in the mood to do serious bodily harm to the milquetoast acts getting radio play when PLEASANT DREAMS came out -- especially to Men at Work. At least that's what he told me when I interviewed him on tour.

We talked for two hours in front of a highrise Howard Johnsons hotel. Joey was funny in a dark way and very, very angry that A Flock of Seagulls and Men at Work were somehow getting the air play denied to the Ramones' brilliant pop-punk. And he had every right to be dismayed and worse. PLEASANT DREAMS showcases a band that had fully mastered the essence of great pop -- powerful playing combined with killer hooks and a let's-party attitude.

While all of those qualities are in abundant evidence throughout the album, PLEASANT DREAMS is remarkably varied. There's fizzy power pop (IT'S NOT MY PLACE, COME ON NOW, SHE'S A SENSATION), stomping punk (KKK..., EASTERN FRONT), spidery heavy metal (WE WANT THE AIRWAVES) and a big ballad (7-11).

How radio programmers could ignore all this really should be the focus of a United Nations investigation. Hey, if there are any radio DJs out there who went out of their way to NOT play the Ramones (like the ones at WQDR in Raleigh, NC), please explain why. The Ramones got the last laugh (they're in the Hall of Fame and you're not), but you caused'em a lot of grief and denied your listeners some great music.

Pleasant Dreams is an enigma of a Ramones album. It is the first to feature no cover tunes. It is also the first Ramones album to list individual songwriters, rather than simply crediting them as written by the Ramones.

The band had suffered through the production nightmare of Phil Spector on End of the Century, and for this effort, oddly decided upon former 10cc guitarist Graham Gouldman. At this point, the band was not speaking to each other. Johnny wanted more punk, Joey wanted more pop, Dee Dee didn't want to deal with anyone, and Marky was battling booze. Johnny, who relied on Dee Dee to write lyrics for his music, ultimately lost the battle on the direction of Pleasant Dreams, as it is more pop than punk. But, without Spector, this time it is refreshing and contains some excellent moments (not that EOTC didn't).

"We Want the Airwaves" begins the album with another plea for mainstream acceptance. Very strong song, followed by a Dee Dee composition "All's Quiet on the Eastern Front". A song with an interesting drum beat, and some good vocals by Dee Dee on the chorus. The album highlight follows with "The KKK Took My Baby Away". Punk, to the point, simple lyrics, everything the Ramones embodied! A song that would remain in the live set for the rest of their careers. "Don't Go" is one of Joey's relationship songs, which is highlighted by his nice vocal work, and a killer bridge later in the song. "You Sound Like You're Sick" is a nice punk tune, with some almost doo-wap O-O-Ohhhhs included. "It's Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)" is an autobiographical tune, penned by Joey, and features some nice guitar work by Johnny. In fact, this album has a lot of different sounds as far as Johnny is concerned. Guitar solos, softer picking...I always wondered if someone else came in to play solos- perhaps even Gouldman, but there is no evidence of that in the album credits.

What was side two in the vinyl days, opens with "She's a Sensation". Another poppy tune from Joey which owes more than a bit to the 1960's. "7-11" is one of my favorite Ramones "ballads"...fun lyrics, and poor Joey sounds like he's singing his heart out, especially when he talks about the "Oncoming car, ran out of control/It crushed my baby and it crushed my soul"...Hey you need a sense of humour even in tragedy, right? Dee Dee takes over most of the rest of this album, with a rocking "You Didn't Mean Anything To Me", the poppy-er "Come on Now" and wonderful album closer "Sitting in My Room". Joey's "This Busniess is Killing Me" is not one of my favorite songs in Ramones history, and it is among the few reasons this album won't get 5 stars from I.

Pleasant Dreams is a very entertaining album. It didn't do well on the charts, which was no suprise, and that failure to sell in bunches is what led to the Ramones getting away from caring about commercial success, which we'd see a bit on Subterranean Jungle, and definately on the terrific Too Tough To Die. The added material on the Rhino release is again, a gem!

I've heard alot of Ramones records and often I feel often all the songs just blend together. This album has a fine mix of ballads and fast rockers. You can easily identify most of the songs from each other (a welcome surprise from a Ramones album.) The production is gleaming but really does justice to this collection of songs. You'll be humming the tunes to yourself after a single listen. THE KKK TOOK MY BABY AWAY is my personal favorite by this band.

This soon-to-be-inducted-into-the-Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame act was in a quandry in the early 80's: Could they match the visceral impact of their first four albums while still reaching for the brass ring of a mass audience? Their turn-of-the-80's Phil Specter-produced "End of the Century" did not light up the charts as they had hoped and Johnny/Joey/Markee/Dee Dee were not yet ready to settle for a cult following. Their answer on this disc was to write a batch of higher-than-usual-quality tunes and enlist Graham Gouldman for the production duties. Gouldman had written hits for many of the British Invasion groups (Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits, Hollies) and had co-founded/produced the group 10CC, a band that wracked up several international hits in the 70's.

Graham's production work leaned heavily on vocal harmony, guitar overdubs and echo-ey reverberations of drums. Johnny's guitar and Dee Dee's bass still grind out the foundation on the songs, but the emphasis seems to be on bringing the 50's and 60's Rock elements of their songs to the forefront.

The material touches on some of the usual concerns of this band and rock-n-roll in general: Band/music industry concerns ("We Want the Airwaves", "This Business Is Killing Me" ), Mental health issues("You Sound Like You're Sick"), Boy-longs-for-girl ("Don't Go"), Boy-longs-for-girl-who-dies-in-a-tragic-car-accident ("7-11"), Boy-longs-for-girl-abducted-by-a-racist-organization ("The KKK Took my Baby Away"), Boy-detests-girl ("You Didn't Mean Anything To Me"), etc. Ramones lyrics usually exhibit a fine sense of humor, but most songs on this disc are even a bit funnier than usual, and the 'plot' of some songs follows AM radio hit traditions of the early 60's. Joey name checks his own band in "It's Not My Place...." and even manages another self-referencing moment in "7-11" when he sings "We went down to the record swap/The kids were dancin' to the Blizkrieg Bop".

As in most Ramones songs, the music stays close to the traditional three and four chord Rock-n-Roll structures. "Don't Go" and "7-11" are nearly identical to each other in terms of chord changes. "It's Not My Place (In The Nine-To-Five World)" boasts a middle section that lifts the chords and melody directly from the John Entwistle-penned Who song "Whiskey Man". "You Didn't Mean Anything To Me" segues nicely into "Come On Now" by way of final-chord feedback in the same key. The overall sound of this set of tunes retains both harmonic smoothness and grinding, amp-cranking noisiness, perhaps the best blend of these two elements of any Ramones release.

Alas, the strategy of trying to cultivate a mass following did not work out for the Ramones, and from this disc on they were catering to an ever-dwindling fan base until they hung up the torn jeans and leather jackets in about 1996. Looking back on the 20 year recording career of this group, it's easy to see that their first album/albums were not to be equalled in terms of quality and impact. However, this, their 6th studio release, proved to be the best of the rest of their career. The flow of these songs and extreme catchiness stand up to decades of repeated listenings, and the total package even challenges the monumental first four discs in terms of the overall quality of songs and sounds. If you are seeking to broaden your Ramones appreciation past their essential 70's releases, buy and enjoy this one immediately and for years to come.

My family was on a road trip to New Mexico in early 1991. Somewhere along the way, we spent the night in a cheap motel. Not much on the tube in rural Kansas, but while flipping through the channels, I found Sha Na Na, just as special guests the Ramones began to play "Rock and Roll High School." I had never heard anything like it--I loved it, and as soon as I got back home I went to the local "Karma Records" affiliate and bought Pleasant Dreams. Music was never the same after that. From the "KKK Took my baby Away" to "Sitting in my Room" to "She's a Sensation" the albumn was just loaded with one funny, rocking, great song after another. "7-11" took on great meaning as we had one down the street that was frequently an object of much humor. It wasn't long before I had bought every Ramones albumn that was avalilable. Though I dont think it is their best album now (See--the Ramones, & Rocket To Russia), it inspired me to listen to all kinds of new music like the Sex Pistols, Cramps, Dead Kennedys, Misfits, Stooges, Velvet Underground etc. This record was really the one that started it all. Gabba GAbba HEY!

Normally I might be a little cynical about these re-issue CDs. I bought every Ramones record on vinyl when I was a kid. Then I later bought them on CD, and it wasn't all that long ago. Now they expect me to buy them AGAIN? Is this just a record lable/conglomerate trying to squeeze more money out of a band that never really achieved "financial success" for them? I don't know. What I do know is that these new re-releases are worth every damn penny I paid for them. Each booklet is packed to the gills with great photos and informative retrospectives on what was going on with the band around the time the album was recorded. Best of all, they include outtakes, demo versions, B sides etc. Casual fans should think twice before buying, but if you consider yourself a "Ramones fan" then you really need these re-issues.

Being a long time Ramones fan, I always had a soft spot for this album. I used to call "Pleasant Dreams", along with "End of the Century" and "Subterranean Jungle", the "Ramones Bubblegum Trilogy", being the albums that tried to emulate their 60s influences more explicitly. Pleasant Dreams sounds a wee bit too "sophisticated" at times (some parts even sound like they had ARRANGEMENTS- Yikes!), but it reeks of british invasion, bubblegum by Buddah/Kama Sutra and the like. Which can't really be a bad thing.