The Ramones' Ramones (33 1/3) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A short, richly layered book...both fun to read and filled with meaning. -- About.com, 2005

Filled with history and analysis, making for an entertainingly dense and highfalutin' read... -- Detroit Metro Times, 2005

Like the album it discusses, the book is a short, sweet and intense ride. -- Drastic Plastic Press, 2006

Product Description

What could be more punk rock than a band that never changed, a band that for decades punched out three-minute powerhouses in the style that made them famous? The Ramones’ repetition and attitude inspired a genre, and Ramones set its tone. Nicholas Rombes examines punk history, with the recording of Ramones at its core, in this inspiring and thoroughly researched justification of his obsession with the album.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826416713
• ISBN-13: 978-0826416711
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #361,839 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Thirty Three and a Third Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blitzkrieg Pop: Ramones by Nicholas Rombes, September 12, 2006

By	Damien (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Ramones by Nicholas Rombes is an excellent book for many reasons. Perhaps least of which is that I not only learned something about the Ramones debut, Ramones, but about the origins of punk rock itself. My interest in punk began with my first encounter as a third-grader back in 1987 when a friend and I made a hand-held tape recording of my older brother's of Dead Kennedys's Plastic Surgery Disasters record. That formative experience largely helped shaped what punk has meant to me since then. But, reading Ramones by Nicholas Rombes has provided me a critical history about the four kids from Forrest Hills, Queens whose first album became a flashpoint for punk rock and ultimately has deepened my understanding of what punk is.

The historical, economical, and cultural background Rombes provides puts the Ramones first album in perspective. The Ramones were not a group of flag-burning anarchists nor did they conform to some romanticized, neo-Marxist concept of the people's musicians. No, Rombes explains, the Ramones, who grew up in suburban New York City listening to Elvis Presley, watching B-movies, and reading comic books, actually wanted to make the pop music of 1970s radio better. To improve it, the Ramones spent considerable money, time, and creative effort to faithfully record their first record. Their approach to music was not at all chaotic or destructive as punk rock clichés might suggest. Rombes compellingly argues that contemporary understandings of punk generally misunderstand the origins of punk by extending contemporary ideas concerns backward in time to the mid 1970s. This is an insightful perspective that I never quite would have had if I had not read this book by Nicholas Rombes.

Ramones very well might be probably the first and last academic book on punk music that I will read and rightly so because most anything else would be a disappointment. Ramones by Nicholas Rombes is neither unnecessarily intellectual nor naïve about its subject. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in contemporary music because chances are if you've heard it on the radio, then it's indebted to the Ramones.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Prepare to submit to a calvacade of boredom..., April 29, 2009

By	Nicholas Merchant "Nick Marvalous" (Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A book about the Ramones that isn't worth your time? you got it. Nicholas Rombes has taken one of the most exciting emergences in the history of all music an boiled it down to boring diatribe about the era of punk rock and it's development. As a book about the birth of the punk scene, I would give it about 2 stars. But I was undeer the impression this was going to be the inside story of the Ramones' shot heard arounfd the world. Nope. Just a blandly written essay stretched out into a book. No mention of Seymour Steins' plea to remove the "Nazi Schatzie" lyrics. No mention of how the Ramones' volume destroyed the equipment. Not even a brief description of how Johnny and Dee Dee would carry their instruments around in shopping bags. No. Just pure art-house goon dribble. You suck, Nicholas Rombes and so does your book. You're not punk. you're a tourist.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad read but little is about the album, September 4, 2006

By	Paul Clarkson (Walnut Creek, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Barely a third of the book's 106 pages are devoted to an in-depth discussion of the Ramones' debut album, "Ramones." The rest of the book is devoted to the early history of the punk movement in the US (and New York City in particular) and a fairly academic discussion of what the term "punk" meant in the mid-70's versus what it came to mean later.

This book is an interesting read, but I'm giving it a 3-star rating because, unlike many other titles in the 33 1/3 series, it is NOT primarily focused on the album it is devoted to.