It's 2024, the Ramones played their first show 50 years ago, their story has been told and retold in many ways, everyone knows everything about the Queens quartet and has listened to all their albums. So why, Mr. Editor, put something of theirs on the PCP?
Because Ramones is awesome. The end! And because maybe, just maybe, not everyone knows that a year before the homonymous debut in April 76 there was a demo album. And its story is very simple and quick, just like the music of the guys who taught me how to live this rock and roll shit.
A journalist named Lisa Anderson saw the band at CBGB in early 1975 and went crazy over them (who wouldn't?), so crazy that she started promoting the band wherever she could, until she spoke to Danny Fields – the man who among many other things got Elektra signed Stooges e MC5 – to manage them; he agreed, and to have something in hand he took the kids to two studios, Dick Charles Recording Inc. and 914 Sound Studios (in the latter with Marty Thau, who would later co-produce the debut of Suicide). Fourteen songs came out of these sessions.
The demo was then taken by Sire Records talent scout Craig Leon to the label's president, Seymour Stein, who bought the idea from his A&R and thus the Ramones signed a 5-year contract. The rest, as said, everyone already knows.
As far as I know Demos 1975 officially saw the light of day in 2021 and now in 2024 it was re-released on Record Store Day with one less track (“I don't wanna go down to the basement”). I made or tried to make a playlist on YouTube with the 'original' version, so for those who have never heard the even rawer versions of classics like “Judy is a punk” and “Now I wanna sniff some glue”, now is the time.
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Source: https://pequenosclassicosperdidos.com.br/2024/09/10/ramones-demos-1975-2021/
