“In 128 pages, Nicholas Rombes confronts some of our most closely held ideas about punk in general and the Ramones in particular: that they were poor kids from bad neighborhoods, that they rebelled against traditional notions of success in the rock industry, that they invented punk, that their use of swastikas and other questionable imagery can or should be easily explained. That he’s not susceptible to the band’s enduring myths makes his analysis that much more precise and allows him to describe the songs with the verve of a true fan.” ―Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork
“The nifty 33 1/3 book series publishes cool little books that dive deep into individual canonical rock ‘n’ roll albums. Ramones/Ramones is undoubtedly a worthy addition to their catalog. … Rombes does a concise job of laying out a solid thesis (complete with a chart), detailing the various early waves of punk (or new wave, as the terms are proved interchangeable) and approaching these topics in a thoughtful but fun way. … This book got me thinking about this culture in ways I never had before.” ―Critical Angst
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When I sat down to write about the album s opening song, “Blitzkreig Bop,” my first line was “This is the best opening song to any rock album.” Then I decided that sounded too creepily fanatic and more than a little disingenuous, since I haven’t heard every rock album ever made, and I took it out. But then I went downstairs to the turntable and played it and midway through ran back upstairs and put the line back in even before the screensaver clicked in. Here s why: “Blitzkrieg Bop” succeeds not only as a song in its own right, but also as a promise kept. The songs that follow live up to the speed, humor, menace, absurdity, and mystery of that first song, whose opening lines “Hey ho, let’s go” offer not so much a warning as an invitation to the listener, an invitation and a threat that the song isn t a fluke or a one-off, but that it sets the stage for an entire album that will be fast and loud.
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