If for some reason “Cretin Hop” doesn’t do it for you, “Rockaway Beach” certainly will. There is an ironic subtext here, but we’ll save that discussion for the end of the review. The message that even cretins need to hop is sublimely ridiculous and strangely liberating: just go with it and have a good time! When they get to the call-out “1-2-3-4, cretins want to hop some more/4-5-6-7, all good cretins go to heaven,” shout along with them and I guarantee you that all your troubles will vanish into thin air. I love the silliness of the premise, and god damn I love the way these guys commit to hard-ass driving rock ‘n’ roll. No matter what kind of bullshit I deal with during the workday, I can put on an album like Rocket to Russia and say, “That shit doesn’t matter. They make me move and they make me laugh. I feel so damned good when I listen to the Ramones. What their long career proved was that basic rock ‘n’ roll has eternal life, because when it’s played right and tight, it taps the endless reserves of sexual energy within the human species. There was never any threat that the Ramones would develop beyond their core: it’s impossible to imagine a Ramones equivalent of Sgt. While their arrival did not prevent Saturday Night Fever, the Ramones would re-establish the beachhead for jukebox-style rock ‘n’ roll that would form the structural basis of punk and its variations, and make it possible for other get-back-to-the basics styles like power pop. Get back to the primal urges, strip the lyrics of any traces of pomposity, add a playful sense of humor and create strong hooks so people can sing or shout along while they shake their energy-starved bodies. Keep it simple, keep it moving, kick some ass. No weird time signatures or complex chord patterns. A singer with limited range unlikely to try and wow the crowd with histrionics. A no-frills just-drive-the-fucker-home rhythm section. Two-minute songs played at high-speed with high intensity. Then along came a bunch of guys who named themselves Ramones. While disco allowed people to strut their stuff on the dance floor, it adopted a style of slick production that would render it a lifeless and temporary fix at best for people who really wanted to let loose. Similar to what happened to jazz when Bebop came to the fore, Rock was no longer dance music, which may explain why desperate, latent butt-shakers of the era turned to that abomination known as disco. Yes, rock had come a long way since Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent, but in doing so it had lost touch with its core. While some of the music of the era justified the complexity of production, a lot of it didn’t, and the endless drawn-out jams favored at the time had to be getting tiresome. The music was often seriously overproduced to amp up the drama and the songs tended to be on the long side. Way, way back in the mid-70’s when the rock world began to split into sub-genres like hard rock, progressive rock, glam rock, heavy metal and the like, two common characteristics united the lot. Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.A no-brainer in so many ways.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians. #Ramones rocket to russia how to#
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