Don't Leave Home Without Them

While everyone was doin' a li'l dance,
makin' a li'l love and gettin' down tonight,
a sort-of underground movement of movers and shakers were rockin' and rollin' right under their coke-stained noses.. and the Ramones were at the eye of this electrically-charged storm.

The one.
The only.
Ramones.

Many merely remember this fearsome foursome as the guys with the messy long hair, leather jackets n' shades, torn jeans and sneakers and the loud guitars. I saw them first, way before I finally got to hear them. Rarely does a band come along that dresses as
snazzily as they sound. Snarly would be a more apt term. Fashion goes hand in hand with music. It's the norm. The public were half-right in remembering the image burnt into memory.
But they left out the most vital element of the buzzsaw equation..
The songs.
The music.

Little did anyone realize Joey, Johnny, DeeDee and Marky
set out to become what they thought as America's answer to the Bay City Rollers.
On glue, probably.
Looks like the boys got more than they bargained for.

Leave Home is a worthy sophomore effort.
You can hear the Ramones sound coming to its fore.
Compared to the groundbreaking debut, the tunes are gaining speed and momentum,
like a derailed express train on a collision course with destiny.
With genuine pop sense ("Glad To See You Go" and "Oh Oh I Love Her So")
and crushing killzone instinct ("Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and the Gabbalicious "Pinhead") even in their choice of covers (Joe Jones' "California Sun")
the boys from the Bowery knew how to rock, in only two speeds: Fast.. and faster.

Uncompromising.
Direct and in your face.
The way rock n' roll's supposed to be.
Gabba Gabba Hey!