And it all whizzes by – again – in less than 30 minutes. While everything about “Ramones” suggests a stark photo negative, “Leave Home” (a self-fulfilling title if there ever was one) is its full-color Polaroid counterpart, everything from the cover to the production (this time by Tony Bongiovi and drummer Tommy, along with the initial appearance of “Sixth Ramone,” engineer Ed Stasium) to the songwriting bursting forth in a supernova of inspiration.

How they managed to make it all work so beautifully beggars belief, even if they inadvertently stumbled onto it somehow. Let’s face it: as much rhetoric that gets thrown around about The Ramones pedigree as punk royalty, they were essentially a pop group with leather jackets, torn jeans, three chords, Marshall stacks, Mosrite guitars, and a brace of great songs about microcephaly, chain saws, better living through chemistry, Nazi Germany, and girls. With the dirty business of returning real rock and roll to the fans and changing the music biz - if not the world (hey, why not aim for the stars?) – well under way, and armed with a heftier budget and afforded more artistic control by Sire than the first time around, The Ramones return a mere ten months after their eponymous debut with “Leave Home,” comprised of an additional 14 songs they had written prior to being signed to Sire.Īs wonderful as the first album is, this one is a step up in all departments, the band perfecting the big old shout-along chorus, the science of the hook, and the art of writing a great pop song.

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