RAMONES "END OF THE CENTURY" SIRE 1980 NM-/NM W/INNER SLEEVE L.A. PRESSING OOP

$

29

TWO YEARS AGO I LOST ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS TO CANCER, HE WAS A COOL MUSICIAN A DRUMMER BY TRADE, ORIGINALLY FROM SEATTLE, BUT RELOCATED TO L.A. IN 1985, HE AMASSED A VERY LARGE MUSIC COLLECTION, AND HAD KILLER TASTE FOR ROCK & ROLL, SADLY I AM SELLING OFF A LOT OF HIS COLLECTION ON BEHALF OF HIS WIDOW TO HELP PAY OFF DEBTS INCLUDING HOSPITAL BILLS, TAXES AND STORAGE UNIT FEES. I AM NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR THIS SERVICE, DOING IT FOR MY FRIEND (MISS YOU DAVE!). THIS ITEM IS FROM HIS COLLECTION.

THE PHOTO'S MAY BE A LITTLE BLURRY, HAVE A LITTLE GLARE, SOME REFLECTIONS OR IN SOME CASES YOU MAY SEE SPECKS OF DUST. BUT THE PHOTO'S ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM YOU ARE BIDDING ON. I DO COMBINE SHIPPING.

THESE ARE VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED.

ARTISTS: RAMONES

TITLE: “END OF THE CENTURY”

TRACK LISTING: SEE BELOW

Companies, etc.

• Recorded At – Gold Star Studios
• Recorded At – Excalibur Studios
• Recorded At – Devonshire Studios
• Recorded At – Salty Dog Studios
• Recorded At – Original Sound Studio
• Mastered At – Amigo Studios
• Marketed By – Warner Bros. Records Inc.
• Copyright (c) – Sire Records Company
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Sire Records Company
• Produced For – Phil Spector Productions
• Published By – Bleu Disque Music Co., Inc.
• Published By – Taco Tunes
• Published By – Mother Bertha Music, Inc.
• Published By – Trio Music Co., Inc.
• Pressed By – Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Los Angeles

Credits

• Art Direction – John Gillespie (3)
• Bass – Dee Dee Ramone
• Design [Album] – Spencer Drate
• Drums – Marky Ramone
• Engineer – Boris Menart, Larry Levine
• Engineer [Assistant] – Bruce Gold
• Guitar – Johnny Ramone
• Mastered By – PB*
• Other [Musical Director] – Ed Stasium
• Other [Production Coordinator] – Donna Sekulidis
• Photography By – Mick Rock
• Piano, Organ – Barry Goldberg
• Producer – Phil Spector
• Saxophone – Steve Douglas
• Vocals – Joey Ramone
• Written-By – Ramones (tracks: A1 to A6, B2 to B6)

Notes

LABEL: SIRE RECORDS

CAT.#: SRK-6077

YEAR: 1980

RECORD CONDITION: THE RECORD (VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED). IS IN NM- CONDITION (UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED). NO LINES, SCRATCHES, SMEARS, SMUDGES ETC. THE VINYL HAS A NICE SHINEY BLACK LUSTER. BOTH LABELS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. THE SONGS PLAY SUPER CLEAN. THIS WOULD BE NM+, BUT THERE IS ONE CLICK/POP, ON THE LEAD IN GROOVE ON THE "B" SIDE, THE ONLY THING AT ALL TO MARK IT DOWN.

SLEEVE CONDITION: IS IN EX/NM CONDITION. NICE CLEAN STRAIGHT EDGES. NO RIPS, TEARS, WRITING, SEAM SPLITS ETC.

OTHER INFO: THIS RECORD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT. INCLUDES THE ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE WITH LYRICS. MATRIX # “SRK-2-6077-RC1- LW1 AMIGO-PD”.

ARTIST INFO:

The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first band to define the punk rock sound. Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was vastly influential in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", although none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By 2014, all four of the band's original members had died – lead singer Joey Ramone (1951–2001), bass guitarist Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949–2014).

Recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now mentioned in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as number 26 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time] and number 17 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin magazine, trailing only the Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the original four members and Tommy's replacement on drums, Marky Ramone, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on their first year of eligibility, though Joey had died by then. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Ramones recorded their debut album, Ramones, in April 1976. Of the fourteen songs on the album, the longest, "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", barely surpassed two and a half minutes. While the songwriting credits were shared by the entire band, Dee Dee was the primary writer. The Ramones album was produced by Sire's Craig Leon, with Tommy as associate producer, on an extremely low budget of about $6,400 and released in April. The now iconic front cover photograph of the band was taken by Roberta Bayley, a photographer for Punk magazine. Punk, which was largely responsible for codifying the term for the scene emerging around CBGB, ran a cover story on the Ramones in its third issue, the same month as the record's release.

The Ramones' debut LP was greeted by rock critics with glowing reviews. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau wrote, "I love this record—love it—even though I know these boys flirt with images of brutality (Nazi especially)... For me, it blows everything else off the radio". In Rolling Stone, Paul Nelson described it as "constructed almost entirely of rhythm tracks of an exhilarating intensity rock & roll has not experienced since its earliest days." Characterizing the band as "authentic American primitives whose work has to be heard to be understood", he declared, "It is time popular music followed the other arts in honoring its primitives." Newsday's Wayne Robbins simply anointed the Ramones as "the best young rock 'n' roll band in the known universe."

Despite Sire's high hopes for it, Ramones was not a commercial success, reaching only number 111 on the Billboard album chart. The two singles issued from the album, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", failed to chart. At the band's first major performance outside of New York, a June date in Youngstown, Ohio, members of Cleveland punk legends Frankenstein aka the Dead Boys were present and struck up a friendship with the band.[43] It wasn't until they made a brief tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor; a performance at the Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976, second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies, organized by Linda Stein, was a resounding success. T-Rex leader Marc Bolan was in attendance at the Roundhouse show and was invited on stage. Their Roundhouse appearance and a club date the following night—where the band met members of the Sex Pistols and the Clash—helped galvanize the burgeoning UK punk rock scene. The Flamin' Groovies/Ramones double bill was successfully reprised at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles the following month, fueling the punk scene there as well. The Ramones were becoming an increasingly popular live act—a Toronto performance in September energized yet another growing punk scene.

End of the Century is the fifth studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, released on February 4, 1980, through Sire Records. The album was the band's first produced by Phil Spector, though he had offered the band his assistance earlier in their career. With Spector fully producing the album, it was the first release that excluded original member Tommy Ramone, who in 1978 left the band but produced their previous album Road to Ruin. Spector used more advanced standards of engineering, such as high-quality overdubbing and echo chambers. These methods caused conflict between the band and Spector since much of the recording used techniques that opposed those the Ramones had previously used. Spector emphasized the production value as well, working with a budget of around $200,000.

The songs on End of the Century were written primarily to expand the band's fan-base, straying from the band's original punk genre and steering toward a more pop oriented sound. The lyrics on the album deal with various different things, ranging from drug addictions to the band's lifestyle while touring. The album also features a cover of The Ronettes' piece "Baby, I Love You", as well as successors to previous Ramones songs "Judy Is a Punk" and "Havana Affair".

It received generally positive reviews from critics, though many reviewers deemed it to be less favorable compared to the band's previous releases, due to Spector's production quality and the band's desire for mainstream success starting to show in their music, according to critics. Despite this, the album is the highest charting Ramones album of all time, reaching number 44 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and number 14 on the UK Albums Chart. End of the Century spawned the singles "Baby, I Love You" and "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?," both of which charted in Europe.

Recording and production[edit]

In February 1977 after attending a Ramones concert in Los Angeles, music producer Phil Spector offered to assist in making Rocket to Russia. The band declined his offer, feeling as though the album would not be the same without Tommy Ramone and Tony Bongiovi producing the album.While the band refused his initial offer, they later asked Spector to help with the album because of their lack of popularity and sales. End of the Century would be the first album released without former drummer and producer Tommy. Spector had become famous through his work with The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, The Beatles and John Lennon, among others. With these releases, Spector defined what would become known as the "Wall of Sound", which is a dense, layered, and reverberant sound that came across well on AM radio and jukeboxes. These standards are created through instruments performing identical parts in unison, using high-quality overdubbing and echo chambers to aid in the production value. The producer was convinced that the Ramones had talent with lyrics and musical structure, so he intended to promote the band through more advanced methods of sound output. 

Recording sessions for the album began on May 1, 1979 at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Gold Star Studios had become famous through its history with artists like Eddie Cochran and the Beach Boys. At the Ramones' request, Ed Stasium helped with the album's engineering During the studio work, Spector's recording methods were different from those the Ramones were accustomed to from their four previous studio albums. The band recorded their earlier compositions in the shortest time possible for the lowest feasible budget, with a relatively low production value. With End of the Century, the band experienced Spector's infamous perfectionism, and a budget of $200,000 to fully record and produce the album. This is significant because the band's debut album cost $6,400 total, and their second album cost $10,000. End of the Century is the most expensive album in the Ramones' career.

Conflict[edit]

This method of recording caused conflicts to arise. Bassist Dee Dee Ramone wrote of Spector's obsessive techniques: "Phil would sit in the control room and would listen through the headphones to Marky hit one note on the drum, hour after hour, after hour, after hour." During the recording of "Rock 'n' Roll High School", Johnny was forced by Spector to repeat his part hundreds of times over the course of several hours. Sire Records owner Seymour Stein relates: "To Johnny, this must have been like the Chinese water torture." "I understood [Spector's] attitude," said Marky. "He was from The Bronx, I was from Brooklyn. We got along very well and had a nice rapport… But he had his way of working that was very slow, and the Ramones had their way of working which was very fast. So that would sometimes irk everybody, and led to animosity with Johnny and Dee Dee." 

Early in the sessions, Spector reportedly held the Ramones hostage at gunpoint. According to Dee Dee, when Spector took Joey away for a three-hour private meeting somewhere in his mansion where the album was to be recorded, Dee Dee went looking for them. "The next thing I knew Phil appeared at the top of the staircase, shouting and waving a pistol." 

He levelled his gun at my heart and then motioned for me and the rest of the band to get back in the piano room ... He only holstered his pistol when he felt secure that his bodyguards could take over. Then he sat down at his black concert piano and made us listen to him play and sing "Baby, I Love You" until well after 4:30 in the morning.

However, in 2008, Marky Ramone stated: "There were no guns pointed at anybody. They [guns] were there but he had a license to carry. He never held us hostage. We could have left at any time."

Dee Dee claimed to have left the sessions without recording anything. "We had been working for at least fourteen or fifteen hours a day for thirteen days straight and we still hadn't recorded one note of music," he wrote in his autobiography. After supposedly hearing that Johnny had returned to New York, Dee Dee wrote that he and Marky Ramone booked a flight and returned home as well. "To this day, I still have no idea how they made the album End of the Century, or who actually played bass on it." Dee Dee's account contradicts much of the band's collective account from the 1982 Trouser Press interview, where the band stated that the only track that Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky did not play on was the cover of "Baby, I Love You"; as the band, save for Joey, had gone home after cutting basic tracks for the rest of the album.

Compositions[edit]

End of the Century was described by the band as an album written solely to gain popularity, resulting in more of a pop punk sound. Joey failed to contribute to the best of his abilities on the album and recalled: "I think that some of the worst crap I ever wrote went on the album. That was me at my worst." Johnny also felt that the album was far from the band's prime. 

End of the Century was just watered-down Ramones. It's not real Ramones. 'Baby, I Love You'—I didn't play on that at all. What am I gonna do—play along with an orchestra? There's no point. End of the Century was trying to get a hit on each song, instead of trying to get a hit on one or two of the songs on the album and trying to make the rest as raunchy as you can. They ain't gonna play the other ten songs, anyway.

The album opens with "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?", a throwback to the rock music of the 1950s to late 1960s. The lyrics name several famous musicians of this era, including Jerry Lee Lewis, John Lennon, and T. Rex, and also cite The Ed Sullivan Show. Many instruments that were previously rarely—if ever—used in punk rock were featured in the song's score, including the saxophone and electronic organ. The lyrics, written by Dee Dee, depict his childhood in Germany where he would secretly listen to rock radio stations at night.

Johnny's part is not heard on the next track, "I'm Affected", as reported by Johnny himself. Joey admitted that he did not favor the song, recalling: "I couldn't believe how awful it sounded. It was horrible."[17] "Danny Says", the third track, was a lyrical depiction of what the band constantly went through while touring—soundchecks, autograph sessions, interviews, etc. The title "Danny Says" refers to the band's tour manager Danny Fields giving the members instructions, schedules, and demands. According to Joey, the ballad was inspired by Lou Reed, who had released the songs "Candy Says" and "Caroline Says".Joey's brother Mickey Leigh called the song a "masterpiece" and said it "remains one of the most captivatingly beautiful songs I've ever heard."

Dee Dee wrote the next piece, "Chinese Rock", in 1976, and Johnny Thunders later revised it. Dee Dee wrote the piece in response to Lou Reed's "Heroin", and attempted to concoct better lyrics on the same subject of drug use and heroin addiction. After Johnny vetoed the song, it was recorded by Thunder's band The Heartbreakers before the Ramones, though the bands use slightly different words. The lyrics deal with the daily life of a heroin addict, and the term "Chinese Rock" is a euphemism for the drug. "The Return of Jackie and Judy" is a continuation to one of the band's earlier songs, "Judy is a Punk", which was released on their debut album Ramones. There were numerous studio guests involved in the album's recording, including producer/musicians, Dan Kessel and David Kessel, and California disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer. 

Side B begins with "Baby, I Love You". Johnny constantly claims in his book Commando that he hated the song and the band didn't even play on it, only Joey and some studio musicians. Joey exclaimed that he "hated" the song, despite it obtaining a level of popularity in Europe. The song is a cover version of the original by The Ronettes, and contained a string section arrangement that Leigh deemed "gooey" and that it "sounded right out of Redbone's 'Come and Get Your Love.'" He also confessed that the song "almost made [him] embarrassed.] "Rock 'n' Roll High School" originally appeared on the soundtrack to Rock 'n' Roll High School, a film directed by Allan Arkush. The movie depicts a story line in which the Ramones are obsessed over by female high school student Riff Randell along with other pupils attending the school. The album concludes with "High Risk Insurance", which is a reaction to politics of that era. 

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