|
As influential as The Ramones were on music, they never
quite developed the large following that their hook filled
music deserved. No doubt part of that was due to their unusual
“image” and the fact that they were all butt-ugly but the
music itself lingered pulling in successive generations
without reaching the critical mass of some of their contemporaries
such as The Talking Heads. “It’s Alive 1974-1996” follows
the band through out their 22 year history with live performances
of some of their most popular and memorable songs. Like
Devo the Ramones had a subversive sense of humor at the
heart of their songs and captured the attention of sophisticates
without ever managing to tap into the idiot river that dominates
the mainstream of music. They were subversive in their titles
as well. “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and “Sheena is a
Punk Rocker” were straight forward stories that their teenage
fans could relate to. ***
The band’s 22 year history is broken up over two discs
with 64 slices hot, cheesy rock ‘n’ roll made from the band’s
own secret recipe. Locations for the performances vary from
the BBC TV show” The Old Grey Whistle Test” to venues such
as Max’s Kansas City and CGBG’s. ---
Image & Sound:
The quality of the DVD varies quite a bit due to the
various formats, improvement of video over the years and
the aging videotape masters for many of the performances.
It’s still a delight to see the band in raw form (were they
ever in any other form?) as early as 1976 and compares their
performances to the line up from twenty years later. The
older material tends to sound a bit thin lacking the dynamic
range of their much later performances. ---
|
