Fake singles part four – the dutch Do you wanna dance?

I couldn't help notice that someone was selling the bootleg of this release as a "mega rare dutch single". On purpose or not, I don't know. But given the winning bid the buyer must have thought that this was the original pressing.

The single was released in Holland in 1978 and has a great live photo on the sleeve. It's quite hard to find today and it seems like a lot of the records was distributed to Sweden, a lot of the used copies over the years have been sold by swedish sellers.
I think the bootleg is a swedish pressing too. The easiest way to tell the difference is by looking at the label. The original pressing have a big centre hole. But you can also see the difference by looking at the sleeve. The original sleeve is wider, if you don't see the third tuning screw on Dee Dee base it is the fake sleeve. Klick the picture above.

Here is the "real" release. By the way, I have a decent extra copy of the original single up for trade. Send me a mail if you are interested.
ramonesonvinyl@gmail.com

Songs: Do you wanna dance?/It's a long way back to Germany

Number: Philips 6078 521

Year: 1978

Country: Netherlands

Canada part one – the GRT years

Under the early years before Warner acquired Sire records in 1978 the distribution was in the hands of ABC records in the U.S. and Phonogram i most parts of the rest of the world – but not in Canada. Here the Ramones releases was distributed by GRT of Canada Ltd. GRT stands for General Record & Tape and was a division of GRT of California between 1969 and 1979. 
"GRT in Canada acted very independently. The American company was primarily distributing tapes (8 tracks, cassettes, reel-to-reel) while the Canadian company signed Canadian acts and distributed labels like Sire in Canada which were not distributed by GRT in the States", a former Promotion Manager for GRT records in Canada tells me.
The Ramones did not sell very well in the country.
"Except for myself they were not promoted or promoted very lightly in Canada", he says. 
The first three albums and three singles came out on Sire/GRT before Warner took over and rereleased the albums again. This is the original pressings of the first three albums in Canada. 
Here is the complete list of Ramones records released on Sire/GRT:

Songs: I wanna be your Boyfriend//California Sun/I don't wanna walk around with you

Number: Sire/GRT 1147-734

Year: 1976

Country: Canada

Notes: Released in a GRT company sleeve with straight top.

Songs: I wanna be your Boyfriend//California Sun/I don't wanna walk around with you

Number: Sire/GRT 1147-734 PROMO

Year: 1976

Country: Canada

Notes: Released in a GRT company sleeve with straight top.

Album: Ramones

Number: Sire/GRT 9147-7520

Year: 1976

Country: Canada

Notes: Inner sleeve with lyrics. Later rereleased as QSR 6020.

Songs: Sheena is a punk rocker//I don't care

Number: Sire/GRT 1147-1006

Year: 1977

Country: Canada

Notes: Released in a GRT company sleeve with rounded top.

Album: Leave Home

Number: Sire/GRT 9147-7528

Year: 1977

Country: Canada

Notes: Inner sleeve with lyrics. Later rereleased as QSR 6031.

Songs: Rockaway Beach/Locket love

Number: Sire/GRT 1147-1008

Year: 1977

Country: Canada

Notes: Released in a GRT company sleeve with rounded top.

Album: Rocket to Russia

Number: Sire/GRT 9147-6042

Year: 1977

Country: Canada

Notes: Inner sleeve with lyrics. Later rereleased as QSR 6042.

Fake sleeves for real records

A picture sleeve for the U.S. Don't Come Close 7" ...

...and for the Someting to Believe in single.

Recently there has been two U.S.-pressed Ramones singles up on Ebay with picture sleeves that I never have seen before. Apparently someone is making picture sleeves for singles that was released without real sleeves. There is no doubt that the sleeves are "homemade", stay away from them if you are looking for official picture sleeves.
From what I heard the sleeves was sold at the record fair in Utrecht, without records, and from there they have found the way to Ebay.
More new unofficial releases that was seen in Utrecht: The dutch Blitzkrieg Bop 7" on clear vinyl and on red vinyl. It seems like there is money to be made in copying these hard-to-find classics.

Record of the week – the debut from Taiwan

The Ramones never ending world tour did not reach Taiwan but the records did. Two of the albums, the debut and End of the Century, was released in Taiwan. But not the official way, as the thai Ramones singles the Taiwan records are counterfeit or pirate records. 

The classic first album was released on Jen Sheng records, the company printed the release date, in Taiwan year, on the label: 1976/06 (65.6 in Taiwan year). 

Jen Sheng released a lot of western music in the 70's but it's hard to find any information about the manufacturer. The sleeve is made of two thin paper sheets in a plastic cover. The front has the same design as the original album but with a JS-logo and a text about the Blitzkrieg Bop-single. The back has the lyrics from the original inner sleeve. In 1977 the company changed name to New Jen Sheng and re-released the album, this time with different labels and a slightly different backside of the cover.

Album: Ramones 

Number: Jen Sheng JS-5101

Year: 1976

Country: Taiwan

Album: Ramones 

Number: New Jen Sheng JS-5101

Year: 1977 (?)

Country: Taiwan

One side of the Ramones

 Here are three records from the very limited section "One-sided Ramones singles"...
First we have the promo 7" Ramones are here … and there. The single have four shortened excerpts from Road to Ruin and a spoken intro and outro with Joey Ramone promoting the album and the UK tour in 1978. The four songs are (note that the last two have slightly different names compared with the album):

Questioningly

Don’t come close 

Sedated

I just wanted something to do

The record was released with a picture sleeve but can also be found in the orange/yellow UK Sire company bag.

Title: Ramones are here … and there

Format: 7"

Number: J Ramone PROMO 1

Year: 1978

Country: UK

The next one-sider is a promotional single from New World pictures with radio spots to promote the Roger Corman-film Rock'n'roll High School. In the background you can hear the Ramones playing the title song. The record contains two radio spots, 30 secons each, and was sent to radiostations in the U.S.

The last one is a flexi disc from Spain. I don't know mutch about this one. It's released by the spanish record company Hispavox in 1981 and includes two songs on one side. It is marked as a promo only. Maybe someone out there knows anything more.

Record of the week – Bonzo goes to Bitburg

"I never wanted the Ramones to be about politics", Johnny Ramone says in his book "Commando". But in 1985 they were. The song Bonzo Goes to Bitburg is about the former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and his trip to West Germany the same year. Reagan was criticized at home because he planned to visit a military cemetery in Bitburg where also 49 members of the Waffen-SS was buried. Criticism before the visit came from several directions, Jewish groups, war veterans and the Congress.
But Reagan did the trip – and Joey Ramone wrote the song along with Dee Dee and producer Jean Beavoir:
"What Reagan did was fucked up. Everybody told him not to go, all his people told him not to go, and he went anyway. How can you fuckin' forgive the Holocaust? How can you say, 'Oh well, it's OK now'. That's crazy", Joey told the East Coast Rocker magazine.
Bonzo was the name of the chimpanzee in the 1951 movie comedy "Bedtime for Bonzo" starring Ronald Reagan. To compare Johnny Ramones favorite president with a chimp made guitarist mad. Strangely, he still agreed to put the song on the album Animal Boy.
"I wouldn't let them put it out with the original title. It appears as My brain is hanging upside down. They couldn't talk about my favorite president like that", he tells in "Commando".
The single was only released in the UK but sold quite well as an import in the U.S. and was played frequently on many American college radio stations. Bonzo goes to Bitburg was ranked fifth best single of 1985 by The Village Voice in New York.
According to Sire records the decision not to release the record in the U.S. was "both financial and political". Too bad, I think Bonzo Goes to Bitburg is one of the best songs the Ramones made ​​after the 70's. And in 1986 the song actually came out in the U.S. but only as the B-side on a DJ-only promo 12".
The song was released by Beggars Banquet in UK as 7" and a 12" and reached number 81 on the charts. There are three versions of the 12" with different labels. The sleeve is the same.

Songs: Bonzo goes to Bitburg/Daytime dilemma (Dangers of love)

Format: 7"

Number: Beggars Banquet BEG 140

Year: 1985

Country: UK

__________________________________________________

Songs: Bonzo goes to Bitburg//Go home Ann/Daytime dilemma (Dangers of love)

Format: 12"

Number: Beggars Banquet BEG 140T

Year: 1985

Country: UK

 Notes: First press

  Notes: second press

 Notes: Third press, from the box "End of the decade".

__________________________________________________

Songs: Something to believe in/My brain is hanging upside down (Bonzo goes to Bitburg)

Format: 12"

Number: Sire PRO-A-2510

Year: 1986

Country: US

The irish Ramones singles

On the 24th of September 1978 the Ramones played theit first show in Dublin at the Phibsboro State Cinema. 16 month earlier, in may 1977, the first Ramones record was released in Ireland, Sheena is a punk rocker. 

After that four more singles came out in Ireland. No one was released with a picture sleeve. All the Philips releases came in a irish version of the Phonogram company sleeve, except possibly the first single that I also have seen in a purple Philips-sleeve. The last single, We want the airwaves, came in the UK Sire company sleeve. There is no country printed on the label on that one but you can see the (P) instead a P in a ring, that's typical for irish releases.

Here they are – the complete irish single discography:

Songs: Sheena is a punk rocker//Commando/I don't care

Number: Philips RAM 001

Year: May 1977

Country: Ireland

Songs: Swallow my pride//Pinhead/Let's dance

Number: Philips 6078 607

Year: July 1977

Country: Ireland

Songs: Rockaway Beach//Teenage Lobotomy/Beat on the brat

Number: Philips 6078 611

Year: Dec 1977

Country: Ireland

Songs: Do you wanna dance?//It's a long way back to Germany/Cretin Hop

Number: Philips 6078 615

Year: March 1978

Country: Ireland

Songs: We want the airwaves/IYou sound like you're sick

Number: Sire 4051

Year: 1981

Country: Ireland