Ramones on vinyl: January 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Subterranean Jungle – the european pressings

In april it's 30 years since the release of Subterranean Jungle. The album was an odd one in many ways, it starts with two cover versions, the Music Explosion's Little Bit O'Soul and The Boyfriends I Need Your Love. Joey Ramone is suddenly called Joe Ramone on the credits. Dee Dee is singing a whole song (Time Bomb). And it's the last album with Marky on the drums before he was replaced with Richie Ramone. Marky plays on all tracks besides the third cover on the album, Time Has Come Today. Billy Rogers from Johnny Thunders band replaced Marky on that one.

Still it's a great album, in fact I don't think Ramones did a better album after this one.
The record was released in april 1983 and once again it didn't became the success the band had hoped for. Subterranean Jungle reached number 83 on the Billboard album music chart.
I have tried to sort out the different pressings of the record (no re-releases) and start with the european releases. Here we have another new thing, most of the versions are pressed at the Record Service GmbH in Alsdorf, Germany. The sleeves are the same and they all have the same inner-sleeve with lyrics but to the right of the STEREO mark on the labels you can see for which market the record is pressed.
This is the different versions I have found:

Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked SACEM for the french market.
SACEM: Société des Auteurs Compositeure et Editeurs de Musique

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: For the UK market.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked ncb for the scandinavian market.

Ncb: Nordisk Copyright Bureau

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked STEMRA for the dutch market.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked GEMA/BIEM for Spain and probably some other countries.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked GEMA for the german market.

GEMA: Gesellschaft für musikalische auffürungs- und mekanische Vervielfältigungsrechte

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Besides the german editions at least three european countries have their own unique pressing of the album:

Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 23800

Year: 1983

Country: Italy

Notes: Stock version and white label promo. No barcode.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire W3800

Year: 1983

Country: Ireland.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 923800-1

Year: 1983

Country: Greece

Notes: Marked with WEA on the front of the cover and no barcode.

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I will be back with the pressings from the rest of the world.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Sheena is a Punk Rocker – the U.S. single

When Joey Ramone played Sheena is a Punk Rocker for Seymour Stein the Sire president flipped out and said, "We gotta record that song now!"
And so they did. The track was recorded at Sundragon Studios in Manhattan, New York the first week of april, 1977. The same studio that was used for Leave Home the year before.
”It was like back in the Fifties; you'd rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then you put it right out", Joey recalls in the booklet to the Hey Ho Let's Go-compilation.
Sheena is a Punk Rocker was released four months later, in august 1977. The single reached number 81 on the U.S. single chart.
"To me, "Sheena" was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, The Queen of the Jungle, with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: "But she just could't stay/She had to break away/Well, New York City really has it all", Joey continues.
The engineer Ed Stasium are playing the extra guitar parts "for the Beach Boys feel" and the song was later re-mixed with a heavier sound and in wider stereo for the Rocket to Russia-album.
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle was a popular comic book and TV series in the 40's and 50's. And after Joey wrote the surf/punk anthem Sheena really moved to the city:
"It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that song. Everybody was a Sheena."
But not only the New York-girls appreciated the song. This is what Chuck Berry told the punk zine Jet Lag in 1980 when the reporter played songs for him "that kids are listening to these days":
"A good little jump number. These guys remind me of myself when I first started, I only knew three chords too."

The U.S version of the single was originally released with ABC distribution and soon after re-released when Warner took over Sire. The sleeves have the same front but slightly different back sides. There exists a stock version with I don't care on the flip as well as a mono/stereo promo edition to both the ABC and the Warner 7". Four different records if you want to have them all.
Here they are:

Songs: Sheena is a Punk Rocker/I don't care

Number: Sire SA-746

Year: 1977

Country: US

Notes: Promo version has Sheena on both sides, mono and stereo.

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Songs: Sheena is a Punk Rocker/I don't care

Number: Sire SRE 1006

Year: 1977

Country: US

Notes: Promo version has Sheena on both sides, mono and stereo.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

The norwegian Baby I love you

I got a weird obsession to find the right company sleeves for the singles without picture sleeves. One of the singles were I havn't been able to solve this problem is the norwegian Baby I love you. But now I think I have got it right. The other 45 from Norway, I wanna be sedated, have a blue Phonogram-sleeve made of relatively thick paper. The sleeves was pressed at Team Trykk in Oslo. A while ago I found a copy of Baby I love you in the same sleeve, but a white one without printing. According to sellers I have spoken with this single came in a white paper bag and this is probably the one.
If you have nothing else to do this is something you can spend your time finding out...
Read more about the norwegian singles here. And I have an extra copy of the norwegian Baby I love you and the Sedated-single up for trades if anyone is interested.

Baby I love you in the white die cut sleeve...

...and I wanna be sedated in the same sleeve but with printing.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Paley Brothers made in U.S.A

C'mon Let's Go, the track with Ramones backing up Paley Brothers, was never released as a single in the U.S.
But Sire records still hoped to get the song on the radio and put together a 12" radio sampler with three tracks from the movie soundtrack to Rock'n'Roll High School. The 12" has the Ramones movie-title track and I want you around on the A-sida and C'mon Let's Go on the B-side.

Songs: Rock'n'Roll High School/I want you around//C'mon Let's go

Format: 12"

Number: Sire PRO-A-805

Year: 1979

Country: USA

Did you know...

... that the artist behind the front cover illustration of the Rock'n'nRoll High School sleeve and movie poster is William Stout, the former art director for Bomp! magazine and later on a famous artist of international renown in many fields: themed entertainment and motion picture design (specializing in science fiction/fantasy/horror films), comic book art, book illustration, poster design, CD covers, public murals, and reconstructions of prehistoric life. And that he has been the designer at the Michael Jackson NeverLand theme parks. He was born in 1949 and is now living in Pasadena, California.
Read more here: www.williamstout.com

... that Rock’n’roll High School did well enough that the director Allan Whitley followed it up with a sequel, Rock’n’roll High School Forever, 1991.

...that the record company in France used another artist for the cover of the soundtrack. Read more here.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The single with Paley Brothers

A wall of sound. Darlene Love, Phil Spector, Joey Ramone

and the two Paley brothers.

The Paley Brothers was a power-pop band that started playing in Boston in the mid 70's. The two brothers Jonathan and Andy Paley was launched as good looking teen idols and released an album on Sire 1978. That was it – but before they disappeared from the music scene they did a single with the Ramones that was included on the Rock'n'roll High School soundtrack.
An odd combination maybe but Jonathan Paley had been hanging around in the punk scene in New York before. Infact he even did rehearsals with the Heartbreakers early on when they were a trio.

"I rehearsed with the Heartbreakers three times. This was way before the Paley Brothers were signed to Sire. Richard (Hell) and Johnny (Thunders) really liked me, I know Johnny wanted me in the band, but Jerry (Nolan) didn't like me at all, so it didn't happend", Jonathan told Punk Globe.

When the Paley Brothers recorded their album in L.A. in 1977 the Ramones were also in town. The Sire president Seymour Stein came up with the idea that that the two bands should record a song together.

"I'd seen a lot of the Ramones early gigs at CBGB's. Joey and I shared a love of old rock n roll and pop music", Jonathan explained to Punk Globe.

The choice was C'mon Let's Go, an Richie Valens song from 1959. The track was recorded at Brother Studio in Santa Monica, L.A.

"Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy did the basic track, then Andy and I added tympany, organ, hand claps and the vocals. I did the lead vocal, Andy sang a lower close harmony. It came out really nice. It's one of my favorite recordings I ever did. It was in the soundtrack to Rock n Roll High School and after the movie came out Joey told me that it was his favorite song on the soundtrack. He was really a sweet sweet guy. I think that may be the only recording with Tommy, Dee Dee and Johnny on it that has a vocal by anyone other than Joey or Dee Dee. I'm very proud of that record. In hindsight, I wish we'd done a whole album like that", Jonathan says.

The single was released in the UK, Germany, France and Japan in 1978. An interesting thing for collectors is that there are two versions of the single. Apparently Sire was not happy with the first mix. In november 1978 Tony Bongiovi and the Paley Brothers did a remix at the Power Station i New York – and cut away Dee Dee's "one, two, three, four"-chant in the beginning! The new mix was released in the UK soon after, first in the same picture sleeve as the first press, later on in the yellow Sire company sleeve.
Another interesting thing is that the german pressing has the first version of the song while the french and japanese editions have the second mix. They all have the Paley Brothers-song Magic Power on the flip side.

Songs: C'mon Let's Go/Magic Power

Number: Sire SIR 4005

Year: 1978

Country: UK

Notes: The first mix.

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Songs: C'mon Let's Go/Magic Power

Number: Sire SIR 4005

Year: 1978

Country: UK

Notes: The remixed version.

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Songs: C'mon Let's Go/Magic Power

Number: Sire SIR 4005

Year: 1978

Country: UK

Notes: Test press, remixed version.

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Songs: C'mon Let's Go/Magic Power

Number: Sire SFL-2372

Year: 1978

Country: Japan

Notes: The second mix, promo and stock version.

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Songs: C'mon Let's Go/Magic Power

Number: Sire/Pathe Marconi 2C 008 62288

Year: 1978

Country: France

Notes: The second mix.

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Songs: C'mon Let's Go/Magic Power

Number: Sire 100 036-100

Year: 1978

Country: Germany

Notes: The first mix.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Record of the week – I remember You

The record company in England chose I Remember You as the first single to promote the new album Leave Home in 1977. It was the follow-up to the Blitzkrieg Bop single in the UK, and the labels says 1976 although the single came out the year after, february 18, 1977.
24 years later, on april 15 2001, U2 played I Remember You at a sold-out Rose Garden in Portland, USA to honor Joey Ramone who passed away the same day.

"I sing this for Joey Ramone. A great, great singer of the the greatest punk rock band ever", Bono told the audience.

There are two versions of the single, the first pressing has silver labels, the second pressing has the more common gold. I Remember You was only released as a single in UK.

Songs: I Remember You//California Sun/I don't wanna walk around with you (live)

Number: Sire 6078 603

Year: 1977

Country: UK

Notes: First pressing with silver labels, second with gold.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The debut from Taiwan – updated

I have added new pictures and some more information about the taiwanese version of the first album.

I got a postcard from Poland...

Here is a strange item I hardly don't have any information about. It is a postcard from Poland with a flexi on the front side with the track Poison Heart.
The sound quality is awful but at least I can hear that it is the studio version of the song. The manufacturer, Edycja Artystyczno Muzyczana in Krynki, Poland, have a lot of other postcards with different bands and the songs are either oldies or from the early 90s, so my guess is that the postcard is made in the 90's but I don't know. On the postcard it says that it is made in 500 copies but, again, who knows?
If anyone have more information please let me know.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Canada part two – the WEA singles

In 1978 Warner took over Sire records and GRT lost the distribution deal for Canada. From now on WEA Music of Canada took care of the business and they released four singles between 1979 and 1981. WEA also re-released the three first albums in Canada in 1978. The singles all came in a stock version and a white label promo version but unlike in the U.S. they had two songs on the promo-versions, not the same track in mono and stereo.
All singles was released in canadian WEA company sleeves, no picture sleeves.
Here they are – and together with the GRT-singles this is the complete canadian singles discography. A big thank you to Timo from www.ramones.fi for helping me with some of the pictures: