It's Alive (Ramones album)
It's Alive is the first live album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, titled after the 1974 horror film of the same name. It was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in London on December 31, 1977, and released in April 1979 as a 2-LP set. The album draws material from the band's first three studio albums, Ramones (1976), Leave Home (1977), and Rocket to Russia (1977). Four concerts during the UK tour were recorded, but the New Year's Eve performance was chosen because ten rows of seats were thrown at the stage after the concert and it was considered the best of the performances at the venue. The album and concert is often referred to as the band at its live peak. The concert was also filmed and later released in a truncated form on the 2007 compilation DVD It's Alive 1974-1996.
| It's Alive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | April 1979 | |||
| Recorded | December 31, 1977 | |||
| Venue | The Rainbow Theatre, London | |||
| Genre | Punk rock | |||
| Length | 53:49 | |||
| Label | Sire | |||
| Producer | Tommy Ramone Ed Stasium | |||
| Ramones live album chronology | ||||
| ||||
The album was certified gold in Argentina in 1993.[1] It is the only live album by the band that does not feature the concert intro music "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or the outro music "The Ecstasy of Gold," both of which are from Ennio Morricone's score to the film The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Q | |
| Record Collector | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Smash Hits | 8/10[6] |
| The Village Voice | A−[7] |
Mark Deming of AllMusic, praised the album, saying that "With It's Alive, they went out in style -- it's not only the best Ramones live album, it's one of the best and most effective live albums in the rock canon, and every bit as essential as Ramones, Leave Home, or Rocket to Russia."[8] Paul Rigby of Record Collector, said that "With their high-tempo content, manic-speed live performances, basic image and a sense of family (everyone had the Ramone surname), they let the music stand for itself."When we say that this high energy, one-hour blitz squeezes in three albums’ worth of material, you get an idea how high-octane they really were."[9] In a retrospective review in 1995, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice remarked that the album was "Redundant when it was dropped on the punk-besotted U.K. in 1979, this concert is precious history now--seems so impossibly light and quick it makes you suspect they didn't fully sustain their live pace into their forties after all."[10] In 2005, It's Alive was ranked number 279 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[11]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Rockaway Beach" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 2:24 |
| 2. | "Teenage Lobotomy" | Ramones | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 1:55 |
| 3. | "Blitzkrieg Bop" | Tommy Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 2:05 |
| 4. | "I Wanna Be Well" | Joey Ramone | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 2:23 |
| 5. | "Glad to See You Go" | Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 1:51 |
| 6. | "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" | Johnny Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 1:37 |
| 7. | "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" | Joey Ramone | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 2:28 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8. | "I Don't Care" | Joey Ramone | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 1:41 |
| 9. | "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" | Joey Ramone | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 2:16 |
| 10. | "Havana Affair" | Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:35 |
| 11. | "Commando" | Dee Dee Ramone, Johnny Ramone | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 1:40 |
| 12. | "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" | Joey Ramone | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 2:55 |
| 13. | "Surfin' Bird" | Al Frazier, Sonny Harris, Carl White, Turner Wilson | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 2:20 |
| 14. | "Cretin Hop" | Ramones | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 1:46 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15. | "Listen to My Heart" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:36 |
| 16. | "California Sun" | Henry Glover | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 1:45 |
| 17. | "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:25 |
| 18. | "Pinhead" | Ramones | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 2:46 |
| 19. | "Do You Wanna Dance?" | Bobby Freeman | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 1:39 |
| 20. | "Chain Saw" | Joey Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:29 |
| 21. | "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:55 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original release | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22. | "Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 2:03 |
| 23. | "Judy Is a Punk" | Joey Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:14 |
| 24. | "Suzy Is a Headbanger" | Ramones | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 1:53 |
| 25. | "Let's Dance" | Jim Lee | 1976 ~ Ramones | 2:03 |
| 26. | "Oh, Oh, I Love Her So" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1977 ~ Leave Home | 1:40 |
| 27. | "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" | Dee Dee Ramone | 1976 ~ Ramones | 1:18 |
| 28. | "We're a Happy Family" | Ramones | 1977 ~ Rocket to Russia | 2:07 |
Release History
It's Alive was first released on CD in the US in 1995. The album was reissued as a 4 CD/2 LP 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition on September 20, 2019, limited to 8,000 copies. The set includes all four concerts that were recorded during the Ramones' UK tour in December 1977 and is housed in a 12x12 hardcover book, with liner notes written by Steve Albini and Ed Stasium.[12]
Personnel
Ramones
- Joey Ramone - lead vocals
- Johnny Ramone - guitar
- Dee Dee Ramone - bass, backing vocals
- Tommy Ramone - drums
Production
- Ed Stasium - engineer
- Tommy Ramone, Ed Stasium - producers
- Basing Street Studios Ltd. - mobile recording facilities
- Greb Cobb, Frank Owen, Jo Yu, Ray Doyle - mobile crew
- Ramona Janquito, Phil Shrago - studio crew
- Monte Melnick - tour manager
- Arturo Vega - lighting
- Tasco - sound, lighting
Album Design-Spencer Drate Art Director-John Gillespie Photography-Various Photographers
References
- "Argentinian album certifications – Ramones – Alive". Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers.
- Rivadavia, Eduardo. "It's Alive – Ramones". AllMusic. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- "Ramones: It's Alive". Q (167): 120–21. August 2000.
- Rigby, Paul (May 2009). "Ramones – It's Alive". Record Collector (362). Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- Wolk, Douglas (2004). "Ramones". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 675–76. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- Starr, Red (June 28 – July 11, 1979). "Albums". Smash Hits: 25.
- Christgau, Robert (February 20, 1996). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
- It's Alive - Ramones | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic, retrieved 2020-06-03
- "It's Alive - Record Collector Magazine". recordcollectormag.com. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
- "Robert Christgau: CG: ramones". www.robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
- [...], Rock Hard (Hrsg.). [Red.: Michael Rensen. Mitarb.: Götz Kühnemund] (2005). Best of Rock & Metal die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten. Königswinter: Heel. p. 102. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- https://www.rhino.com/article/ramones-its-alive-40th-anniversary-deluxe-edition-available-september-20-from-rhino