The Ramones It's Alive: 1974 1996 (2007) [2xdvd9] Restored

The Ramones may or may not have invented punk rock, but they were inarguably the most important band in punk history, creating the stylistic prototype that would be followed by countless bands who emerged in their wake. They were informed by the thunder and flash of the Who and the MC5, the speed and primitivism of Iggy and the Stooges, and the alternately sullen and goofy musings of '60s garage rock, but the Ramones synthesized their influences into something raw and revolutionary, a fury of pounding rhythms and downstroked guitars married to rudimentary melodies and comically absurd lyrics that both mocked and celebrated popular culture and teenage life. The Ramones were tuneful, aggressive, and challenging in their embrace of minimalist fury, and while bands from the Clash and the Sex Pistols to Rancid and Green Day would build on their formula, it's essentially impossible to imagine any of those bands, or punk as we know it, without the Ramones' guiding example.

The Ramones may or may not have invented punk rock, but they were inarguably the most important band in punk history, creating the stylistic prototype that would be followed by countless bands who emerged in their wake. They were informed by the thunder and flash of the Who and the MC5, the speed and primitivism of Iggy and the Stooges, and the alternately sullen and goofy musings of '60s garage rock, but the Ramones synthesized their influences into something raw and revolutionary, a fury of pounding rhythms and downstroked guitars married to rudimentary melodies and comically absurd lyrics that both mocked and celebrated popular culture and teenage life. The Ramones were tuneful, aggressive, and challenging in their embrace of minimalist fury, and while bands from the Clash and the Sex Pistols to Rancid and Green Day would build on their formula, it's essentially impossible to imagine any of those bands, or punk as we know it, without the Ramones' guiding example.

This is a collection of covers of the Ramones songs, mostly done by Scandinavian bands (include the Hellacopters, D-A-D, Backyard Babies, with some addition from the U.S. famous veterans, like the Dictators, Jesse Malin and Wayne Kramer). Once again several bands get together for a Ramones tribute album, and once again it is great. Here are other tribute CDs out there, and most of them are really good, but this one stands right up there with them best.

Here's a collection of the Ramones', early albums for the first time pressing in Japan onto compact discs. It contains all studio albums (excepting "Subterranean Jungle") from the "Ramones" (1976) to "Too Tough To Die (1984). All these CDs have a different mastering than been presented on the original American/European CDs and, as well, on the remastered CDs, – the sound is more rawer and less polished. Also, into collection has added "It's Alive" - the album recorded live at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 31/12/77 featuring 20 tracks instead of the 28 on the double LP.