{"id":31402,"date":"2026-07-23T05:30:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31402"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:45:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T17:45:02","slug":"take-five-ramones-rarities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/take-five-ramones-rarities\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Ramones Rarities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hitting the scene in 1974, the Ramones were a blast of gritty air onto the pop music landscape. Their stripped-down, sped-up songs combined wild punk energy and bubblegum-style lyrics. Their songs were elemental affairs with titles like \u201cBeat on the Brat\u201d and \u201cNow I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.\u201d It was all done in fun, but the group made a serious impact on New York City\u2019s music with their self-titled 1976 debut LP. Music would never be the same; the punk musical values the Ramones ushered in may not have sold millions of copies, but like other underground bands before them, the Ramones\u2019 influence far outpaced their record sales. On the 50th anniversary of <em>Ramones<\/em>, here are five rarities from the band.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSurfin\u2019 Safari\u201d from Rodney Bingenheimer Presents \u201cAll Year Party!\u201d Volume One (1984)<\/strong><br \/>\nCredited to Rodney &amp; The Brunettes, this one-off track was included on a various-artists record curated by famed (and controversial) L.A. disc jockey\/scenester Rodney Bingenheimer. The Honeys were a female vocal trio featuring Marilyn Rovell, wife of Beach Boys\u2019 Brian Wilson (who co-wrote the classic \u201cSurfin\u2019 Safari\u201d in 1962). The Honeys ostensibly share backing vocals with Joey Ramone, but neither he nor \u201clead\u201d singer Bingenheimer are prominent in the mix. The rest of the Ramones (Johnny, Dee Dee and Mark) offer instrumental support along with added session players.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OBcoHhwvnTk?si=CeMO07GNyI5DpzKK\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cGo Home Ann\u201d \u2013 B-side of \u201cBonzo Goes to Bitburg\u201d single, 1985 (UK only)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Ramones\u2019 lyrics often focused on street-level concerns or fanciful scenes; rarely did the group venture into the realm of political protest. But they did so for a 1985 single, \u201cBonzo Goes to Bitburg.\u201d The song\u2019s title refers to a ceremonial visit that the United States\u2019 then-president Ronald Reagan made to a German military cemetery where Nazi Waffen-SS members were interred. While critically acclaimed, the record wasn\u2019t released in the U.S. That UK-only single\u2019s flip was a dark \u2013 if comparatively uncontroversial \u2013 anti-love ditty; it has yet to appear on a Ramones album.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jEaQ71GyoiQ?si=7P-_lq3ukg2T5Ymh\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c(And) I Don\u2019t Want to Live this Life\u201d \u2013 B-side of \u201cCrummy Stuff\u201d single, 1985 (UK only)<\/strong><br \/>\nBassist Dee Dee Ramone wrote this track, recorded for (but not included on) the band\u2019s 1986 album <em>Animal Boy<\/em>. Produced by multi-instrumentalist and former Plasmatics bassist Jean Beauvoir, it\u2019s an exemplar of the Ramones\u2019 mid \u201880s radio-friendly sound. The track was re-titled \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Live This Life (Anymore)\u201d when it was featured on Disc Two of the 1999 compilation <em>Hey! Ho! Let\u2019s Go: The Anthology<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/swH00CZxbH0?si=XEU35JYpUuYufv77\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c(You) Can\u2019t Say Anything Nice\u201d \u2013 B-side of \u201cSomething to Believe In\u201d single, 1986 (UK only)<\/strong><br \/>\nRichie Ramone was the band\u2019s third drummer, taking over for Marky Ramone (who replaced original drummer Tommy Ramone). He would play on three of the band\u2019s albums: 1984\u2019s <em>Too Tough to Die<\/em>,<em> Animal Boy<\/em> (1986) and 1987\u2019s <em>Halfway to Sanity<\/em> before leaving (to be replaced by a returning Marky Ramone). During his time with the band, Richie wrote songs for the Ramones including the popular \u201cSomebody Put Something in My Drink.\u201d He wrote and sang \u201c(You) Can\u2019t Say Anything Nice,\u201d but the track didn\u2019t make it onto <em>Animal Boy<\/em>. Instead, it appeared only as a B-side in the UK.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PIEl55IzKp4?si=Hpd4k9eaF3SBcSfJ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cLife Goes On\u201d \u2013 B-side of \u201cReal Cool Time\u201d single, 1987 (UK only)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Ramones always had great taste in covers. The band went so far as to record an entire album\u2019s worth: 1993\u2019s well-regarded <em>Acid Eaters<\/em>. And the group covered other artists as far back as their 1976 debut album\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Dance.\u201d But even though there are stylistic similarities between the Ramones and Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones\u2019 \u201cReal Cool Time\u201d is not the same song as the The Stooges track from their 1969 debut album. The flip of the Johnny Ramone-penned \u201cReal Cool Time\u201d single in the UK, \u201cLife Goes On\u201d hasn\u2019t appeared on any of the group\u2019s albums.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Q_YNUO1aOg?si=O0tnupaDrIR_6fYg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hitting the scene in 1974, the Ramones were a blast of gritty air onto the pop music landscape. Their stripped-down, sped-up songs combined wild punk energy and bubblegum-style lyrics. Their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5095],"class_list":["post-31402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-ramones","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31403,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31402\/revisions\/31403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}