Ladies and gentlemen let me present at no additional expense to yourselves, included in your basic 1537 membership package, with no obligation to purchase* a mini bonus review.
Ramones Sundragon Sessions.
Released for RSD 2018 Sundragon Sessions are the basic tracks laid down for Ramones Leave Home, before the guys who got paid money to buff up, beef up and hone the sound did their thing to it.
As you would expect given that, bar some overdubs and tweaking/twerking these are the very same takes that were used for the final LP, there is not a world of difference to be encountered here. For a numbskull collector completist obsessive like myself it is an interesting LP to have.
The differences are mostly subtle, illustrating the shifts of emphasis the producer Tony Bongiovi gave the finished record. As you would expect in most cases the man earned his money and improved what he could, Leave Home has a polished (but not too polished) sound that is missing on the Sundragon Sessions.
To my mind there are only two tracks that I prefer in this iteration – Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy and What’s Your Game. The former, my favourite anyway, comes over with more immediacy to me and the latter carries even more of lovely Joey’s personality in the vocals.
Which isn’t to say it is a washout by any stretch. It is interesting to hear ‘Pinhead’ stripped of opening vocal FX and daft bits at the end, much as I love them. Interestingly whilst Tommy’s drums often sound a bit underpowered, which TB fixed, you do get to hear more of Dee Dee’s bass in these rough mixes too.
A big draw for me was the track ‘Babysitter’, which was used to replace ‘Carbona Not Glue’ on later UK copies of Leave Home – which I had never heard. It’s a pretty average Ramones track with good lyrics about being frustrated in your amorous intent by a kid who won’t go to sleep.
She went to see if the kids were asleep She says they're quiet expect for one little creep We can't start kissing and I'll tell you why We can't start kissing 'cause the kid's a little spy
Sundragon Sessions was limited to 10,000 copies, which is sooo limited that mine is probably only one of 12 households on my road with a copy. I like it and I do play it occasionally but it is no match for the original Leave Home.
Dang my diddlies for being such a darn completist!
1085 Down (still).
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^referees decision is final.