Ja, det er i denne måned 40 år siden, Ramones indspillede deres debutplade. Den kom ud i april 1976 på Sire plademærket. Min kritikeryndling – amerikanernes svar på Poul Borum – Robert Christgau elskede den plade, og det siger for mig alt om dens vitalitet og energi:

I love this record–love it–even though I know these boys flirt with images of brutality (Nazi especially) in much the same way “Midnight Rambler” flirts with rape. You couldn’t say they condone any nasties, natch–they merely suggest that the power of their music has some fairly ominous sources and tap those sources even as they offer the suggestion. This makes me uneasy. But my theory has always been that good rock and roll should damn well make you uneasy, and the sheer pleasure of this stuff–which of course elicits howls of pain from the rock and roll musicianship crowd, e.g. Dr. Feelgood’s aficianados at the Bottom Line–is undeniable. For me, it blows everything else off the radio: it’s clean the way the Dolls never were, sprightly the way the Velvets never were, and just plain listenable the way Black Sabbath never was. And I hear it cost $6400 to put on plastic. A

Og er A i Christgaus forbrugerguide er tommelfingeren op!