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Wisconsin-based electronic rock band Garbage take on the slowed down song “I Just Want to Have Something To Do”, the opener to the Ramones’ 1978 record, Road to Ruin. The band is paid tribute by a swath of bands from all over the rock spectrum, including U2, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Tom Waits.
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The 2003 Ramones tribute album, We’re a Happy Family, boasts a truly bizarre lineup. Garbage, "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" You can find the song on the Ramones tribute, Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones, as well as on the L7 compilation, Fast and Frightening. I’ve always been a fan of her vocal approach, and it sounds great on a Ramones song.
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Vocalist Donita Sparks snarls her way through the lyrics, which adds the L7 flair to the track. L7’s rendition sounds like it would fit pretty well on Too Tough to Die, with a frantic beat and gnarly guitar solo in the middle of the song. While the band covered a large swath of musicians, ranging from Blue Öyster Cult to Flipper, their cover of the Leave Home cut “Suzy Is A Headbanger” is a great slice of Ramones ephemera put through a slightly heavier lens. No strangers to this column, Los Angeles heavy grunge powerhouse L7 was infamous for their hard riffs and various on-stage antics. It’s a hell of a ride in under two minutes.
#THE RAMONES SONGS 1978 FULL#
From there, the band kicks into the song at full throttle, mowing through the song at a higher pace than the original track. One of the standouts, and one of my favorite Ramones tracks, is “Chain Saw." Of course it starts with the revving, which is irreplaceable. The entire record was recorded by the band in approximately 15 hours, according to Ben Weasel. Screeching Weasel was approached to do an entire cover version of the Ramones’ debut self-titled album by Selfless Records, who released it in 1993. The Illinois punk band has had quite the tumultuous past, from multiple breakups and reunions to some indiscretions by vocalist Ben Weasel at various live shows, but the band’s snotty and lightning-paced sound has lived on and influenced a swath of bands itself. If you were to listen to any Screeching Weasel song or album and deny the heavy influence the Ramones injected into the band, I’d tell you to have your head examined. Without further ado, hey, ho, let’s go check out 5 great Ramones cover songs. While a sizable chunk of Ramones members are no longer with us, their legacy lives on as loud as their amps were when they played. Most rock bands cite the Ramones as an influence, among which almost every genre is present: punk, metal, hardcore, industrial, pop. In the band’s 22 year history, they left behind an impressive body of work, including over a dozen full length albums which modern musicians and fans still hold in high praise today. They played fast, dressed weird, had really bizarre haircuts, and absolutely decimated every stage on which they performed. Then again, the Ramones were a weird and almost one-of-a-kind band. It’s a weird, almost one-of-a-kind phenomenon. Not many bands have come out of the early American punk rock scene and had a deep influence on popular music as a whole. Photo: Roberta Bayley/Courtesy of Rhino Records