Ramones - It's Alive

This month marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of It's Alive, the appropriately named 1979 live studio album from the Ramones. Recorded at London's Rainbow Theatre on December 21st of 1977, the double-album charted at number 38 in Sweden and number 27 in the UK.


The show features twenty-eight songs culled from the New York City punk band's first three studio albums: the self-titled debut Ramones, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia.

Side one opens the show with "Rockaway Beach", "Teenage Lobotomy", "Blitzkrieg Bop", "I Wanna Be Well", "Glad to See You Go", "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "You're Gonna Kill That Girl".

Side two features "I Don't Care", "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker", "Havana Affair", "Commando", "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" and a cover of the Trashmen's 1963 hit "Surfin' Bird".

Side three includes "Listen to My Heart", "California Sun", "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You", "Pinhead", a cover of Bobby Freeman's 1958 song "Do You Wanna Dance?", Chain Saw" and "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World".

Side four closes with "Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy", "Judy Is a Punk", "Suzy Is a Headbanger", "Let's Dance", and then the encores "Oh, Oh, I Love Her So", "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" and "We're a Happy Family".

My older brother was a big Ramones fan. As such, if he owned a copy of this album I am sure I heard it during the early 80's when he was home from college. One thing I have to say is that the band sounded the same whether they were in the studio or if they were playing live. What we get here is the added background sounds from the crowd. This is a solid sampler to their earliest of offerings and the production value on the recording is top notch for a live show.