10 Greatest Songs About Other Musicians

Here is a song that could only have appeared on this particular Ramones album. Prior to 1980, the band was a gang; four long haired burnouts, clad in leather and singing about violence and glue sniffing. But as that act lost its novelty, they decided to take a punt on a new producer: Phil Spector, studio pioneer, and genuine loose cannon.

Spector died in prison after murdering Lana Clarkson, but even before that he was a difficult individual to say the least, pulling guns on the Ramones during the End Of The Century sessions. Still, the demands of Spector led to some great and totally distinct music from the New York punks.

“Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?”, which opens the album, eschews the band’s brand of nihilism for sentiment and nostalgia, a tribute to the culture they grew up with - Jerry Lee Lewis, Shindig - and the acts immediately before them - Lennon, T-Rex. The Ramones are by now of course part of the same classic rock timeline, but back then they were still a cult act seeking a step up, and reaching back to the music of their youth in order to do so.