Leave Home Songs Ranked
Leave Home is the second studio album by American punk rock band the Ramones. It was released on January 10, 1977, through Sire Records, with the expanded CD being released through Rhino Entertainment on June 19, 2001. Songs on the album were written immediately after the band’s first album’s writing process, which demonstrated the band’s progression. The album had a higher production value than their debut Ramones and featured faster tempos. The front photo was taken by Moshe Brakha and the back cover, which would become the band’s logo, was designed by Arturo Vega. The album spawned three singles, but only one succeeded in charting. It was also promoted with several tour dates in the United States and Europe. Here are all of Leave Home songs ranked.
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10. Oh, Oh, I Love Her So
“Oh Oh I Love Her So, is the second classic track in a row (after I Remember You), with yet a third on the way! Lyrically, it’s teenage fantom; ‘he met her at a Burger King, they fell in love by the soda machine, the kids were hangin’ out by Coney Island’ – another bubblegum tune, allied to chainsaw guitars and authentic fifties doo-wop vocals.”
9. Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy
“Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy is Ramones-by-numbers, but we are back on hallowed ground again with the next true classic, Swallow My Pride. There’s something indefinable about The Ramones, a song like this should be awkward and silly, but they approached it with such love and reverence for the material that the end result is yearning, and really rather noble. “
8. Swallow My Pride
“It is lyrically a song about optimism, about throwing off the shackles of negativity and looking to the future: ‘things were looking grim but they’re looking good again’, accompanied by those chiming, golden guitars.”
See more: Ramones Albums Ranked
7. Suzy Is a Headbanger
“The third classic in a row is the absurd, astounding Suzy Is A Headbanger, our favorite track on the album for some months at the time. How to describe the nuclear dazzle of this maniacal song? It’s tough but I’ll have a go. The guitars, multi-tracked (probably about four or five, all playing the same chord sequence in unison) crash in as the track gets under way, then abruptly fall away as colossal drums pound out a primitive beat.”
6. Pinhead
“Pinhead is their curious sympathy vote to a bizarre minority – voices are garbled, overdubbed, sneering, squeaking and laughing and treated with varispeed to emphasise the freak element.”
5. Glad to See You Go
“So when one sunny Saturday we were record-shopping in our local town centre and spotted Leave Home on import from the USA, my brother snapped it up, leaving him broke but excited. And with good reason, because when we got home and played the damn thing it was fucking awesome! The sense of humor was silly, cartoonish and contagious. Glad To See You Go whizzed by, with its chilling payoff, ‘gonna take a chance on her, one bullet in the cylinder.'”
See more: Ramones Songs Ranked
4. Commando
“Commando follows. It is riff-heavy, and deals with the Vietnam debacle from an anti-war perspective, but it still manages, incredibly, to be a fun punk-pop workout, the way The Ramones approach it. It is also hilarious, the fourth rule is: eat kosher salamis!”
3. You’re Gonna Kill That Girl
“You’re Gonna Kill That Girl is fantastic, massively exciting nonsense. As a trebly guitar twangs resoundingly, Joey moodily sings an almost funereal tribute to a girl he sees in the street, then the pace picks up and storms off at a thousand miles an hour! “
2. Carbona Not Glue
“This is an excellent Ramones album, and pretty much the same as the previous record, lyrically and musically excluding a few excursions into slow territory. The production is slightly different though (Tony Bongiovi and Tommy Ramone produced this one), the guitars are somewhat more muted, the bass is louder and the drums are kept to a low at points.”
1. California Sun
“The original is great, (I can’t remember the band, woops!), but The Ramones version cuts it to shreds. The sound level for this and the penultimate track on the album, are even louder than everything else! A sunny, golden promotional vote for the Californian Way Of Life (girls in bikinis! Sunshine! Surfing! etc), it is immense fun.”