The Ramones: Joey Ramone (vocals); Johnny Ramone (guitar); Dee Dee Ramone (bass, background vocals); Tommy Ramone (drums).
Producers: Tony Bongiovi, T. Erdelyi.
Reissue producers: Bill Inglot, Gary Stewart.
Recorded at Sundragon, New York, New York and live at The Roxy, Hollywood, California on August 12, 1976. Includes liner notes by Donna Gaines and Arturo Vega.
Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch (Digiprep).
Released only months after RAMONES, the Ramones' second album pales slightly in comparison to its stone-classic predecessor--but only slightly. LEAVE HOME contains enough all-time Ramones anthems--"Commando," "Pinhead" (which introduces the legendary "Gabba Gabba Hey" chant), and "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment," to name only three--that it's still an essential document of the New York punk scene. Rhino's remastered 2001 reissue restores the original running order of the album, including "Carbona Not Glue," which was hastily removed from the 1977 vinyl not because it advocated dangerous activities but because the manufacturers of the spot remover Carbona objected.
More importantly, this reissue appends a whopping 16 bonus tracks, the entirety of the Ramones' August 1976 Hollywood live debut. Half the tracks don't even hit the two-minute mark--the longest is "Beat on the Brat," an epic 2:36--and the whole thing is over in under half an hour. Years of hardcore punk and the ever-increasing BPMs of underground dance music mean that this stuff doesn't sound as shockingly speedy now as it did at the time; what's surprising is how cheerful and poppy this allegedly transgressive music comes across, and how unexpectedly tight and well-rehearsed the supposedly sloppy band is.