Last Friday you may have noticed the earth quaking to its very roots. No, it wasn’t yet another tedious lapse into authoritarianism action by the USA…those are as common as dirt, now. This was the announcement that Rhino have just issued a Blu-Ray boxed set of the first four Ramones albums as remixed into Dolby Atmos® by the original producers of the albums.

I’m not immune to the allures and charms of Surround Sound. Even though I’m now hearing impaired in my left ear, I have time for the occasional Surround mix of a cherished album. I have sprung for 5.1/Dolby Atmos® DVD/Blu-Ray discs of several cherished acts in the Record Cell. I have surround sound mixed discs by:

• ABC ★★★
• John Foxx
• King Crimson
• Roxy Music
• Simple Minds
• TVLKING HEVDS
• Ultravox
• xPropaganda

The thread running through each of these bands is that they are all engaging in ornate, lushly produced music of many synthetic traits. None of these acts sounded like they plugged into the amps and hit record! They used the studio like a canvas. That’s fine. Art Rock is one of my favorite things. But too much Art Rock will get you bloodless and comatose, soon enough!

That why we have Ramones.

The news that their master tapes have now been remixed into Dolby Atmos® mixes by their original producers, Craig Leon and Ed Stasium, gives me pause. First of all, those early Ramones albums were recorded for about one hundredth of the studio bill for a “Rumours” or “Hotel California.” I can guarantee that the engineers weren’t isolating each Ramone with baffles and airless mike technique so they could remix until their face turned blue!

I’ll bet that there was a ton of bleed through on all four members, who were recorded live until they got the keeper take of every track. But when that master is played, it will positively reek of power and commitment. Outside of Artificial Intelligence processing of the masters, I cannot imagine how that Leon and Stasium could have managed to isolate tracks for surround remixing. And if you are using AI on Ramones albums, that’s so wrong on so many different levels that I don’t know where to begin!

Ramones: 1! 2! 3! 4! – US – 4x Blu-Ray [2025]

Ramones (1976)

1. “Blitzkrieg Bop”
2. “Beat On The Brat”
3. “Judy Is A Punk”
4. “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
5. “Chain Saw”
6. “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”
7. “I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement”
8. “Loudmouth”
9. “Havana Affair”
10. “Listen To My Heart”
11. “53^rd & 3^rd”
12. “Let’s Dance”
13. “I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You”
14. “Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World”

Leave Home (1977)

1. “Glad To See You Go”
2. “Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment”
3. “I Remember You”
4. “Oh Oh I Love Her So”
5. “Carbona Not Glue”
6. “Suzy Is A Headbanger”
7. “Pinhead”
8. “Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy”
9. “Swallow My Pride”
10. “What’s Your Game”
11. “California Sun”
12. “Commando”
13. “You’re Gonna Kill That Girl”
14. “You Should Never Have Opened That Door”

Rocket to Russia (1977)

1. “Cretin Hop”
2. “Rockaway Beach”
3. “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”
4. “Locket Love”
5. “I Don’t Care”
6. “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”
7. “We’re A Happy Family”
8. “Teenage Lobotomy”
9. “Do You Wanna Dance?”
10. “I Wanna Be Well”
11. “I Can’t Give You Anything”
12. “Ramona”
13. “Surfin’ Bird”
14. “Why Is It Always This Way?”

Road to Ruin (1978)

1. “I Just Want To Have Something To Do”
2. “I Wanted Everything”
3. “Don’t Come Close”
4. “I Don’t Want You”
5. “Needles And Pins”
6. “I’m Against It”
7. “I Wanna Be Sedated”
8. “Go Mental”
9. “Questioningly”
10. “She’s The One”
11. “Bad Brain”
12. “It’s A Long Way Back”

So this is just four Blu-ray discs in a box with the album tracks on them in Dolby Atmos®. No rarities. Nothing beyond the four album you should already own in stereo. Save for the spatial mix. If anything, I would imagine that true mono mixes [and not stereo to mono fold downs] might serve the best way to enhance the power of Ramones music! Imagine how album number five would sound if it had been mixed in mono! I can’t see anything but a dissipation of the quintessential Ramones energy here in their new forms.

And if I’m being honest, I always felt that the one bit of sacrilege that Ramones could have/should have indulged in, let’s say in 1989, would have been to re-record “Blitzkreig Bop” with Ed Stasium producing and have gotten the top five single they richly deserved with that song! I’ve always thought that “Blitzkreig Bop” was amazing, but it was recorded too cheaply [first album cost, I believe, between $6,000 and $7,000 to record!] and quickly to reflect the sort of sound quality needed to have fit on Top 40 radio. And Ed Stasium just had a much better head for electric guitars than Craig Leon, it must be admitted. Maybe if he had produced the first Ramones album, it would have turned out differently?

But that’s water under the bridge as we now have 2000 copies of this box on sale at Rhino.com for the low, low price of…$59.98. That’s $15/disc and really inexpensive for a Blu-Ray surround mix disc. I typically pay £23-25 for any I buy, though they often have upwards to six different mixes of any album on them to assuage the cost.

I’m imagining that the streaming services that feature Dolby Atmos® sound have begun hosting these four albums for any subscribers. So the curious may partake without dropping coin. I’m sitting this one out, though it would probably be a good investment to buy one of these boxes and sit on it for a few years to flip. But I’m not into speculating. Meanwhile, if this is your cup of meat, then DJ hit that button!

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