Drawn from previous posts, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).
An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
Pleasant dreams? One supposes that would be in the eye of the beholder.
In my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, the interview with guitarist Johnny Ramone revealed his dissatisfaction with the choice of 10cc's Graham Gouldman as the producer of the Ramones' 1981 album Pleasant Dreams. "The guy from 10cc producing the Ramones? 10cc sucks, and it's not right for the Ramones." Drummer Marky Ramone liked the album a lot more than Johnny did (and a lot more than he liked its 1983 follow-up Subterranean Jungle), and both Marky and singer Joey Ramone were aware of Gouldman's impressive '60s songwriting credits for the Yardbirds, the Hollies, and Herman's Hermits. Marky told me, "I happen to like that album a lot. A lot of people don’t like it because it’s our pop album. John doesn’t like it. Me and Joey like it. I don’t know whether Dee Dee liked it or not. I’m not sure. But I really liked it a lot."
(At the time of our interview, Joey wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the sound Gouldman got for Pleasant Dreams. "He made us very pop," Joey said. "I mean, some of the songs came out great. But it didn’t have the edge. I remember doing the demos with Ed Stasium, and them sounding so fuckin’ amazing. Like, 'The KKK Took My Baby Away' we did with Ed, and it had so much aggression and it was great. It didn’t come off that way on the album." But Marky was right when he said Johnny Ramone didn't like it: "Yeah, this is the low point of our career here.")
Originally, my opinion of Pleasant Dreams inhabited a DMZ in between Johnny's and Marky's views. It doesn't sound like any other Ramones album. Too slick? Maybe. It's not the equal of any of the Ramones' classic first four albums. In recent years, however, I've been reevaluating Pleasant Dreams, and while I still don't think it's on the level of da brudders' classic 1-2-3-4! introductory barrage, it is a much, much better record than I fully appreciated at the time, or for a long time thereafter.
On Pleasant Dreams, Gouldman's production made the Ramones sound...I dunno, smoother than expected? Phil Spector had done something similar with 1980's End Of The Century, another album that doesn't sound like any other Ramones album. In Spector's hands, the bubblepunk purity of the Ramones got lost in his Wall of Sound; Gouldman turned the Ramones into a new wave pop band.
Ignoring the anomaly of this album's place in the larger Carbona-huffin' picture, though, I need to risk contradicting myself: Pleasant Dreams is a fantastic record. Fantastic. The fact that it wasn't Rocket To Russia doesn't prevent it from being compelling in its own right.
Pleasant Dreams is loaded with great Ramones songs, from "We Want The Airwaves" to "It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World)" to "She's A Sensation" to the superb album closer "Sitting In My Room." "The KKK Took My Baby Away" is the best-known of the bunch. Would the tracks sound better if Ed Stasium or Tommy Ramone had produced them? Possibly. They sound pretty good as-is.
Even when I underrated Pleasant Dreams, one track stood out. "All's Quiet On The Eastern Front" was my immediate pick when I bought the album in '81, and it has remained so. It's the sprightliest song ever done about a serial killer, stalking the street 'til the break of day, a track delivered with decidedly un-Ramoneslike percussion, and with backing vocals from Dee Dee Ramone asking that musical question, Can't you think my movements talk?
Hey, you unsuspecting soon-to-be victims: Pleasant dreams! All's not quite as quiet as it seems.
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My new book of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is out now, and you can get autographed copies of the new book, its six-chapter novelette digest A Band Called GUITARS VS. RAYGUNS!, and my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) directly from me. You can still get my previous previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
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