Ramones - Eaten Alive! New York, November 1977 (2015)

They formed in 1974, made their first album in 1976 and in 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By 2014, all of the band's original four members - lead singer Joey Ramone (1951-2001), guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948-2004), bassist Dee Dee Ramone (1952-2002) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949-2014) - had passed away. They performed 2,263 concerts across 22 years, made 14 studio and 4 live albums and were about as perfect a rock band as any could be. But 1976 and 1977, the years of punk in the US and UK, was the groups finest era. And it was towards the end of this era that the show represented on this CD was performed. A live broadcast on FM radio, this recording features perfect sound quality and includes live versions of cuts from the groups first four records, all released between 1976 & 1978 - along with a couple of choice covers, with which all fine Ramones gigs were graced. A wonderful reminder of what a groundbreaking and pivotal 1970s group The Ramones were, this album acts too as a celebration of the 40 year anniversary of the group coming together in Queens, New York, when Dee Dee convinced the other original members that his chosen group name - inspired by the pseudonym Paul McCartney had used when booking into hotels in The Beatles early days - was a perfect moniker. How right he turned out to be!