Song of the Day: “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” by The Ramones

I know they’re basically the urtext of the genre, but, to my ears, The Ramones don’t sound like a punk band. They’re much closer to what we we’d call garage rock two decades later. While they reject pretense and overbearing complexity as punk bands are supposed to — and they play shit fast, of course — the anger and layer of social rebellion aren’t as prominent.

While many of the classic punk bands — The Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedys and early Clash — have an ethos of combat, as if one move away from a full-blown riot, The Ramones were happy to just to huff glue and reinvent the Loud, Fast, and Out of Control era of rock ‘n’ roll music.

That said, it basically means I enjoy them more than other punk bands. They have plenty of decent tunes up their sleeves. One of my favorites is “Sheena is a Punk Rocker.” It’s basically a Beach Boys song at 1.5x speed with a fake British accent. The tune is fantastic, with a great pre-chorus and a singalong refrain.