Hey, Ho, Let’s Go: Rhino Boxes Up Some Ramones Records on CD

Rhino continues its affordable/collectible album box set streak with New York’s own Ramones.

The Sire Years 1976-1981 is just that: a box collating Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy and (from 1978’s Road to Ruin onward) Marky’s first six albums for Seymour Stein’s label – three hours of classics from one of the defining bands of the punk rock movement. Ramones (1976), Leave Home, Rocket to Russia (both 1977), Road to Ruin, the Phil Spector-produced End of the Century (1980) and Pleasant Dreams (1981) are all included here.

While it’s a solid addition to your or someone else’s collection, it should be noted that this box will not feature any of the great bonus tracks Rhino dug up for a lengthy series of Ramones remasters in 2001 and 2002. (An additional two albums for Sire, Subterranean Jungle (1983) and Too Tough to Die (1984), were also expanded.) The label confirmed this to us late last week, adding that the same mastering from those reissues will be preserved on this set.

The approximate price per disc for the box is not that different from picking up the expanded remasters in a store, so if bonus tracks aren’t necessarily your thing, The Sire Years 1976-1981 is yours to pick up on October 29. You can order it at Amazon U.S. and Amazon U.K.