The Ramones 'Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)'
What better way to conclude the 1980s than with the Ramones' 'Merry Christmas' (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight' from their 1989 album Brain Drain, produced by Daniel Rey and Bill Laswell. Though generally overlooked in the band's back-catalogue, Brain Drain produced three fantastic singles: including this festive number, 'Pet Semetary' and 'I Believe in Miracles'. All three gained airplay on America's expanding Alternative Rock radio.
The Modern Rock Chart, launched in 1988, gave relevance to both punk refugees like Ramones, Public Image, B52s and Siouxise and the Banshees, while also providing a platform for the architects of both Grunge and Brit Pop. In retrospect, both the album and this Joey Ramone penned single are a high point in the band's latter day career: with Daniel Rey they managed to find a sound that was both polished and modern, without loosing their essential punk sense of fun.
The follow-up album, Mondo Bizarro produced by Ed Stasium, is equally forgotten, but contains the classic 'Poison Heart'. The prodigious output of the Ramones, from punk through to the grunge era should not be underestimated; and from a 21st Century perspective is a fascinating insight into the contradictions and compromises endemic to the alternative rock scene in the 1980s.
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