Subterranean Jungle (Deluxe Edition)

The Ramones had never been a commercially successful group, building their audience through endless touring, positive press, and invaluable word of mouth. Fellow punk traveler Joan Jett had scored a massive, unexpected hit the previous year with the uncompromising “I Love Rock ‘N Roll.” The Ramones enlisted her producers and set out to see if lightning could strike twice. Though commercially the album did little, “Psycho Therapy” became an instant concert classic. The band’s originals are quite strong here. Dee Dee Ramone’s “Outsider,” “Somebody Like Me,” “In the Park,” and “Time Bomb” are the type of hard yet catchy tunes that pop-punk bands have been trying to write (and re-write) for decades. Not to be outdone, Joey Ramone hands in the mid-‘60s influenced “My My Kind of Girl” and the oddly complimentary “Everytime I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think of You.” The expanded edition includes several likeable outtakes, including “New Girl In Town” and the acoustic demo of “My My Kind of Girl.”