37 YEARS LATER: The Ramones' "I DON'T WANNA GO DOWN TO THE BASEMENT"

Today marks the 37th anniversary of the release of the Ramones' eponymous first album. While I can't speak for those with more genteel tastes, that album was a life-changer for me when I discovered it some four years after it first came out. That considerable gap in time between release and the album falling into my grubby little hands is understandable, simply because the record got no airplay whatsoever on the Tri-State Area radio stations I listened to at the time, and while I knew one kid in my junior high who was into The Clash, no one in my school was listening to a bunch of grubby-looking, could-be-drug-addicts like the boys from Forest Hills while there were still albums by The Doors and The Beatles to run further into the ground.

Anyway, here's my tip of the hat to Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy, for all the many hours of adolescent angst they helped salve with their anthems of male prostitution, anti-social tendencies, recreational abuse of household adhesives, and the presumed correlation of young love and nazism. And rather than go with my usual pick from that classic initial aural salvo, specifically the indelible "Blitzkrieg Bop," here's my favorite of the album's lesser-heard cuts. And you've gotta love it as a Scooby-Doo-esque cartoon with rock-bottom animation!