Judy is a Punk! - Classic Ramones cover just for fun

G

Greg_L

Banned
With the recent death of Tommy Ramone, all four of the original Ramones are now gone. Even though they've been retired for almost 20 years, it bums me out. It's totally official now - no more Ramones. But they left me a giant pile of awesome music to listen to and I never get tired of it. So the family is out of town and I had some time to kill today so I banged this out this afternoon. According to Tommy himself, this was the very first Ramones song. I tried to do it like their album version - minimal!

Judy is a Punk

Judy is a Punk mix #2

Judy is a Punk mix #3 - new guitar track, added claps

Judy is a Punk - Modern style mix
Please let me know what you think about this weird mix.

Thanks,
Greg
 
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Cool Greg, I think the vocals are my favorite part - the doubling and the soft part that comes in. Lots of layers....
Excellent for an afternoon's work. No mix problems for me nice and clean but gritty. Short and sweet.
 
Man, that sounds just like the ramones.
If they make the movie "gabba gabba hey! The Ramones story" you should be their go to man for the soundtrack.

Great job nailing that sound and groove!
 
I knew it was going to be awesome just reading the title. I think the bass on the left should be a little louder though. Kind of even out the left and right.
 
There've been a few bass to the side mixes in the last 20 years or so. Often it doesn't work but in this it was, I think, an attempt to capture the live 4 piece ideal.
The bass is fairly toppy so balances the guitars pretty well.
These days a bass manager could probably achieve this idea better than rolling off the low low bottom end as was often done.
The mix is weirdish but not distracting, (& I'm wearing h/phones so it could be awful), & when I play it through a stereo in a room I'm sure it'll make goo sense.
Well done Greg.
 
Thanks a lot everyone so far. This is not a good headphones mix. Lol. It'll give you a headache. I think this style of mix is best blasted into open air through speakers.

The bass is just direct, compressed, hard panned left. I don't have my usual bass rig handy today so I just plugged straight in. I didn't do anything to it but compression to tame the downpicking. I do think it needs a little better low end on the bass side. The guitar is one track panned hard right. The guitar was the fun part because it's the closest I can do to early days Johnny Ramone style - my Mosrite clone into an all-knobs-on-10 fully cranked Plexi. No EQ or anything. Just mic'd a speaker and cranked everything. That part was awesome.
 
First time I listened to this, I thought it was a bit thin compared to the original. EQ-wise, I thought it needed more body. (Hey, that's what you get for turning me on to the Ramones - I actually listen to their stuff.) So I A/B'ed them and found out that I was wrong. You changed the key, but EQ-wise, it's fine. So, after A/B'ing them, what's the conclusion? I like your version better for the sound, but I like Joey's vocal better. I like your vocal, but I really like his. He sounds like such an engaging moron. It's like he's been listening to how the vocalist does 'Please Mr Postman' and pronounces 'postman' 'bostman'. Regina Spektor learned that trick - you can hear it on her song 'How' on Vimeo. Anyway, well done. Even if you don't sound like a moron. I like how this one sounds.
 
dobro said:
First time I listened to this, I thought it was a bit thin compared to the original. EQ-wise, I thought it needed more body. (Hey, that's what you get for turning me on to the Ramones - I actually listen to their stuff.) So I A/B'ed them and found out that I was wrong. You changed the key, but EQ-wise, it's fine. So, after A/B'ing them, what's the conclusion? I like your version better for the sound, but I like Joey's vocal better. I like your vocal, but I really like his. He sounds like such an engaging moron. It's like he's been listening to how the vocalist does 'Please Mr Postman' and pronounces 'postman' 'bostman'. Regina Spektor learned that trick - you can hear it on her song 'How' on Vimeo. Anyway, well done. Even if you don't sound like a moron. I like how this one sounds.
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Thanks dobro. Yeah I tuned down a half step just to make it easier to sing. You made an accurate observation about Joey. He was a HUGE fan of 60s girl groups and took a lot of inspiration from those girl groups and mixed it with his own thick head-cold NYC accent. Joey was originally the drummer, then they heard him sing, and Tommy made him the singer. The rest is history. That's the one thing I wont even try to do on Ramones covers - sing like Joey. Can't be done.

This was my first mixdown, so I'm gonna play with it more today and try to get the bass better.
 
Well done, man. I' m listening totally out of the context of the original because it's been many years since I've heard it. So in the vacuum of my own listening habits:

I first wanted to hear more drums. Then I wanted to hear more vocal. I think basically it all comes down to turning the guitars down, then the drums and vocal would be where I'd want it myself. Again, that's coming from somewhat of an outsider's perspective. For the genre, it's probably just right. I'm currently listening on a system with a sub, so the panned bass sounds centered to me, and the level of it sounds fine.
 
Tadpui said:
Well done, man. I' m listening totally out of the context of the original because it's been many years since I've heard it. So in the vacuum of my own listening habits:

I first wanted to hear more drums. Then I wanted to hear more vocal. I think basically it all comes down to turning the guitars down, then the drums and vocal would be where I'd want it myself. Again, that's coming from somewhat of an outsider's perspective. For the genre, it's probably just right. I'm currently listening on a system with a sub, so the panned bass sounds centered to me, and the level of it sounds fine.
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Thanks for listening. I'd normally agree about the drums. I'd usually mix the drums much better than this, but I'm trying to copy the general sound and template of the original Ramones recording. No one makes mixes like this anymore, and not that I'm gonna start doing it myself, but it's something different to play with.
 
Hey Greg - I gave your second mix a listen. Then I listened to the original (never heard it before). I think your backing vocals are tighter and did you play it a little faster? Yours has a slicker sound. You didn't put the claps in the 'second verse...' bit - I'd have liked it better with those in, I think.

Is the guitar a little fizzy or is that just what you get when you crank all the knobs on the plexi and have it so low in the mix? It's weird it must have been so loud in the room but is so quiet in the mix.

It's a nice job for an afternoon's work, though. I prefer it to the original.
 
jonny deep said:
Hey Greg - I gave your second mix a listen. Then I listened to the original (never heard it before). I think your backing vocals are tighter and did you play it a little faster? Yours has a slicker sound. You didn't put the claps in the 'second verse...' bit - I'd have liked it better with those in, I think.

Is the guitar a little fizzy or is that just what you get when you crank all the knobs on the plexi and have it so low in the mix? It's weird it must have been so loud in the room but is so quiet in the mix.

It's a nice job for an afternoon's work, though. I prefer it to the original.
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Thanks johnnydeep.

It is a tad faster. I think the original is around 180bpm, this one's 185. I know, I forgot the claps! I realized it last night. Will add those today. Even though I've heard the original ten billion times, I did this strictly from memory and didn't reference the original during the process.

I also noticed, like you mentioned, the guitar is a little harsh compared to the original. I think my general tone is close, but the wild roar in the original is a little smoother. I wanna try to find that sound. I think backing the mic off the cab might do it. It was loud as hell, but it's the only guitar track and it has to just kind of sit way over there to the right. Besides recording live to tape, I have no idea what they used in the studio for that first album way back in 1976 so I just gotta make do with what I have. Maybe I need to wear my leather jacket. Here's Johnny recording this album:

120327-johnny-ramone-3.png
 
Lol, yeah definitely. And a bag of glue to huff all day and night. I love that pic because that's how I've always recorded my guitars. I stand there right in front of some loud ass amps with headphones on.

There is a lot of mystique and legend about the Ramones studio habits. A lot of it seems crazy, a lot of it seems legit. There is relatively very little actual technical info about how they recorded. Maybe because no one thought to really document that stuff. Every Ramones album has very different production from one to the next. That first album is the craziest one though.
 
Listened to both versions. I like the bass tweaks in mix #2. Mix is very close to the original. Except I can hear the vocals better here. :)

If I were to deviate from the original, I'd double or triple the backing vocals. I think it'd fill it out more. But I'm guessing you're a purist on that sort of thing. :)

Nice job.
 
TripleM said:
Listened to both versions. I like the bass tweaks in mix #2. Mix is very close to the original. Except I can hear the vocals better here. :)

If I were to deviate from the original, I'd double or triple the backing vocals. I think it'd fill it out more. But I'm guessing you're a purist on that sort of thing. :)

Nice job.
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Ha thanks. Some purist, I forgot the damn handclaps! :facepalm:
 
Can barely remember the original. You know my first sound gig was with a punk band in CT. We even played Ron's Place in New Haven a few times which was kind of a punk mecca at the time. Judy is a Punk was one of my favorites. That and Sub-mission.

I think it's cool you did a mix for nostalgia's sake, but this would sound really awesome with a contemporary mix. I am one who is glad we moved beyond the basic 4 track mixes to stuff that is more symmetrical across the stereo field. Yeah, I listened on headphones. lol

I love that you put the vocal inflection on "ice capades". That little part always stood out to me and you covered that tiny little detail. Awesome.

No other comments on the mix or tonal balance or anything. You got it nailed. Thanks for the trip back in time.
 
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