Day After Day #176: We Want the Airwaves

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

We Want the Airwaves (1981)

By the time this song came out, the Ramones had already been around for seven years and had released six albums. Their previous album, 1980's End of the Century, was produced by the infamous Phil Spector and was poppier than the band would have liked, moving away from their punk beginnings. For Pleasant Dreams, produced by Graham Gouldman of 10CC, the Ramones ventured more into hard rock territory.

By all accounts, the album was a commercial flop. It peaked at #58 on the Billboard 200 but had no singles released in the U.S. The sound was cleaner, but some felt that the Ramones were better when things were messy. The band had been pushing to work with Steve Lillywhite, but the label insisted on Gouldman.

The recording of the album also led to conflict between Joey and Johnny Ramone after Johnny began dating Joey's girlfriend. They also differed on how the band should sound, with Joey pushing for a pop punk sound and Johnny leaning toward hard rock. In addition, Dee Dee Ramone was struggling with a drug addiction and Marky and Joey were abusing alcohol.

Whatever the case, I always liked the album opener "We Want the Airwaves," which was a hard rock version of the single "Do You Remember Rock n' Roll Radio?" from the previous record. The band had begun posting individual song credits instead of sharing it four ways, and this was a Joey song. Of course, maybe it was too much to expect radio stations to play a song criticizing them for sucking.

"9 to 5 and 5 to 9/Ain't gonna take it/It's our time/We want the world and we want it now/We're gonna take it anyhow/We want the airwaves/We want the airwaves/We want the airwaves, baby/If rock is gonna stay alive."

Around this time, commercial FM rock stations, which were once bastions of freeform radio, had become heavily formatted to play what the big record companies wanted. So Joey Ramone was definitely on to something here.

"Where's your guts and will to survive/And don't you wanna keep rock n' roll music alive/Mr. Programmer/I got my hammer/And I'm gonna/Smash my/Smash my/Radio!"

Of course, there were still college radio stations to champion the band. Oddly, 43 years later, commercial radio has deteriorated even more. Here in the Boston area, you've got a few classic rock stations (who do play a small number of Ramones songs), but it's the college stations that remain the most interesting. If you want to hear new rock music, you're either listening to the left of the dial or you're going elsewhere.

Pleasant Dreams turned out to be pretty forgettable in the Ramones catalog, but the band kept chugging along, releasing eight more albums over the next 14 years before splitting up in 1996. Sadly, they weren't around for much longer to bask in the accolades from a great career. Joey died from lymphoma in 2001, a year before the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dee Dee was found dead from a heroin overdose in 2002 and Johnny died after a battle with prostate cancer in 2004. They never did take over the airwaves, but dammit, they should have.