Ramones by The Ramones 1976

I remember reading the review of this in NME and it sounded so exciting. Guitars like power drills. Sixties sensibilities delivered with buzz saws. So when the local Brashs had a copy I was over the moon. When I got it home I was knocked out by the opening track "Blitzkrieg Bop" I couldn't believe that was a niche record. To me, they all sounded like pop singles that deserved to be all over the radio. But of course, they weren't.
The second thing that hit me was the separation of left and right very similar to the old Beatles records. Guitars one side. Vocals the other. Made it odd when listening with two speakers on each side of my head. I had really just begun writing songs at this stage but here was a fantastic template for songwriting. And I really started writing after this.
It was also great to read that the Ramones influences were exactly the same as mine. Bubblegum pop, glam rock and sixties classics like Do Wah Diddy. This was the beginning of a whole new chapter in music. And one that I really wanted to be part of. I had two crappy amps that I plugged into each other to give me the buzz saw sound and I was away. It would be another 3 years before I got to play the guitar on stage though.