It's Ramones Monday and we turn our attention to the fifth track on the first album. Chainsaw is one of the rare Johnny Ramone compositions found in the band's oeuvre. Lyrically this is a frustrated if not confused boy-meets-girl scenario superimposed over allusions to the '74 classic slasher horror movie, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (brilliantly phrased by Joey as "mass-uh-KREE"), the song opens with the whir of a genuine circular saw and—true to theme—buzzes through its duration (three seconds shy of two minutes) with just as much speed as a saw of the circular or chain variety.
Johnny is typically painted as the Ramone with more drive and will than imagination and, for me, those colors come through in this song. If I had a need to say this album had a weak link, I think I'd pick this tune. But, you know, I have no such need.
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