Commando
Page 15
SUBTERRANEAN JUNGLE
RELEASED: February 23, 1983, Sire Records
REISSUED: August 20, 2002, Warner Archives / Rhino
Produced by Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin; recorded at Kingdom Sound, Syosset. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.
Little Bit o’ Soul • I Need Your Love • Outsider • What’d Ya Do? • Highest Trails Above • Somebody Like Me • Psycho Therapy • Time Has Come Today • My-My Kind of a Girl • In the Park • Time Bomb • Every Time I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think of You
Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: Indian Giver (Original Mix) • New Girl in Town • No One to Blame (Demo) • Roots of Hatred (Demo) • Bumming Along (Demo) • Unhappy Girl (Demo) • My-My Kind of a Girl (Acoustic Demo)
TOO TOUGH TO DIE | Grade: A-
All of a sudden, we all got along and stopped worrying about making a hit record—as a result, this is a really good album. Tommy and Ed produced it, and it has a great guitar sound. All the songs are solid. Joey wasn’t at the rehearsals for the album, though. Dee Dee had a lot of input on this, which helped make it such a good album, and he sang “Wart Hog.” We wrote several of the songs together, too, which made a big difference.
I’d have to lobby for songs. Joey had voted against “Psychotherapy” on Subterranean Jungle, and this time he was voting against “Wart Hog.” There are all these songs that are now classic Ramones songs that he voted against. And if I hadn’t lobbied for them, they wouldn’t have been on the albums.
At this point in our career, when the record company wanted to hear some songs that we were going to use, I would just tell them to listen to the last five albums, and that’s what these were going to sound like, but different. That was it. They never really asked me much more, and we delivered. This was our best record of the eighties.
TOO TOUGH TO DIE
RELEASED: October 1, 1984, Sire Records
REISSUED: August 20, 2002, Warner Archives / Rhino
Produced by T. Erdelyi and Ed Stasium; recorded at Media Sound, New York City. On Rhino reissue, executive producer Johnny Ramone.
Mama’s Boy • I’m Not Afraid of Life • Too Tough to Die • Durango 95 • Wart Hog • Danger Zone • Chasing the Night • Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La) • Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love) • Planet Earth 1988 • Humankind • Endless Vacation • No Go
Bonus tracks on Rhino reissue: Street Fighting Man • Smash You • Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La) (demo) • Planet Earth 1988 (Dee Dee vocal version) • Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love) (demo) • Endless Vacation (demo) • Danger Zone (Dee Dee vocal version) • Out of Here • Mama’s Boy (demo) • I’m Not an Answer • Too Tough to Die (Dee Dee vocal version) • No Go (demo)
Excerpt from inside sleeve of the original 1984 Sire LP release Too Tough to Die . Verses to “Wart Hog” were left off due to controversy with the lyrics.
ANIMAL BOY | Grade: B-
This would have worked if the production had been better, but the guitar doesn’t even sound like me. I liked the songs, though; they were all brand-new. Dee Dee and I wrote the music to “Freak of Nature” while they were changing reels in the studio. This is also the album where Dee Dee and Joey wrote the song about Reagan’s visit to Germany, but I wouldn’t let them put it out with the original title, “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg.” It appears as “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down.” They couldn’t talk about my favorite president like that. So we agreed to use another title.
Dee Dee was always leaning to the right. I don’t know why he wrote that. Maybe he believed that it could be popular in Europe. I sure wasn’t happy. I didn’t want politics in the songs anyway. When I was in the Ramones, I never wanted it to be about politics. There’s video out there that has me saying that we aren’t political, and that was true. Joey was a far left liberal, a hippie, and he would speak out sometimes and it would make me cringe. He even did some of that “We Are the World” stuff. I spoke out once in a while. One time I told a college newspaper in Oregon that Ronald Reagan was all right but he wasn’t conservative enough. I did it to get a reaction, just to irritate people.
Like on a lot of later albums, we ended up doing maybe four songs off the whole thing during the tour because the material just didn’t measure up to our other stuff. The producer on this, Jean Beauvoir, was selected by the label, not us.
ANIMAL BOY
RELEASED: May 19, 1986, Sire / Warner Brothers
Produced by Jean Beauvoir; recorded at Intergalactic Studios, New York.
Somebody Put Something in My Drink • Animal Boy • Love Kills • Apeman Hop • She Belongs to Me • Crummy Stuff • My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) • Mental Hell • Eat That Rat • Freak of Nature • Hair of the Dog • Something to Believe In
Autographed photo of Nancy Reagan personalized to Johnny, from the private collection of Johnny Ramone. Used courtesy JRA LLC.
HALFWAY TO SANITY | Grade: B-
This was recorded during a stressful time in the Ramones. Joey and Richie made it hard for Daniel Rey, who was producing the album. They kept wanting to change things and remix songs. The best of them are “I Wanna Live,” “Weasel Face,” “Bop ’til You Drop,” and “Garden of Serenity.” Dee Dee and I wrote “Weasel Face” about a guy who had a real weasel face. He came to all our gigs in the South; he followed us around. I think he was from Mississippi. The tracks on this one aren’t the best. I always had a problem bringing songs into the band unless I was sure they were going to be very good. I was very selective because I didn’t want to embarrass myself. The other guys brought in things that sucked, but they acted like they were great. We shot the album cover in New York City’s Chinatown, keeping it dark. It had to be pretty good not to make us look old, and it was getting harder and harder.
Also, Dee Dee was credited as bass player here but didn’t play on the album. Daniel played his parts. Debbie Harry did guest backing vocals on “Go Lil’ Camaro Go.”
HALFWAY TO SANITY
RELEASED: September 15, 1987, Sire / Warner Brothers
Produced by the Ramones and Daniel Rey; recorded at Intergalactic Studios, New York City.
I Wanna Live • Bop ’til You Drop • Garden of Serenity • Weasel Face • Go Lil’ Camaro Go • I Know Better Now • Death of Me • I Lost My Mind • A Real Cool Time • I’m Not Jesus • Bye Bye Baby • Worm Man
Autographed photo of Paul McCartney, personalized to Johnny, and acknowledging the influence of Sir McCartney’s early alias “Ramon” and its historical relevance to the Ramones. From the private collection of Johnny Ramone. Used Courtesy JRA LLC.
BRAIN DRAIN | Grade: C
One of my least favorite albums, but it has a couple of bright spots, like “I Believe in Miracles” and “Punishment Fits the Crime.” Bill Laswell’s production is too dense; he had me record the guitars on five or six tracks. So the album took too much time, and there were too many Joey songs on it, which always took more time. “Miracles” was the song we kept in our live repertoire for a while, and “Pet Sematary,” which we wrote for the Stephen King movie, was also a live song for a while. That came out OK. We also covered “Palisades Park,” which may have been my idea, but it came out lousy. This was the last album Dee Dee was credited on, but again, he didn’t play on it.
BRAIN DRAIN RELEASED: May 23, 1989, Sire Records
Produced by Bill Laswell except for “Pet Sematary” and “Merry Christmas,” produced by Jean Beauvoir and Daniel Rey; recorded at Sorcerer Sound.
I Believe in Miracles • Zero Zero UFO • Don’t Bust My Chops • Punishment Fits the Crime • All Screwed Up • Palisades Park • Pet Sematary • Learn to Listen • Can’t Get You Outta My Mind • Ignorance Is Bliss • Come Back, Baby • Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)
Autographed photo of Stephen King (personalized to Johnny), from the private collection of Johnny Ramone. Used courtesy JRA LLC.
MONDO BIZARRO | Grade: C
The songs are t
he weak spot on this album. Dee Dee’s “Main Man” and “Strength to Endure” are the best ones, and we kept doing them live to the end. But we needed more Dee Dee songs on it. I didn’t write anything on this record; it was two from Mark and some Dee Dee and Joey. CJ was in the band, but his material wasn’t up to par yet. I liked working with Ed Stasium again, but he was producing things a little differently now, piecing things together and using multiple tracks on the drums, and so it was more time-consuming. It also cut into the spontaneity of the recording. We did a Doors cover, “Take It As It Comes.” It was my idea, which nobody liked at first. But Joey did a great job on the vocals, and it shows, because the song works. I didn’t like the lyrics on “Censorshit.” They were stupid. Joey wrote this song about Tipper Gore, and then he goes and votes for Bill Clinton. I don’t think he even knew that Tipper Gore was the vice president’s wife. I liked the song, though. The band was doing well by this time, making more money than ever, playing festivals and bigger shows. I had my eye on hitting twenty years together when we recorded this. It was a goal I had, and we were getting close.
MONDO BIZARRO
RELEASED: September 1, 1992, Radioactive Records
Produced by Ed Stasium; recorded at the Magic Shop, NYC, and Baby Monster Studio, NYC
Censorshit • The Job That Ate My Brain • Poison Heart • Anxiety • Strength to Endure • It’s Gonna Be Alright • Take It As It Comes • Main Man • Tomorrow She Goes Away • I Won’t Let It Happen • Cabbies on Crack • Heidi Is a Headcase • Touring
ACID EATERS | Grade: B-
This is hit-and-miss, but overall I think we did a good job. A lot of these songs were done with studio work, arrangements, and tricks, which was really different for us. “Out of Time” was one of those. We practiced it, and it didn’t sound quite right. But once we added some things, it came out fine. We never could have done this album early in our career, because the songs would have had to be adapted to a strict Ramones style, like “California Sun.”
Here, we experimented to mixed success. Joey did a great job on “Out of Time.” CJ sang some of these and also did well, like on “The Shape of Things to Come.” “Somebody to Love” came out OK, but it was a hard song to sing. I never liked the Jefferson Airplane, but I guess Grace Slick was pretty good. Traci Lords did backing vocals on that one too. On “My Back Pages,” we just skipped over the Byrds’ and Dylan’s versions and did it Ramones style. “Surf City” fell short because we didn’t do it in the right key. Joey never rehearsed it with us, so it didn’t come out right.
One of the problems was that as we undertook this, we were getting all kinds of suggestions from everybody, and it was getting to be a pain in the ass. I mean, “She’s Not There” by the Zombies? Some of the most logical songs don’t work when you’re doing this. It’s always hard to pick covers, and after all those years it was still hard to tell.
Pete Townshend came in to do backing vocals on “Substitute.” He is one of the greats and one of my guitar heroes, but he was late. I stuck around for a half hour waiting for him. After a while, I started wondering if he was going to show up at all, and everyone was getting excited about talking to him. That was not how I wanted to meet him, so I left to go watch the Yankee game.
ACID EATERS
RELEASED: January 4, 1994, Radioactive Records
Produced by Scott Hackwith; recorded at Baby Monster Studio, New York City.
Journey to the Center of the Mind • Substitute • Out of Time • The Shape of Things to Come • Somebody to Love • When I Was Young • 7 and 7 Is • My Back Pages • Can’t Seem to Make You Mine • Have You Ever Seen the Rain? • I Can’t Control Myself • Surf City
Johnny with Traci Lords. Photo by Bill Mullen.
Johnny with actor Michael Berryman on the set of the Ramones music video “Substitute.” Used courtesy JRA LLC photo archives. All rights reserved.
¡ADIOS AMIGOS! | Grade: B+
This album has perhaps the best of all the guitar sounds I ever got. Daniel Rey produced it, and he knew that the Ramones were a guitar group. He also played the leads on here. Some of our albums would have three or four really strong songs, and then the rest would be pretty weak. But on this one, even the lesser stuff is decent. My favorite is “The Crusher.” I love “Scattergun.” We did a cover of Tom Waits’s “I Don’t Want to Grow Up.” I had never heard the song before; I just showed up one day, and CJ played it for me, and I said, “Sure.” I didn’t really write anything on this, but I played well and got to do anything I wanted. I got CJ to sing four songs; he had a good voice for some of these songs. On “Makin Monsters for My Friends,” the demo from Dee Dee had Dee Dee singing, and it worked well when CJ sang it; he had a whiny voice, and it sounded great.
The front cover is of dinosaurs, which is what we felt like. When we showed up for the shoot for the back cover, I told them that we were going to face away from the camera. The label said that I had agreed to take pictures, and I did, but I’d never said that we would face the camera. I was very protective of how we looked at that point, and some of us looked worse than others. I was trying to avoid any clear shots of the band. So the back cover is just a photo of us with our backs to a firing squad. I had asked that they put the name of the record company on the backs of the firing squad executing us, and they wouldn’t go with that. I figured they wouldn’t. But I just wanted to get them to say yes to something, which was that we wouldn’t show our faces. And I won on that point.
¡ADIOS AMIGOS! RELEASED: July 18, 1995, Radioactive Records
Produced by Daniel Rey; recorded at Baby Monster Studio, New York City.
Don’t Want to Grow Up • Makin Monsters for My Friends • It’s Not for Me to Know • The Crusher • Life’s a Gas • Take the Pain Away • I Love You • Cretin Family • Have a Nice Day • Scattergun • Got Alot to Say • She Talks to Rainbows • Born to Die in Berlin
Hidden track on U.S. CD edition: Spider Man
Handwritten Christmas card to Johnny from Joey, 1990. From the private collection of Johnny Ramone. Used Courtesy JRA LLC. All rights reserved.
The Ramones ring in the new year at the legendary “It’s Alive” show at the Rainbow Theatre, London, December 31, 1977. Photo by Danny Fields, under license to JRA LLC. All rights reserved.
Photo by Jenny Lens, © JRA LLC. All rights reserved.
Photo by Danny Fields. Under license to JRA LLC. All rights reserved.
1A: BEST BALLPLAYERS OF THE NINETIES
1. Greg Maddux
2. Roger Clemens
3. Barry Bonds
4. Ken Griffey Jr.
5. Mark McGwire
6. Jeff Bagwell
7. Mike Piazza
8. Craig Biggio
9. Tom Glavine
10. Sammy Sosa
1B: BEST BALLPLAYERS OF THE EIGHTIES
1. Rickey Henderson
2. Mike Schmidt
3. Cal Ripken
4. Wade Boggs
5. Ryne Sandberg
6. Andre Dawson
7. Robin Yount
8. Tim Raines
9. George Brett
10. Tony Gwynn
2A: TOP PUNK GROUPS
1. The Ramones
2. The Clash
3. The Sex Pistols
4. The Heartbreakers
5. The Dead Boys
6. The Damned
7. The Cramps
8. The Buzzcocks
9. The Dickies
10. Black Flag
2B: TOP GUITARISTS
1. Jimmy Page
2. Jeff Beck
3. Leslie West
4. Jimi Hendrix
5. Dick Dale
6. Ron Asheton
7. James Williamson
8. Johnny Thunders
9. Keith Richards
10. George Harrison
2C: TOP SINGERS
1. Elvis
2. Bing Crosby
3. Roy Orbison
4. Gene Pitney
/> 5. The Everly Brothers
6. Ricky Nelson
7. Dean Martin
8. Frankie Laine
9. Dion
10. Jim Morrison
3A: FAVORITE REPUBLICANS
1. Ronald Reagan
2. Richard Nixon
3. Charlton Heston
4. Vincent Gallo
5. Ted Nugent
6. Rush Limbaugh
7. Sean Hannity
8. Arnold Schwarzenegger
9. Bob Barr
10. Tom DeLay
I’ve always been a Republican. From the 1960 election with Nixon against Kennedy. At that point, I was basically just sick of people sitting there going, “Oh, I like this guy. He’s so good-looking.” I’m thinking, “This is sick. They all like him because he’s good-looking?” And I started rooting for Nixon just because people thought he wasn’t good-looking. And then by the time Goldwater ran and he starts talking about bombing Vietnam, I said, “This sounds right to me.” Then I started realizing where my political leanings really lay.
I remember doing an interview in 1979 for CREEM magazine with Lester Bangs and telling him that Ronald Reagan will be the next president. He was really mad that I liked Reagan, who was the greatest president of my lifetime. So I turned it around on him and asked to see his Commie card. In fact, ever after that, I would ask him for his card. I think he had one, really.