Joey Ramone’s favourite album by the Ramones: “A real breakthrough”
While albums are usually the lifeblood of a band, it didn’t seem that way with the Ramones. As pioneers of New York’s punk scene, their legacy goes well beyond their music. They were the leaders of a new DIY wave, the kings of a new kind of attitude, and they spent the majority of their career on non-stop touring, bringing it to the world. For their fans, the albums were almost beside the point, but for the band, they were important as ever.
However, it was arguably the thing that got impacted most by band politics, lineup changes and the carnage the group thrived on. A level of chaos helps a live show really. That was what audiences piled into venues to see, wanting to catch a glimpse of the band’s rowdy and raucous energy up on stage as punk bloomed in front of their eyes. Life on the road is expected to be that way and is part of why so many wild kids land in the music world on the hunt for excitement.
But in the studio, things need to be calmer. Even if the music is electric and thrilling, dangerous and high-octane, the process of making it has to be, at least to a degree, peaceful. Making an album cannot happen by just going into a room, setting up some mics and playing like it’s a gig. It’s a meticulous process that needs thought, decision making, polish and compromise. Things have to be agreed upon and put into action, things have to be slowed down and taken step by step, and things have to be, to some extent, orderly. The Ramones weren’t known for that.
Across their earlier albums, they’d faced up to almost every issue they could. They’d started with no money, navigating that, then had found themselves in a position of almost having too much money in the late 1970s and getting too silly with it. They faced up to Phil Spector and his divisive process, with the record label remarking, “To Johnny, this must have been like the Chinese water torture,” as Spector’s perfectionism challenged the band’s energy-first approach. They’d had fights, had walk-outs, had drug-fuelled breakdowns, and, to Joey Ramone, you could often hear that on tape.
In his mind, especially, you could hear the conflicts they’d been having with their record label, Sire. The label would pump money into the band, then be disappointed if sales were low, and start off the next album cycle, packing on the pressure that this one needed to be better. It made the band get in their head, only adding to the studio stress and often leaving them with a record they didn’t feel all that connected to.
But on Joey Ramone’s favourite release, they defied that. “We were back doing what we did, exciting rock and roll without any crap from the record company,” he said, picking out Too Tough To Die, their 1984 album, as the moment they blocked all noise but their own out.
For the first time since their very first releases, this one truly embodied the rough DIY spirit that launched them. They returned to the process they’d used on their debut, which was to make as close to a live album as possible, rejecting the voices telling them it needed to be more polished.
But for the band and their fans, they always knew they were best with a little mess. Realising that and committing to it changed everything, as Ramone said, “That was a real breakthrough because we were back on track with that album.”
