“He blew it”: The 1980s feud at the heart of the Ramones’ punk dominance
When you think of the Ramones, one likely image comes to mind: the black-and-white cover photograph taken by Roberta Bayley for their self-titled 1976 debut album, with all four Ramones, Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee, standing against a brick wall in matching leather and denim, in The Bowery, Lower Manhattan.
That image may have made the Ramones literal punk icons, but just two years later, drummer Tommy’s departure from the band kick-started numerous transitions that placed them in a near-constant flux. Tommy was replaced by Marky Ramone, and they achieved what remains their highest-charting album with 1980’s End of the Century, but they continually strayed from the ‘raw’ energy of their earlier albums that made them icons in the first place.
By 1983, Marky had been fired, and in his place came Richie Ramone (playing under the name Richie Beau during his first few months in the band, and he soon conceded to adopting the shared Ramone surname). Richie played on the Ramones’ next three albums, 1984’s Too Tough to Die, 1986’s Animal Boy and 1987’s Halfway to Sanity, and on a number of the band’s compilation albums, while writing some of their later well-known songs.
“Oh, he’s great. I think he saved the band, as far as I’m concerned,” Joey Ramone expressed in 1984, to The Providence Local, “He’s the greatest thing to happen to the Ramones. He put the spirit back in the band.”
But, just four years after he’d joined the band, in 1987, Richie suddenly left. “He blew it, alright? He blew it, and that’s that,” Joey asserted, in an interview with Wayne Robins in 1987, after being asked about past ‘sarcastic’ comments made by Richie. “He pulled a number on us, his head swelled, he got greedy, his wife told him how wonderful he was all the time,” Joey surmised, “It started with financial matters, and that was resolved. Richie got what he wanted, and I thought maybe things could have worked out.”
Richie chose to leave the Ramones at a time when things with the band were picking up pace: Halfway to Sanity had just been completed, while a world tour was scheduled in its wake, with dates included at The Ritz in New York that had to be postponed. Blondie’s drummer, Clem Burke, briefly joined the band as Elvis Ramone for two performances, in Richie’s place.
“For me, it’s a little fucked up, because at one time, me and Richie were really good friends,” Joey continued, “I mean, Richie quit. He pulled a number, quitting without notice…the week of The Ritz shows. Heavy shows, with the album coming out. It was sort of a pre-planned escapade on his part… He sort of comes over to me, whimpering, ‘I can’t work you guys, I quit’.”
As for the specific reasoning behind Richie quitting the band, financial disagreements seem to be at the heart of it. As Richie later explained, after five years in the Ramones, he had asked for the percentage of merchandising profits and was denied, resulting in conflict with Johnny, particularly.
“The Ramones are the three of us,” Joey asserted, referring to himself, Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone, “nobody cares if Richie’s in or out, or whoever else it might be. Because it takes a lot to be in this band… We’ve worked hard to be what we are and maintain what we are… We don’t just pick up a drummer and go out. We work hard to make sure the band is the best, and that’s the way we do it.”
Marky Ramone would return to the band that September, and the Ramones continued for nearly a decade in Richie’s absence. The unfortunate feud was one of many for the band, one where it seemed that even as they crafted punk’s defining sound, they could never escape a conflict between each other.
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