Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 266 - Ramones

Road To Ruin - Ramones

Sire

Produced by Tommy Erdelyi and Ed Stasium

Released 22nd September 1978

US Chart #103

UK Chart #32

A1 I Just Want To Have Something To Do
A2 I Wanted Everything
A3 Don't Come Close    
A4 I Don't Want You    
A5 Needles And Pins    
A6 I'm Against It    
B1 I Wanna Be Sedated    
B2 Go Mental    
B3 Questioningly    
B4 She's The One    
B5 Bad Brain    
B6 It's A Long Way Back

Personnel

    Joey Ramone – Lead vocals
    Johnny Ramone – Lead guitar
    Dee Dee Ramone – Bass guitar, Backing vocals
    Marky Ramone – Drums

Singles from Road To Ruin

    Don't Come Close / I Don't Want You
    Released 15th September 1978
UK Chart #39

Released as a Limited Edition Yellow Vinyl 12"

    Needles and Pins / I Wanted Everything
    Released February 1979

US Release

    She's the One / I Wanna Be Sedated
    Released 19th January 1979

 (Dutch Picture Sleeve)

I Wanna Be Sedated has been released a few times as a single in its own right.

In Scandanavia and the Netherlands it was released as an A-Side backed by I Don't Want You in 1979.

In 1980 by RSO Records in conjunction with the Soundtrack to the movie Times Square. It was backed with The Return of Jacky and Judy. 

In 1988 when Sire released the Ramones Mania Compilation it was issued as a single that featured the album version on the A-Side and on the B-Side the strangest Ramones track I've ever heard I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones-on-45-Mega-Mix).

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 "Road to Ruin reflected not just the Ramone's enduring love for Sixties pop, but a nagging desire to expand beyond the confines of 120 seconds in search of a new vocabulary of harmonic hooks, albeit linked to the guitar-crunching sonics established on their first three albums."
— Tommy Ramone

Studio Album number four for the Ramones and the first one that Tommy had sat out of playing on. He put away his sticks in order to once again do what he had intended at the start and that was to produce the band.

Marc Bell, who had formerly played in Richard Hell and the Voidoids (he had played on the Blank Generation Album) and Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys (no, not that Backstreet Boys!) took over the Drum Stool. Three weeks after joining the band and becoming Marky Ramone the recording of Road To Ruin begun.

What should have been one of their biggest albums "was a flop Stateside, even though it had been a very deliberate attempt to secure American radioplay" (Tommy Ramone). Outside of their homeland it faired better as they reached their highest position in the UK album chart with it (#32, though End of the Century in 1980 would surpass that by peaking at #14). Critical acclaim for the album would be a long time coming though among the fans (especially the ones I know) it is looked upon quite fondly.

There was a more poppy sound to this album than the previous three, which was a topic for great discussion (and still is) among fans of the band. This has ballads and goodness me, is that Acoustic Guitars I can hear? Doesn't exactly sound what we envisage a punk rock album to be like! But, I have to say I do have a fondness for Road To Ruin. The only track I'm not overly keen on is Bad Brain (that one seems to be mentioned by loads of reviewers as a weak link). It does contain a few of their classic songs that have stood the test of time: I Just Want To Have Something To Do, I'm Against It, I Wanna Be Sedated and She's The One. Interesting choice of cover version as well -the Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche song Needles and Pins. The song had been a minor hit in the US for Jackie DeShannon in 1963 and then in 1964 it was a #1 single for The Searchers (and hit #13 in the US). I can understand why it was chosen because Joey especially had a real fondness for 1960's pop and whilst it was a bit leftfield for the Ramones I think they pulled it off great (it was a hundred times better than the version Smokie had done!).

If you had thought a more "mellower" Ramones in the studio would translate to a more "mellower" Ramones on stage then you would be clearly wrong. Nine days before the release of the album they were on the Musikladen TV show in Bremen, Germany where they performed a 24 song set that included 5 from the up and coming album.

(This is a revised and expanded post from last year with a lot more links)

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!