Ramones - Road to Ruin
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Written By: Moti Kupfer
Album review - Ramones - Road to Ruin
Release date - 21.9.1978
Release date - Sire
Genre - Punk rock
"If you can't say what you have to say in two minutes and ten seconds, then don't say it at all."
This important statement by Jeffrey Ross Hyman, aka Joey Ramone, summed up the entire essence of punk music. Some believe that the "Ramones," whose fourth album "Road to Ruin" was released on September 21, 1978, is the genesis of punk.
The "Ramones" were formed in 1974 in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York, but if we dig a little deeper into the background from which they emerged, it will become clear that two of the band members are actually descendants of Jewish families, some of whom survived the Holocaust with great difficulty.
All members of the band adopted pseudonyms (Tommy, Johnny, Joey) ending in the surname Ramone, although none were biologically related; the band's name was inspired by the "Beatles" member Paul McCartney who used to check into hotels under the pseudonym "Paul Ramone".
The original members: Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Ross Hyman) on vocals and drums, Johnny Ramone (John William Cummings) on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin) on bass, and Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi) as drummer and band manager.
Cummings and Erdelyi had played together in the 1960s garage rock band The Tangerine Puppets and befriended Douglas Colvin, who had recently returned from Berlin with his mother and sister.
Jeffrey Hyman, born in New York in 1951, was a fan of David Bowie, "The Beatles", "The Stooges", and "The Who" - in which he particularly admired drummer Keith Moon, who inspired him to learn to play drums at age 13 and played them until he bought an acoustic guitar at age 17.
Hyman joined the glam rock band "Sniper" in 1972, where he was a member for about two years before being replaced by Alan Turner in early 1974. Later that year, he joined Cummings, Erdelyi, and Colvin to form The "Ramones", a name that as mentioned, came from Paul McCartney's pseudonym, Douglas Colvin, called himself Dee Dee Ramone and convinced the rest of the band to change their name.
On March 30, 1974, they made their debut at "Performance Studios", playing very fast and very short songs, about two years before this genre was given its name - Punk Rock.
At the same time, a new music scene was emerging in New York City, centered around two clubs: "Max's Kansas City" and "CBGB" (an acronym for Country, Bluegrass, and Blues), a club where the roots of punk grew with artists such as "The New York Dolls", "Television", "Blondie", and also the "Ramones", who quickly became household names at the club where they performed no less than 74 times between August 1974 and the end of the year.
At the end of '75, they signed a recording contract with "Sire Records" and soon began to be recognized as the leaders of the emerging punk scene, largely thanks to Joey Ramone, whose singing style was original, unlike other bands in New York.
As the leaders of the scene, "The Ramones" managed to influence and give confidence to new bands that arose around them - (also on the other side of the ocean) Like "The Clash", and "The Damned".
Their further performances in California led to the formation of punk bands in the area such as "Black Flag", "Dead Kennedys", "Bad Religion" and "Social Distortion".
But one thing wasn't working, low sales of their first three albums, which put pressure on them for the fourth album, especially when they saw another "CBGB" band ("Blondie") breaking through.
At this point, punk began a sharp decline until its death about a year later, and the "Ramones" who were aware of what was happening around made a change in the drummer position, when Marc Steven Bell (Marky Ramone) left the band "Richard Hell and the Voidoids" replacing Tom Erdelyi (Tommy Ramone) who remained in the position of producer (and additional guitarist) along with Ed Stasium, and together they helped to change the band's styile and sound.
No more fast, wild, and short songs without a production touch, but slower, longer songs with occasional overdubs on the guitar, bass, and drums.
The style of the songs moderated towards pop-punk with dominant pop songs such as "Don't Come Close" and melancholic ballads such as the remake of Jackie De Shannon's "Needles and Pines", and the ballad "Questioningly".
The album incorporated musical elements that were less prominent in punk rock, such as guitar solos (heavy metal), and sixties-style ballads.
Lyrically, the "Ramones" sing about their experiences during the shows, the pressure that erupted into the line "Just put me on a wheelchair, get me to the show" in the song "I Wanna Be" Sedated", a song that tells of a feeling of emptiness, when the "Ramones" arrived in London for shows and ended up watching American movies in the hotel instead of exploring the city.
In "Don't Come Close" and other songs, the lyrics focus on various states of relationship from love to frustration and lack of communication.
The closing song "It's a Long Way Back" was written about Dee Dee Ramone's childhood in Germany.
The album cover is the work of art by Gus MacDonald, a fan of the band who came up with the idea and sent the band members an illustration of them performing with a crab coming out of the amplifier and a snake placed around their legs.
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