Road to Ruin (Dlx) [Original recording remastered]

Ramones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 19, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1978
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino
• ASIN: B00005JGAH
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,840 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #88 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > American Punk

Track Listings

1. I Just Want To Have Something To Do

2. I Wanted Everything

3. Don't Come Close

4. I Don't Want You

5. Needles & Pins

6. I'm Against It

7. I Wanna Be Sedated

8. Go Mental

9. Questioningly

10. She's The One

11. Bad Brain

12. It's A Long Way Back

13. I Want You Around (Ed Stasium version)

14. Rock 'N' Roll High School (Ed Stasium version)

15. Blitzkrieg Bop/Teenage Lobotomy/California Sun/Pinhead/She's The One (live)

16. Come Back, She Cried A.K.A. I Walk Out (demo)

17. Yea, Yea (demo)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"They'll get better," said Keith Richards of punk musicians in 1977. "You can't help but get better." And Road to Ruin is the album that demonstrated the Ramones had gotten "better" at being musicians, if not at becoming stars. "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" is quite simply one of the greatest opening tracks on any rock album, ever. For the first time, Johnny actually throws in pyrotechnics that go beyond basic power chords. "I Don't Want You" is riff-driven punk rock, while "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "She's the One" are some of their best pop-punk. But Road to Ruin also breaks some stylistic barriers. "Don't Come Close" is almost country & western and "Questioningly" is a simple ballad. A cover of the Searchers' "Needles & Pins" is downright reverent, though it's sadder than the original. The superbly remastered Rhino reissue of what was arguably their last great album includes original artwork, liner notes by Punk! magazine's Legs McNeil, and the band's tracks from the Rock 'N' Roll High School soundtrack--meaning the title track as produced by Ed Stasium as opposed to Phil Spector. --Bill Holdship

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: RAMONES
Title: ROAD TO RUIN
Street Release Date: 06/19/2001
Domestic
Genre: PUNK

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ramones' Best (?), July 23, 2001

By 

tashcrash (South Shore, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Road to Ruin (Dlx) (Audio CD)

Don't listen to the likes of Legs McNeil (whose inappropriate liner notes all but damn this album as some kind of sell-out. Note to Rhino: why be so apologetic?). The fact is, you can pretty much defend any Ramones album as being their best, well beyond the indisputable classics of the 1970s (my other favorites - "Halfway to Sanity," "Brain Drain," and "Adios Amigos," none of which are considered great by allegedly in-the-know rock critics). In many ways, "Road to Ruin" is their best album, the one that truly marks the end of an era for the band, their euphoric highs with their disenchanted lows. It mixes strung-out nihilism with gooey bubblegum so deftly that its simplicity, once again, somehow managed to fly way over people's heads. In any case, the greatest punk was founded on bubblegum aesthetics, and the Ramones knew this better than anyone on the planet at the time...and "It's A Long Way Back" is the greatest album closer ever.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This was the beginning of the end!, January 10, 2005

By 

Brian J. Demascio "The devil made me do it!" (Novato, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road to Ruin (Dlx) (Audio CD)

I eagerly awaited the release of the "classic' Ramones album, "Road To Ruin" way back in the day. When it came out, I was surprised by the "slick" cartoon-like album cover, first of all. AND, who was this "Marky" guy, anyway?

I opened up the album, slapped the vinyl (yes, VINYL) onto my cheap $20 turn-table, and book! Here it was!

Okay, first of all, the production was arguably the best of the first four Ramones albums. We got a slight taste of it with the then import only live album "It's Alive", produced by the classic soundmaster Ed Stasium. Stasium had a bit to do with "Rocket To Russia" as well, but the credit for that album goes mostly to Tommy Ramone. Anyways, before I rate the songs, I should note that "Road To Ruin" is absolutly crunching when it comes to the guitar sounds, and the drums are hard hitting and heavy. So THAT's who "Marky" is, I thought to myself!

Now to the actual album. "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" is pure genius, pure Ramones. The simple yet stunning lyrics ("Hangin' out on second avenue; eatin' Chicken Vindaloo"), the steady beat, this song is the epitomy of the Ramones "sound". And songs like "I Wanted Everything", "I'm Against It" (with the classic line; "I don't like Burger King, I don't like anything"), "Bad Brain", etc, were good stuff. BUT, there was the strangly inappropriate "Questioningly", with it's COUNTRY steel guitar (which of course everyone knows that Jonhnny didn't play), and "Don't Come Close", well, I must admit that I was a bit frustrated at the time (little did I know that "End Of The Century" was less than a year away!). But now these songs make sense in the context of the fact that the Ramones were trying to "diverisfy" their sound in order to (perhaps) get that hit single that had so unfairly eluded them thus far.

It didn't work.

As any old time Ramones fan will tell you, the Ramones were the most unlucky band of all time. Their management either released the wrong song for a single (as was the case when WEA decided to release "I Wanna Live" from the so-so album "Halfway To Sanity", even thought it was released in mid-summer and "Go 'Lil Camaro, Go" was a classic "fun/car/girl" song that could have made a big hit for the Ramones), or they were quite simply way to ahead of their time for the mainstream to "get it". This is the case with "Road To Ruin".

The Sex Pistols got a lot of press and even album sales due to the fact that in their oh-so contrived "rage" they said the "f word" and sand about anarchy, nuclear submarines, dethroning the British Queen, and of course; abortions. And the Pistols only stayed together for 18 months, leaving us with basically one studio album (which, in my opinion, is the most over-rated "punk rock" record ever made), and a dead so-called "bass player". The Ramones were the band that INSPIRED the Sex Pistols, and theby never resorted to such shock value pap as "f words", abortion innuendo, and anarchy. Instead, the Ramones rallied all of us outsiders with the classic war cry "Gabba Gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us!". And it was a hell of a lot more "punk rock" to sing about selling your [...] for dope money as Dee Dee penned in the immortal "53rd and 3rd". Oh well.

So anyways, "Road To Ruin" is a good "hard rock" album, striking a "punk" chord every now and again. The sound is loud, the guitars are heavy and buzzing, and Marky, when he wasn't drunk, laid down some good beats. This album is worth having, if not for the fact that it has "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" on it. Also, the "bonus-tracks" on this re-issue are nothing new; the live scene from "Rock 'N' Roll High School", a slightly different version of "I Want You Around", and one newly discovered gem, that's all. The bonus tracks on "Too Tough To Die" are the REAL revalation, man!

So if you wanna "rock out", then get this album first. You'll tap your feet, drown in country music inspired beer delirium in the nasty "Questioningly", and just basically go nuts to "Bad Brain" and "I'm Against It". BUT, if you're looking for the truly definitive Ramones sound, then start with "Rocket To Russia" and gradute to the definitve "post 70's" sound of "Too Tough To Die" (wich is, in my esteemed opinion, the Ramones overall best album).

Either way, buy all fo the reissues since you jerks didn't buy 'em while the Ramones were ALIVE, so get 'em now and show that you were really "punk rock" back when you were ACTUALLY listening to Poison, Motley Crue, and Winger!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're tired of Greatest Hits packages....., December 30, 2004

By 

Johny Bottom "Insane and lonely guitarist" (Jacksonville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Road to Ruin (Dlx) (Audio CD)

It seems to be, sadly enough, that the Ramones are more popular now with the mainstream than ever. Now that three members are dead, Ramones fans are sprouting up all over the place. With the death of Joey, Dee Dee, and now Johny, everyone is getting hooked on 'Ramones Mania'. Too bad Frank Zappa didn't also get the recognition he deserved after his death, but that's another subject.

If you are one of the 'Joey or Johny come latelys' and have already purchased Ramonesmania and the double CD boxset, you may be interested in their actual albums. If so, Road to Ruin is a popular choice among die hard Ramoners as their best album.

It goes without saying that "I wanna be sedated" is the most popular Ramones song (my personal favorite is Shock Treatment). It's here along with "I just wanna have something to do." But for songs that didn't make their 'greatest of' packages, you can discover great material like 'Go Mental', 'I don't want you', and 'Needles and Pins'. For years I thought Needles and Pins was a Ramones original. You learn something new everyday.

Well the original punks may be gone, but they'll never be forgotten. Don't embarress yourself with only greatest hits CDs. Show everyone you're true blue and buy one of their actual albums.

Rock on.