The Ramones moved questioningly forward with this neurotic mix of power pop punk punch and sedated countryish ballads. After three amazing albums (their audacious eponymous debut, 'Leave Home', and 'Rocket to Russia'), the band was ready for a change. Tommy Erdelyi left the band; but stuck around to co-produce the sessions at Media Sound in New York with Ed Stasium. Tommy was replaced by Marc Bell from The Voidoids, who took on the name Marky Ramone. Marky recalls: “He was only in the band for about three and a half years, the problem with Tommy was they wanted him to leave the group but in reality wanted to kick him out because they weren’t getting along with him. They bullied him, he didn’t like it and I don’t blame him. So one day, he did the right thing and left, and he ended up producing which is great. He produced the first album that they asked me to play on as a Ramone … 'Road to Ruin' and the first song I recorded was, “I Wanna Be Sedated.”
'Road to Ruin' credits Joey Ramone on lead vocals; Johnny Ramone on lead guitar; Dee Dee Ramone on bass guitar and backing vocals; and Marky Ramone on drums. Erdelyi reveals: "I was pretty much on my own. They would come in and do the basic tracks, and Joey would do the vocals, and then I wouldn't see them for about a month or two. I was just left alone to work on the album. Songwriting and recording went very smoothly. We would be well-prepared, we'd go in, and we'd just put the stuff down. They all had, like, attention deficit or something, they were ready to leave. Everything was done quickly. We didn't hang together too much. Mostly we'd just get together for rehearsals and stuff like that...It was great! We worked well together. I wanted to bring in a drummer so that I wouldn't have to deal with the road. It was hard on the road for me, because those guys were ganging up on me and everything. I was sort of in charge in the studio, and I'd go out on the road and I'd be like just the abused drummer. Let's bring a drummer in who will not take the abuse, and could beat the crap out of them, and it was great. So I worked really well with Mark, and we combined his style with my style. We spent a lot of time getting the drum parts together for 'Road to Ruin'...We were coming up with these great records that weren't selling well. So we were basically trying to have a hit record, so on that album we were trying to get on the radio. We were trying to put songs together where radio couldn't say, "Oh, we can't play that because it wouldn't fit our format." So on that album there are certain songs that could be played on any radio station. And so that's kind of partially what that was about, but it was more than that. They were coming up with songs like that, and so we arranged the songs to sound radio-friendly."
'Road to Ruin' made its way to number one hundred and three in the US, thirty-two in the UK, and number twenty-five in Sweden.
ramonesworld.com
'I Wanna Be Sedated' became their most famous song. Joey explains: “It’s a road song. I wrote it in 1977, through the 78. Well, Danny Fields was our first manager and he would work us to death. We would be on the road 360 days a year, and we went over to England, and we were there at Christmas time, and in Christmas time, London shuts down. There’s nothing to do, nowhere to go. Here we were in London for the first time in our lives, and me and Dee Dee Ramone were sharing a room in the hotel, and we were watching The Guns of Navarone. So there was nothing to do, I mean, here we are in London finally, and this is what we are doing, watching American movies in the hotel room.”
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco
I can't control my fingers I can't control my toes
Oh no no no no no
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated
Nothin' to do no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated
Just put me in a wheelchair get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry before I go loco
I can't control my fingers I can't control my toes
Oh no oh oh oh oh
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be sedated
"I Just Want to Have Something to Do"
"Don't Come Close" edged its way to number thirty-nine in the UK.
"Needles and Pins"
"Go Mental"
"Questioningly"
"She's the One"
'Road to Ruin'
full album:
All tracks written by Ramones; except where indicated.
Side one
1. "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" 2:42
2. "I Wanted Everything" 3:18
3. "Don't Come Close" 2:44
4. "I Don't Want You" 2:26
5. "Needles and Pins" (The Searchers cover) Sonny Bono, Jack Nitzsche 2:21
6. "I'm Against It" 2:07
Side two
7. "I Wanna Be Sedated" 2:29
8. "Go Mental" 2:42
9. "Questioningly" 3:22
10. "She's the One" 2:13
11. "Bad Brain" 2:25
12. "It's a Long Way Back" 2:20
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