RAMONES "TOO TOUGH TO DIE" 1984 SIRE 1-25187 1st PRESS NM/NM W/INNER SLEEVE OOP

$

39

TWO YEARS AGO I LOST ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS TO CANCER, HE WAS A COOL MUSICIAN A DRUMMER BY TRADE, ORIGINALLY FROM SEATTLE, BUT RELOCATED TO L.A. IN 1985, HE AMASSED A VERY LARGE MUSIC COLLECTION, AND HAD KILLER TASTE FOR ROCK & ROLL, SADLY I AM SELLING OFF A LOT OF HIS COLLECTION ON BEHALF OF HIS WIDOW TO HELP PAY OFF DEBTS INCLUDING HOSPITAL BILLS, TAXES AND STORAGE UNIT FEES. I AM NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR THIS SERVICE, DOING IT FOR MY FRIEND (MISS YOU DAVE!). THIS ITEM IS FROM HIS COLLECTION.

THE PHOTO'S MAY BE A LITTLE BLURRY, HAVE A LITTLE GLARE, SOME REFLECTIONS OR IN SOME CASES YOU MAY SEE SPECKS OF DUST. BUT THE PHOTO'S ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM YOU ARE BIDDING ON. I DO COMBINE SHIPPING.

THESE ARE VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED.

ARTISTS: RAMONES

TITLE: “TOO TOUGH TO DIE”

TRACK LISTING: SEE BELOW

Companies, etc.

• Marketed By – Warner Bros. Records Inc.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Sire Records Company
• Copyright (c) – Sire Records Company
• Recorded At – Mediasound
• Mixed At – Sigma Sound Studios
• Mastered At – Sterling Sound
• Mastered At – Sheffield Lab Matrix
• Pressed By – Allied Record Company

Credits

• Artwork By [Cover] – Tony Wright
• Engineer – Ed Stasium
• Engineer [Assistant, Mix] – Glenn Rosenstein
• Engineer [Assistant, Recording] – Mark Cobrin, Steve Rimkoff
• Management – Gary Kurfirst
• Mastered By [Originally] – Jack Skinner
• Photography – George Du Bose
• Producer – David A. Stewart (tracks: B1), Ed Stasium (tracks: A1 to A7, B2 to B6), T. Erdelyi* (tracks: A1 to A7, B2 to B6)
• Producer [Associate] – Ed Stasium (tracks: B1), T. Erdelyi* (tracks: B1)

Notes

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Barcode: 0 7599-25187-1
• Matrix / Runout (Runout Side A [Etched]): 1-25187-A SH3 SLM ? 7895 1-1 B-20038-SH3
• Matrix / Runout (Runout Side B [Etched]): 1-25187-B SH3 SLM ? 7895-X 1-1 B-20039-SH3
• Matrix / Runout (Runout Sides A and B [Stamped]): STERLING [Allied Record Co. "a" logo]
  

LABEL: SIRE RECORDS

CAT.#: 1-25187

YEAR: 1984

RECORD CONDITION: THE RECORD (VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED). IS IN EX/NM CONDITION (UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED). NO LINES, SCRATCHES, SMEARS, SMUDGES ETC. THE VINYL HAS A NICE SHINEY BLACK LUSTER. BOTH LABELS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. THE SONGS PLAY SUPER CLEAN.

SLEEVE CONDITION: IS IN EX/NM CONDITION. NICE CLEAN STRAIGHT EDGES. NO RIPS, TEARS, WRITING, SEAM SPLITS ETC.

OTHER INFO: THIS RECORD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT. INCLUDES THE ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE WITH LYRICS. MATRIX # (SEE ABOVE)

ARTIST INFO:

The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first band to define the punk rock sound. Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was vastly influential in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", although none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded. By 2014, all four of the band's original members had died – lead singer Joey Ramone (1951–2001), bass guitarist Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949–2014).

Recognition of the band's importance built over the years, and they are now mentioned in many assessments of all-time great rock music, such as number 26 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time] and number 17 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin magazine, trailing only the Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the original four members and Tommy's replacement on drums, Marky Ramone, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on their first year of eligibility, though Joey had died by then. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Ramones recorded their debut album, Ramones, in April 1976. Of the fourteen songs on the album, the longest, "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", barely surpassed two and a half minutes. While the songwriting credits were shared by the entire band, Dee Dee was the primary writer. The Ramones album was produced by Sire's Craig Leon, with Tommy as associate producer, on an extremely low budget of about $6,400 and released in April. The now iconic front cover photograph of the band was taken by Roberta Bayley, a photographer for Punk magazine. Punk, which was largely responsible for codifying the term for the scene emerging around CBGB, ran a cover story on the Ramones in its third issue, the same month as the record's release.

The Ramones' debut LP was greeted by rock critics with glowing reviews. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau wrote, "I love this record—love it—even though I know these boys flirt with images of brutality (Nazi especially)... For me, it blows everything else off the radio". In Rolling Stone, Paul Nelson described it as "constructed almost entirely of rhythm tracks of an exhilarating intensity rock & roll has not experienced since its earliest days." Characterizing the band as "authentic American primitives whose work has to be heard to be understood", he declared, "It is time popular music followed the other arts in honoring its primitives." Newsday's Wayne Robbins simply anointed the Ramones as "the best young rock 'n' roll band in the known universe."

Despite Sire's high hopes for it, Ramones was not a commercial success, reaching only number 111 on the Billboard album chart. The two singles issued from the album, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", failed to chart. At the band's first major performance outside of New York, a June date in Youngstown, Ohio, members of Cleveland punk legends Frankenstein aka the Dead Boys were present and struck up a friendship with the band.[43] It wasn't until they made a brief tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor; a performance at the Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976, second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies, organized by Linda Stein, was a resounding success. T-Rex leader Marc Bolan was in attendance at the Roundhouse show and was invited on stage. Their Roundhouse appearance and a club date the following night—where the band met members of the Sex Pistols and the Clash—helped galvanize the burgeoning UK punk rock scene. The Flamin' Groovies/Ramones double bill was successfully reprised at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles the following month, fueling the punk scene there as well. The Ramones were becoming an increasingly popular live act—a Toronto performance in September energized yet another growing punk scene.

Too Tough to Die is the eighth studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones. It was released on October 1, 1984, and is the first Ramones record to feature Richie Ramone on drums. With ex-member Tommy Ramone producing, the recording process was similar to that of the band's 1976 self-titled debut album,. Likewise, the record's style—both lyrically and compositionally—saw the band returning to their roots. The photograph on the album cover, which features silhouettes of the band members, resulted from a "lucky accident" after photographer George DuBose's camera malfunctioned.[1]

The album's overall style leaned toward that of hardcore punk and heavy metal music, rather than pop music which had been a focus of several of the band's previous albums. Too Tough to Die borrows upon elements such as guitar riffs from 1983's Subterranean Jungle. For the second time, after "Time Bomb" on Subterranean Jungle, bassist Dee Dee Ramone performs lead vocals on the album and receives vocal credits for two tracks. The album also contains the band's only instrumental piece, "Durango 95".

Critics appreciated the band's return to earlier methods of writing, recording, and production, noting they had strayed from the pop music genre. Despite critical acclaim, Too Tough to Die performed poorly in album sales. At this point in their career, the album was the band's lowest peaking record on the Billboard 200.

Recording and production[edit]

The recording of Too Tough to Die began in the summer of 1984 at the Media Sound Studios in New York City. The album's recording process used similar techniques which were used to record their 1976 eponymous album, with Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder describing it as "virtually live in the studio". The album marked the debut of new drummer Richie Ramone, who replaced Marky Ramone after he was fired for excessive drinking. The album's lyrics were written mainly by guitarist Johnny Ramone and bassist Dee Dee Ramone, while lead singer Joey Ramone did not participate in the process as much as usual because he "wasn't feeling well" prior to recording. Joey did, however, write the lyrics for "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)" after receiving help with the guitar part by Daniel Rey. Johnny Ramone recalled:

As we got ready to make Too Tough To Die, we were focused in the same direction, and it made a difference. We knew we needed to get back to the kind of harder material we'd become known for. The pop stuff hadn't really worked, and we knew we were much better off doing what we did best. 

Previous Ramones records featured celebrity record producers in an attempt to gain some sort of popularity. Since this method did not yield the results which they were expecting, Sire Records contacted the producers of 1978's Road to Ruin: Ed Stasium and ex-band member Tommy Ramone. Too Tough to Die has less production value than previous recordings by the Ramones. Because critics often disapproved of the sound quality on End of the Century and Pleasant Dreams, the band leaned towards a harsher sound. 

Too Tough to Die was also the first of three studio albums that were licensed from Sire Records to the independent record label Beggars Banquet Records for release in the UK. The deal saw the group's work promoted better and resulted placings on the UK album and singles charts. The group had not charted in the UK since 1980's End of the Century.

Cover art[edit]

The cover photo for the album was taken by photographer George DuBose in a subway in Central Park, New York City, near the Central Park Zoo. In the photo, the band members are standing side-by-side underneath an underpass arch, with their dark silhouettes illuminated in the background with blue lighting and dry ice fog.Johnny wanted the artwork to conceptually refer to the A Clockwork Orange film, released in 1971. DuBose relates: "Johnny wanted a picture that would evoke memories of the gang in A Clockwork Orange."[12] DuBose also stated that the band did not need their faces on the cover because they had grown significantly in popularity; however, he originally intended to include their faces. The photograph on the album cover was a "lucky accident" after DuBose's camera malfunctioned and he unintentionally shot the band members in silhouette 

Music and compositions[edit]

Just as the recording methods resembled that of the band's 1970's era, the musical style which they produced also favored the band's earlier approach to punk rock. Even though "Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La)" featured a synthpop feel, the overall genre leaned more so toward heavy metal music rather than pop music, which had been a major focus of the band's writing process throughout the 1980s. Authors Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz explained:

With Tommy Ramone/Erdelyi and Ed Stasium returning as producers, the album was, to some degree, the Ramones' response to America's burgeoning hard-core punk scene, and did much to restore the band's musical credibilty ... Too Tough to Die reclaimed the Ramone's original values of energy, catchiness, and brevity without resorting to retro pandering. It also featured the band's strongest set of songs since Rocket to Russia, with Dee Dee (who wrote or co-wrote nine of the album's thirteen songs) demonstrating a thoughtful, introspective edge on 'I'm Not Afraid of Life' and an apocalyptic social conscience on 'Planet Earth 1988.'

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that the album uses the "big guitar riffs" featured on Subterranean Jungle and transfigures them to be "shorter and heavier."[16] The songs featured on the album are mostly rather short and have a considerably fast tempo, which was a typical quality of the band's early work.[16] The album features the only instrumental piece which the band released: "Durango 95", which clocks in at under a minute, being the shortest Ramones track on a studio album. (The album also includes one of the longest Ramones studio recordings, "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)" on side two.)"Durango 95"'s name is a reference to a car driven in A Clockwork Orange.[12] "Durango 95" and "Warthog" are two songs which are 7
4 in certain parts of both songs, a meter which is extremely rare in punk rock.

Too Tough to Die is also the second Ramones' release which did not feature lead singer Joey Ramone on each track; both "Wart Hog" and Endless Vacation" feature bassist Dee Dee Ramone as lead vocalist while "Durango 95" is a short instrumental] Initially, "Wart Hog"'s appearance on the album was declined by Joey, but Johnny argued for including the song, later stating, "If I hadn't lobbied for them, they wouldn't be on the [album]." The lyrics to the song were not included on the initial printing of the album because Sire considered the drug-inspired lyrics to be too explicit for potential fans.

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