My response to the article “Why Road To Ruin is the best Ramones Album”

Here is the original article

https://tangledupinmusic.com/2016/11/17/why-road-to-ruin-is-the-best-ramones-album/

There are several factors that the author did not take into consideration
#1- Marky is the new drummer and is light years ahead of Tommy in experience. Keep in mind that Tommy had only played drums for about 4 years. Add to that, he hasn’t had any time to develop any style other than what served the basic needs of The Ramones. Not only did Marky added a lot of dynamics but he gave the band a wider base to write upon.
#2- Johnny has relaxed a bit on his sparse arrangement conditions because they have enough of a back catalog to play headliner length sets. In addition, anything added to the album that could not translate live was basically stripped down to the basic live setup.
#3- Various sources have quoted them as saying that they still wanted to achieve pop status. Their live shows were a solid guarantee of revenue as well as T Shirt sales but they still wanted to put out something that would chart in the top 10. They were confident that their touring fans would tolerate the new pop sheen of the albums because the live versions would be stripped down.

There was no way to tell if the new radio fans would have been able to endure an entire Ramones live show but those are good problems to have.
It seems like Richie was the catalyst for their next pivotal moment. Just goes to show you how important a good drummer really is.
Think about that next time you write off a drummer as a lesser musician.

https://tangledupinmusic.com/2016/11/17/why-road-to-ruin-is-the-best-ramones-album/