TOO TOUGH TO DIE ADDENDUM!!!

Expanded Edition



After Leave Home's excellent bonuses, Too Tough to Die is the closest competitor as the extras on this album are grand. You are getting 2 singles (the excellent "Smash You" and a ripping cover of "Street Fighting Man"), 8 demos, and two unreleased tracks ("I'm Not An Answer" and "Out of Here"). The demos are way more interesting than the usual fare, as a few of these are either stripped bare-bones renditions ("Howling of the Moon" sounds different!) or Dee Dee sung tracks. Now, I've written that I'm normally not a fan of Dee Dee's vocals, but he does do a great job on a few of these, even with his monotonous singing ("Too Tough to Die" is my favorite.). I'm only disappointed that "Out of Here" has a barely audible vocal track, as that song has a great riff and the lyrics might have been interesting to listen to.

Note No.1


Only the first eight studio albums were remastered, so anything after Too Tough to Die was left untouched. I recently read an old interview with Johnny Ramone (click here) that mentioned how it was getting harder to find extra material because, after this album, he was becoming tired of making demos for executives to listen to choose from and own. Also, Johnny passed way in 2004, thereby making any any further remasters of this quality improbable. I believe that the last things he did merchandise-wise were choosing the tracks for the compilations Weird Tales of the Ramones and Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits, and the commentary track for Ramones: Raw, so he probably didn't get to do anything else. Also, it would be hard to only interview Marky and CJ for the liner notes, as Joey and Johnny had the most input after Dee Dee quit the band.

Note No.2

It's actually bittersweet to review this CD, as the three main band members are dead and have been for over 6 years now (Johnny was the last to go in '04) and this album title always reminds me of that. The title Too Tough to Die is ghastly as it's the music that has survived and the boys themselves did not. Only the 4 drummers (yes, I include Elvis Ramone) and CJ are left. To make matters worse, it's the heart and soul of the group that's buried. I can't listen to this album today without thinking of the depressive undertones of that title. Even the Johnny Ramone tribute DVD is named Too Tough to Die, and while they discuss him, the bands paying tribute to the group are playing Ramones music. In the end, the phrase "Too Tough to Die" isn't exactly describing the group or any one member, it's about the music. Thinking on it, it may have always been about the music as this was the album that brought them back to reality (or at least tried to). The album cover shows them as nothing more than silhouettes, with their name and the albums title more prominent than them in big, bold white lettering contrasting the navy blue background color. That is "Too Tough to Die".

Note No.3 (Added June 4, 2010)

It has come to my attention (via searching on Youtube), that Richie Ramone had done vocal tracks for the band for this album. The two tracks that have surfaced are "Chasing the Night", and "Humankind". I have not found "Humankind", but here's "Chasing the Night".


Album Length

All time references are based on my iTunes tracklist.

# of Tracks: 13 (original), 25 (w/ Bonuses)

Album Length: 36.6 min (original), 1.1 hours (Expanded)
Shortest Track: "Durango 95" - 0:55
Longest Track: "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)" - 4:32

No "Blitzkrieg Bop" on this album.


NEXT: A live album extravaganza, as I compare the famous IT'S ALIVE and its lesser known cousin NYC 1978!