LP Ramones – Brain Drain

LP Ramones – Brain Drain

Mad Kangaroo Records

format: vinyl, LP, album, unofficial release

Brain Drain is the eleventh studio album by the American punk rock band the Ramones, released on May 23, 1989. It is the last Ramones release to feature bassist/songwriter/vocalist Dee Dee Ramone, the first to feature Marky Ramone since his initial firing from the band after 1983’s Subterranean Jungle and the band’s last studio album on Sire Records.

In his 1998 autobiography, Dee Dee Ramone recalled: „It was tough recording the Brain Drain album because everyone took their shit out on me. I dreaded being around them. It drove me away—I didn’t even end up playing on the album. Everybody in the band had problems; girlfriend problems, money problems, mental problems.“

Johnny Ramone expressed similarly unfavorable sentiments in his 2012 posthumous autobiography, Commando, calling it one of his least favorite albums. He elaborated, „Bill Laswell‚s production is too dense; he had me record the guitars on five or six tracks. So the album took too much time, and there were too many Joey songs on it, which always took more time“. However, he added that the album „has a couple of bright spots, like ‚I Believe in Miracles‘ and ‚Punishment Fits the Crime.'“ He awarded both the Brain Drain album and its follow-up, Mondo Bizarro, a „C“ letter grade.

For the first time on a Ramones album, drummer Marky Ramone participated in the songwriting, contributing lyrics to „All Screwed Up“ and „Learn to Listen“.