Richie Ramone - Entitled (2013) RESTORED

The Ramones…a family like no other. In 1983 Richie was adopted by the first family of Punk Rock, and his life's work would forever be a part of Rock & Roll history. During his 5 years with the Ramones, Richie performed over 500 shows around the world, wrote a handful of the bands best loved songs including "Somebody Put Something In My Drink", and stepped up to the mic for vocal duties on "(You) Can't Say Anything Nice". Richie has proven that he still has the magic touch after all these years. Pounding away with precision, his beats were solid and created a surreal experience for fans of the Ramones. Entitled, Richie's first recorded solo album includes brand new songs and re-recorded classics that he had written and performed with the Ramones.

Seventeen years after the Ramones called it quits, and 26 years after he quit playing drums for the band, Richie Ramone has finally released his first solo album, so you certainly can't accuse him of jumping onto the gravy train of Ramones fan worship too quickly. Then again, even if Richie had put out Entitled a year after parting ways with the pride of Queens, New York, he probably wouldn't have seemed like he was riding their coattails. For the most part, Entitled doesn't sound much like the Ramones, though it does sound like something a lot of Ramones fans might like. Most of the tunes on Entitled are built around speedy tempos, relentless drums, and thick guitar figures, but even though the album's sneering attitude and forward velocity owe a lot to vintage punk rock (and "Smash You" would have been a nice fit on Animal Boy or Halfway to Sanity), guitarist Tommy Bolan's thick, snarling tone and shredding solo style have a lot more to do with heavy metal than Richie's old band (though the Ramones' influence on the evolution of faster/louder metal in the 1980s is certainly worth noting). Even the tunes that Richie has reworked from his days with the Ramones ("I Know Better Now", "I'm Not Jesus", "Humankind") in this context take on a distinct personality of their own, far darker and heavier than their original incarnations, with Richie's thick Noo Joisey accent and melodramatic phrasing dialing up the drama on "Forgotten Years" and "Criminal". Richie's drumming is as sharp and ferocious as ever, Bolan and bassist Jiro Okabe lend enthusiastic support, and the production (by Richie himself) is full-bodied and straightforward. If it took Richie Ramone a long time to step out on his own, he's shown he doesn't have to rely on past glories to make a solid album (well, except for those three re-records), and Entitled is a more ambitious and imaginative work than you'd expect from the third Ramones drummer, coming a quarter-century after his last steady gig.

~ Mark Deming, all media guide

Big things are happening. My first solo record just dropped - and it's doing some major damage. Killer tracks plus all-new recordings of I'm Not Jesus, I Know Better Now, Smash You, and yeah, Somebody Put Something In My Drink. Get it. Rock it. Own it. You're ENTITLED.

– Richie Ramone.

Tracklist:

01. Criminal
02. I Know Better Now
03. Entitled
04. Take My Hand
05. Smash You
06. Better Than Me
07. Someday Girl
08. Into The Fire
09. I'm Not Jesus
10. Humankind
11. Vulnerable
12. Forgotten Years
13. Somebody Put Something In My Drink [LP Bonus Track]

all songs written by Richie Ramone, except "4"
by R. Ramone & Steven W. Miller; and "8" by R. Ramone & Tommy Bolan


Produced by Richie Ramone
Engineered by Logan Schlegel
Mixed by Mark Needham at Ballroom Studios
Mastered by Stephen Marcussen.

• Richie Ramone - vocals, drums
• Tommy Bolan - guitar
• Jiro Okabe - bass

additional musicians:
- Roger Morris: keyboards on "7"
- Alicia Archuleta: backing vocals on "5"

Release Date: October 8, 2013
Label: DC-Jam Records
Catalog No.: DCJ-0061