Subterranean Jungle is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones, released by Sire Records on February 23, 1983. Overall, the album featured a return to a somewhat more hard punk rock style compared to the band's previous two albums End of the Century in 1980, and Pleasant Dreams in 1981, which were the most pop-focused of the band's career. This direction was encouraged by guitarist Johnny Ramone. The recording sessions saw disputes between band members, mainly due to struggles with alcohol addiction by Joey Ramone and Marky Ramone, and the drug addiction of Dee Dee Ramone.
The album begins with two cover songs, and features a third on side two. The band's signature punk rock is supplemented by touches of hard rock, and psychedelic rock. The album was deemed by critics to be a return to the band's roots, and received mostly positive reviews. Subterranean Jungle peaked at number 83 on the US Billboard 200, but failed to chart internationally. The singles released from the album did not chart. This is the last album by the band to feature Marky Ramone on drums until the 1989 album Brain Drain. It is the first album by the band to feature vocals from Dee Dee Ramone, who sings lead on "Time Bomb", as well as the bridge of "Outsider".
Conception
Compared to their previous two albums, Subterranean Jungle marked a shift back to the band's punk rock roots. Johnny Ramone felt as though the band needed to "be focused and stop worrying about getting played [on the radio] and just make a good record." Lead singer Joey Ramone was given less stylistic freedom than on the previous two releases, and the album was shaped mostly by Johnny's preference for harder rocking material.
Three of the four members of the band, Johnny being the exception, were facing issues with addiction. Both Joey and drummer Marky Ramone were dealing with alcoholism, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone was severely addicted to cocaine and was undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment. Since the Ramones' previous two releases had producers which proved disappointing to the members, they were skeptical of the producer for Subteranean Jungle, Ritchie Cordell. Marky relates: "I hated the production, I hated the producer."
The artwork for Subterranean Jungle features an image of the band inside a subway car. The photograph was taken by George DuBose at the subway station on 57th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. This cover concept was designed by Dubose, who suggested that since the B Sixth Avenue Express train stopped at the empty station for about 20 minutes. In the photograph, Marky is featured peering out the subway window—Marky was positioned this way after Johnny asked DuBose to do so, because "they were kicking him out of the band, but he didn't know it yet." Marky recalled that he "liked that shot, but [he] knew something was up."
The internal conflicts during recording sessions would cause band members to fire Marky during the album's recording, consequently substituting him with drummer Billy Rogers on "Time has Come Today." Johnny recounts, "We were having trouble with Mark because his drinking problem was really bad. So we did "Time Has Come Today" with a different drummer, Billy Rogers, from Walter Lure's band." "Time Has Come Today" became the Ramones' only song to involve three drummers: Marky Ramone on the album credits, Billy Rogers on the recording and Richie Ramone in the music video.
Compositions and lyrics
The album opens with two cover songs; the first, "Little Bit O' Soul", popularized by the Music Explosion in 1967, was originally written by John Carter and Ken Lewis, and the second, "I Need Your Love", was first performed by the song's writer Bobby Dee Waxman in local New York band the Boyfriends in the late 1970s. Subterranean Jungle is the first Ramones' release to begin with a song not written by the band. This track list structure was criticized by author Everett True, who said that it was "disorientating." Johnny also thought that the fact that the album featured three covers was a bad idea, saying, "we shouldn't have, but I was happy with the guitar sound on it." The album's third track, "Outsider", was written by Dee Dee and, in 2002, it was covered by Green Day on Shenanigans. "What'd Ya Do?" was track number four, and was described by music journalist Chuck Eddy as "crudely metallic." Eddy also deemed the next track, "Highest Trails Above", as "AOR-mystic." "Somebody Like Me" was called a "full-on rock anthem" by True, who went on to say that the lyrics contained "no-nonsense lines."