With the Ramones' original drummer, Tommy Erdelyi, producing, the group returns to simple, scathing punk rock on Too Tough to Die. The group takes the big guitar riffs of Subterranean Jungle and makes them shorter and heavier. The Ramones' rhythms are back up to jackhammer speed and the songs are down to short, terse statements. The results read like a reaction to hardcore punk, but the Ramones are more melodic than any hardcore band, as well as smarter than most. Apart from the occasional foray into pop, such as the surprisingly effective Dave Stewart-produced "Howling at the Moon," the album is a sterling set of lethal punk, the best the Ramones had made since the end of the '70s. It was also the last great record they would ever make.
• "Growing up the way we did, (Minutemen lead singer/guitarist) D. Boon and I never heard jazz until we heard punk, and then we thought it was the same thing, because the jazz we were hearing really wasn't Stan Getz, it was the fuckin' John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, it was wild and it made us crazy! We thought it was the same thing, just in an earlier time! For us,.
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 "Too Tough to Die")
