While bassist and songwriter Dee Dee Ramone had left the band following 1989's Brain Drain, ¡Adios Amigos! features six of his compositions, including three previously released: "The Crusher" was originally recorded for his debut solo album Standing in the Spotlight, while "Making Monsters for My Friends" and "It's Not For Me to Know" were originally recorded for the albumI Hate Freaks Like You, which he performed with I.C.L.C. ¡Adios Amigos! also contains cover versions of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want to Grow Up" and Johnny Thunders' "I Love You." The Japanese version of the album features the bonus track "R.A.M.O.N.E.S.," originally recorded by Motörhead as a tribute to the Ramones on their 1916 album. The American version of the album features a hidden track, "Spider-Man," slightly different from the version the Ramones originally recorded for the tribute album. C.J. Ramone sings lead vocals on tracks two, four, eight and ten, as well as the bonus track "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." Dee Dee Ramone makes his first appearance on a Ramones album since 1989 during the bridge of the closing track "Born to Die in Berlin," singing in German and recorded via telephone.
Artwork
The album cover of ¡Adios Amigos!, which features two Allosaurus wearing sombreros, is a digitally altered version of a painting by artist Mark Kostabi, named Enasaurs, which features the dinosaurs wearing yellow witch hats. Johnny Ramone added that the dinosaurs were "what we felt like," possibly referring to the band's decline in popularity at the time. The back cover shows the band tied and bound before being executed by a firing squad. The Mexican man seated next to the band is their longtime road manager Monte Melnick.
Reception
¡Adios Amigos! received mixed to positive reviews from several publications such as Rolling Stone and Uncut, being viewed by many fans as a return to form for the band. In contrast to the Ramones' long-running inability to break through on singles charts, the band's cover of Tom Waits' "I Don't Want to Grow Up" managed to become something of a hit for the group, breaching the top 40 of Billboard's modern rock chart and peaking at #30.
