album, Animal Boy. Langsam went on to say that the Ramones were "never afforded the respect a band of their caliber should have," insisting that other bands who were "much less worthy" were more respected. "Everybody thought of them as the local band," she continued, "everybody's friends—'when are you going to break, when are you going to get big, when are you going to reach stardom?'" Rey claimed that the band was very impatient during the album process, and noted that members, especially Johnny and Joey, weren't getting along. "John was fast in the studio," recalls George Tabb, who was recording with his band the False Prophets at Intergalactic at the same time the Ramones recorded Halfway to Sanity. He called it humorous "because John would be going, 'Enough, enough, it sounds right.' And Joey, the artist, would go, 'I gotta do my vocals, I gotta do my vocals,' and the drummer's going, 'But my drums!' Johnny was like, 'Fuck it. It's the Ramones. It is what it is and comes out like that.' And he was right. It was the Ramones. He was a good businessman about it." In his book Commando, Johnny Ramone concluded that "the tracks on this one aren't the best. I always had a problem bringing songs into the band unless I was sure they were going to be very good. [...] The other guys brought in things that sucked, but they acted like they were great." However, he cited "I Wanna Live", "Weasel Face", "Bop 'til You Drop" and "Garden of Serenity" as the album's highlights and awarded the album a "B−" grade. This is the first Ramones album since Leave Home—and their last—to clock in at under 30 minutes. Musical style and lyrics The album's opening track, "I Wanna Live", features heavy feedback and a musical style closer to hard rock than punk. Described by author Dave Thompson as similar to contemporary "romantic melodies," the song was written by Dee Dee, who quoted the lyrics "As I load my pistol / Fine German steel" years later in a photo session with Ken Hinchey and Mike Vought as he loaded a gun. The song runs 2 minutes 39 seconds and despite its brevity was called "too long" by music journalist Everett True. Both the next track, "Bop 'Til You Drop", and the fifth track, "Go Lil' Camaro Go", were described by True as "dire