Rhino -- Joey Ramone (1951-2001)

Joey Ramone, lead singer of seminal '70s punk band The Ramones, passed away on Easter Sunday in a Manhattan hospital where he was being treated for lymphoma. He was 49.

Joey Ramone was born Jeffrey Hyman on May 19, 1951. With cohorts Johnny Ramone on guitar, Dee Dee Ramone on bass, and Tommy Ramone on drums, Joey formed the band in New York in 1974. Dressed as hoods in leather jackets and torn jeans, The Ramones stripped rock down to its bare minimum at a time when the airwaves were ruled by the likes of Starland Vocal Band and Boston. Driven by a jackhammer beat but filled with hooks and melodies that recalled the best rock of the 1960s, songs like "Blitzkrieg Bop," "I Wanna Be Sedated," and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" engendered a cult following fueled by frequent performances at such notorious haunts as CBGBs. In 1976, with a self-titled debut for Sire bringing Ramonesmania to record stores in the U.S., the band toured England, helping inspire the Sex Pistols and the British punk movement. Pop music hasn't been the same since.

If you couldn't tell from the Rock And Roll High School movie poster hanging on the wall of our lunchroom corridor, there are more than a few Ramones fans here at Rhino. We had the opportunity to work with Joey several times over the years. For our 1994 Godchildren Of Soul collection, he duetted with General Johnson of The Chairmen Of The Board on the Ramones classic "Rockaway Beach." In 1999 the two-CD Hey Ho Let's Go! Ramones Anthology gathered the best recordings from the band's 20 year career; a New York City in-store promoting that release was the last time Joey appeared with his bandmates.

Ramones "That first Ramones album and that first Ramones show probably was as influential as any on my life -- and I think in many ways on Rhino's existence, as it came out when we were forming in the mid-1970s," reflects Rhino's Sr. VP of A&R Gary Stewart. "I met our sound producer, Bill Inglot, in line waiting for that concert, which is going to be added on to the Leave Home record.

"One thing I always thought was great about them was that, while they were punk in the genre sense of the word in that they were loud and fast and furious, they also, for me, encapsulated what punk was even more about -- a musical movement, a rebellion against prevailing musical cultures, like vacuous disco or jam-laden hard rock. They were a reaction against those two things and kind of a reclaiming of great pop music, even down to their reclamation of bubblegum as a legitimate form and what it was like to play simple, catchy two-minute songs what a statement that was!

"One thing I always got about Joey was that he was as pure a fan of rock and roll music as there could be. When you heard "Do You Remember Rock And Roll Radio?," that was a summary of everything that they were about, and I think particularly what he was about. I remember at the end we would always talk about our '50s rock box, or about music of The Who, or tracks from Nuggets -- he was a true fan and enthusiast. And he never gave up being that way. I remember seeing him play a set at his [46th] birthday party, and when he played five Ramones songs with another band, he'd not lost one whit of that enthusiasm.

"Another thing about him is that he was into more than just hard, fast music he brought a love of Phil Spector, a love of The Beach Boys, a love of other pop elements that I think colors a lot of the more interesting Ramones recordings, especially towards the end. I think people will only think of them and hear something like "Blitzkrieg Bop" or "Rock And Roll High School" -- which are great records -- and kind of miss out on something like "She Talks To Rainbows" at the end, where he really got adventuresome."

The Ramones never topped the charts, but their influence particularly their groundbreaking '70s albums (set for reissue from Rhino in June) remains strong. Disciples as diverse as The Clash and The Circle Jerks in the '80s, The Beastie Boys and Rancid in the '90s, and The Donnas today ensure that cries of "gabba gabba hey" will continue to echo for many years to come.

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Comments:

THE RAMONES FUCKING KICK ASS! THEY ARE OFFICALY THE GREATEST PUNK ROCK BAND IN THE HISTORY OF ROCK 'N'ROLL....THEY ARE LEDGENDS AND WILL NEVER BE FORGOTIN!!!! THEY WERE OUTSIDERS LIKE US AND ROSE ABOVE ALL THOSE SHITHEADS WHO TRIED TO TELL THEM THAT THEY WERE WORTH NOTHING, AND LOOK AT WHAT THEY HAVE DONE THERE NOW THE GREATEST BAND IN ROCK 'N' ROLL HISTORY.....GABBA GABBA HEY! GABBA GABBA HEY! I LOVE JOEY, HE IS THE GREATEST SINGER....I HAVE EVER HEARD.
To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'. To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people. And as long as people are making music that does that, punk rock is alive and well.
- JOEY RAMONE
AND WE BELIEVE THAT TO JOEY SPEAKS THE COMPLETE TRUTH....... THE RAMONES ROCK!!!! LET THE RAMONES LIVE ON!!!!
GABBA GABBA HEY,
-HAWK & NEIL

Joey Ramone (1951-2001)

LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.

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