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Interview
by Scott Sterling-Wilder
16-4-2001
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| Joey Ramone RIP |
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Punk hero leaves the stage
A tribute to Joey Ramone
On 14th April 2001, the news came that Joey Ramone had passed on I had to revise my decision to ditch nihilism. The lead singer with The Ramones was just short of his 50t birthday (May 19th) when he succumbed to lymphatic cancer... Joey, born Jeffrey Hyman in Queens, New York, leaves a great legacy behind him that spans some 22 years.
The Ramones were formed in 1974 and never wavered from their punk ethic of producing three-chord, two minute, sharp and adrenalineinfused anthems for pissed-off youth of any era. The band used to cram 13 songs into half-hour – sometime even 20-minute – sets, but commandeered more energy than Bruce Springsteen during his marathon 3-plus hours shows.
Iggy Pop might be the Godfather of punk but its truest and most ardent exponent was Joey and his cohorts: ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ and ‘Teenage Lobotomy’, to unjustly name but a handful of songs, have been the blueprint of what Rock ought to be until the disbandment following the 1995 album, ‘Adios Amigos’. (There was also a post-split album, ‘We Are Outta Here’, a live selection released in 1997.)
Brits love to claim they invented punk rock in 1976 but the truth is rather different: it happened in NYC few years earlier when, on the burgeoning circuit, The Ramones rubbed shoulders with Television, Patti Smith and, even, Blondie. It was The Ramones’ 1976 debut at London's Roundhouse that cemented their reputation on these shores and, in return, they loved it so much they recorded their 1977 show at the (sadly defunct) Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, which became ‘It's Alive’. The vinyl double album’s 80-minute capacity still contained 28 bandstandards!
No band has ever had a faultless career and The Ramones appearance in trashy exploitation teen-flick ‘Rock'n'Roll High School’ (1979) could have spelled disaster but it turned out to suit their image perfectly. In visual terms Joey was a Rocker incarnate, an anti-stellar star, so cool he gave the impression to many of being permanently in a ‘just-got-outta-bedbut-I’m-rollin-with-that’ mental state that put the likes of Slash in the shade.
At the time of his untimely death the chief Ramone was working on a solo album and apparently 20 songs are ready to be issued in due course. So, it’s not the last goodbye quite yet – until the next listen.
Adios punkero, be hearing you, man…
Scott Sterling-Wilder
16-4-2001
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