Joey Ramone

Joey Ramone (Jeffry Hyman) died ten years ago yesterday. I loved the Ramones. Everybody should love the Ramones. Every juke box in New York City seems to have the Ramones in it. Every time one of their songs are played, everybody in the bar seems to bop their heads to the music. The Ramones appealed to everybody. They were punk. They were metal. They were pop. They were indie. Simply put they were an all-american band. I associated the Ramones with New York City and CBGB's and they were one of the reasons why i wanted to live here.

One of the last times I saw Joey perform was late 2000 at CBGB's in what was titled 'A night with Joey Ramone and friends'. Tickets were not sold in advance. Doors opened at 8 pm so not knowing what time Joey would come on, I got there not long after. There was a long list of bands set to play, a few which I was familiar with, so I was cool with the early arrival. Joey hung out near the stage most of the night, watching all the bands like he was the fan there to see them. One of the bands was the Independents, a band Joey was managing and also producer of their forthcoming album titled 'back from the grave'. For this big night, they were set to make a grand entrance to the stage. Joey had one of the guys get in a coffin that they would put on the stage while the smoke machine pumped out massive amounts of smoke. Watching Joey orchestrating the whole thing next to stage, in full view of the crowd was a classic Spinal Tap moment. It was funny and cool at the same time.

More bands/friends rolled thru, including The Huntingtons, a Ramones like band who all used Huntington as their last name, wore black leather biker jackets and played 2 two minute and 30 second punk songs. At one point in their career they even put out a Ramones cover album. I was already a fan of these guys but it was my first time seeing them. They were fantastic and we would be seeing more of them later. The one friend that I was really excited to see tonight was Ronnie Spector, the former lead singer of the Ronettes. She was such a doll performing mostly songs from her classic album 'she talks to rainbows' which Joey also produced. This would also be Joeys entrance to the stage performing a number of sweet duets with Ronnie. I could have easily left an extremely happy guy after her set but there were a few more bands to go before Joey would hit the stage.

As the night wore on, the crowd started to diminish. It was a weeknight and a lot of people had been there since the doors opened. I was hungry and wanted something to eat. I asked the doorman how long till Joey would come on. He said "he is coming on at 1 am". I looked at my watch and it was 1:45 am. The doorman smiled and said "Joey has too many friends" I went to a deli down the street, ate a sandwich and when I came back the doorman told Joey would be on 'soon'.

It was well after 2 am when Joey and band hit the stage. I had been there for 6 hours at that point. At best there was maybe 150 people left in the crowd. He told us he was working on a solo album and was going to play a bunch of those songs first. He said to tell him what we thought and if they sucked, he wouldn't put them on the new album. Then he said he would bring out the Huntingtons he would take request the rest of the night. Standing right up front it seemed like Joey Ramone was playing for me and a few friends except my friends got tired and left about two hours earlier. The new stuff was great. A song about Maria Bartiromo was one my my favorites as was a killer cover of 'what a wonderful world'. These songs weren't a departure from the Ramones style and that's just how we wanted it. By the time the Huntingtons joined him, it was after 3 am. Request after request was shouted out followed by "1,2,3,4" leading into the song. It was a barrage of non stop Ramones mania. At one point Joey needed a breather. He had the band stop, looked at them, giggled then in that NYC accent said 'youth' and giggled some more. These were just some anxious kids playing the songs as they should be played. Fast and furious. Problem was Joey was fighting lymphoma, it was 4 am and he had been there tonight longer than we had.

Joey died probably eight months later and that solo album, titled 'don't worry about me', would come out a year after he left us. Eleven years later I still have vivid memories of that night. It is one of my favorite rock n' roll experiences.

What A Wonderful World:


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