The Smiley Smile Message Board

He left us 13 years ago this day, 15th of April. Wearing an awful-smelling Ramones shirt today, spinning Joey's solo output in his honour. Rest in punk.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLueApswPPM)


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I love Joey's voice. There aren't too many great singers in 'punk rock', but Joey was an amazing singer. I saw the Ramones countless times before they broke up in 1996. Joey's death saddened me. RIP Joey Ramone

They were Cool.  Saw the End of the Century Tour at The Warfield, but my best story is the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza June 1979.  It was Hot, really hot.  In the 90s.  Everybody where I was working wanted to go to this lunchtime concert.  We drew straws for two to go, and I won one of the draws!  When they hit the stage Dee Dee gave the Shout 1234 - and off on a one hour non-stop rip.  Joey decided he had to wear his leathers - unbelievable.  He didn't even break a sweat.  They had a knack for blasting through the old 60's numbers like "California Sun" "Do You wanna Dance?" "Surfin' Bird" and "Rockaway Beach."  There is footage on Youtube of this show, some film and the complete audio (27 fast ones).

Thank you for the anecdote!

Of course not..

Those with Netflix subscriptions can (and should) watch Rock 'n' Roll High School in his honor.

And the tremendous documentary "End of the Century."

The reason why there was a music revolution in 1970's was because of the saturation of pop at the era. That was how punk was born beginning with The Ramones.

Not a hardcore Ramones fan but I gotta agree that Joey is indeed a good singer with cool vocal style. Nevertheless, there is sth. I don't get: in some local message board, people - majority - came to general consensus that "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" is the highlight of the group. What's more astonishing is that it's not among their popular songs or the one you would call classic. So I went on to check what's the fuss about. Played Bonzo 3 times in a row & didn't like it at all, nothing grabbed me. "And this is the collective choice?", I asked myself. So what will you say, my friends, is "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" really The Ramones at their best or as much as I you don't care for it/have another objective nominee?

"California Sun" never sounded better than in punk rock.

Amen, that's their best song for my money. Perfect synthesis between their influences and their sound.

I think "Bonzo" is a cool, pretty great song and I enjoy it.  I'd put it in their top dozen (not faint praise!).  It has a little different feel than some of their other stuff, a little more power pop maybe?  And some real passion as well as the usual dose of clever humor, and this time as political satire which is also a change for the band.  But Johnny didn't dig the sentiment too much so they changed the title.

I just heard it announced that the first Ramones album, after 38 years, has gone GOLD!  HIP HIP  And A HOP!!

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That vaa got to be the greatest photograph ever, perfect distillation of everything I love about in rock 'n' roll music! Gee, I wish I could order a huge blow-up of that from somewhere...

You and me both, man.