Joey Ramone was arguably the biggest punk-rock star of the 1970s.
A breathtaking presence on the New York music scene, the Ramones singer died of lymphoma 20 years before today, on 15 April 2001, at the age of 49. But he lives through 16 albums and his most valuable asset, maintained by his younger composer-brother Mickey Leah.
Myself a talented guitarist, Lee, who is putting on the 20th annual Birthday celebration On May 19 for Joey, the Post gave permission to examine key items from the collection, including items stored in Joey’s former village apartment.
Here are some of the most remembered monuments and the stories behind them. Hey! Ho! let’s go!
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School
Joey’s report card from Forrest Hills HS in Queens, presented to Jeffrey Hyman (his real name), shows a student with a mediocre grade – saving for art, math and citizenship. But those numerical grades hardly tell the story of his academic life. Author of “School Was Bad,” former band manager Danny FieldsMy ram, “Told The Post.” Joey was taunted and mocked and thrown down the stairs for being [6-foot-6] long. He had a tough time and most likely not rock stars, but you’re not writing about the people who taunted him. ”
Leah agreed that Forrest Hills High was no picnic for Joey, who graduated in the late 1960s: “He was at the peak of his hippiness in high school and wore a parchment coat . People used to see Joey going to school and they used to say, ‘Who is that?’ I would say, ‘He is my brother.’ ‘
Photo of joey
Hanging on the wall of Joey’s old apartment on East Ninth Street is a portrait of him, drawn by his artist mother, Charlotte, and 1972. The picture which shows Joy staring directly at her was a comforting one for her son.
“Joey had OCD, co-author of” Lay, “I slept with joey ramone, “Told The Post.” It got so bad that he checked himself into St. Vincent’s psychiatric ward for a two-week evaluation. “He was only 21 at the time, but obsessive-compulsive disorder left him in life. “Joy was not in a great emotional state and my mother thought [the portrait] He has to be happy. Soon after, he started playing my Yamaha acoustic guitar. “
Unstrang hero
As the Raimons were forming around 1974, Joey wanted to write songs for the group. But the former drummer – he played skins for the Queens band as an intruder and initially also for Remones – had no guitar chops. “So I showed him how to play Alice Cooper’s ‘I’m Eighteen’ on this guitar.” “But he was left-handed and I’m right. So I told him to play only three strings.”
After more than 100 run-throughs, Joey learned the song but added a personal touch. “They sang their own songs. It was Remones’ first song, ‘I Don’t Care.’ A day later, he wrote ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’ with the same melody.
Later came “Beat on the Brat”, inspired by a spoiled, screaming child in a playground near his boyish apartment building. “He created a lot Songs of Rama On this guitar, “his brother said. “As the wires broke, he did not bother to replace them. He was not needed. “
hell bent for Leather
Joey Raymon went through a succession of leather jackets, including the classic Scott motorcycle number that he and the other Ramones wore while staging.
“Joey and the others came out of the glam-rock scene,” Leah said. “Initially, my brother wore a black vinyl bodysuit, but it did not really work. So they came with leather jackets as part of their style. ”
The cool-looking garment developed as a second skin. “Joey wore his leather jacket at home,” Fields said. “I knew a man who delivered hamburgers to Joey’s apartment, and he told me Joey would come to the door wearing pajama bottles and a leather jacket. They wore it in the hospital. For that, I think, a jacket. The security was like a blanket. “
Passport to stardom
Raymons toured the world, receiving more accolades abroad than at home, and it was the golden stamp of Passport Joy, the star he had longed for.
“I’m not sure Joey would have liked to land in an airplane, but he preferred to play out of the country,” Leah said. “In early times, in clubs in Connecticut and New Jersey, there would be 12 people and bikers would shout, ‘Play’ Bird! ‘Years later they were treated like The Beatles in Argentina.”
Indeed, a similar memory was shared by his financial advisor, Marty Lutschunig: “Joey was in his room, in Brazil or someplace after that. He put his phone out the window and I heard a racket. He said that it was people from 12 stories, calling for him.
Shades after dark
Joey was famous for his variously tinted grandmother glasses. Leh figures he started making them in 1967 and never gave up. Her eyesight was reduced and her brother initially wore “regular Buddy Holi glasses”.
Then, at the age of 16 or 17, influenced by John Lennon and Roger McGinn, he begged my mother to take him to the eye doctor, so that he could get a prescription. It would have been impractical to wear them without a script. “He went along with it,” Leah said. “She didn’t know he would wear them all the time. But they did
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