Who was Joey Ramone

Why has Joey Ramone's death been in the news, who was he < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Joey Ramone can probably lay claim to the sort of title that almost any musician would love to get their hands on ' the originator of a 'style' ' in Joey's case, the style was punk rock.

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Surely The Sex Pistols created punk

Not before they heard The Ramones they didn't! From the heaving mass of influential New York bands of the early 1970's Television, Blondie, and so on, The Ramones stood out in a big way, mainly because of Joey.

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What made Joey so special

Joey wasn't 'Joey' for a start ' his name was Jeffrey Hyman, and when he got his band together, he started as he meant to go on, wearing his influences as obviously as he possibly could. Joey loved the greaser look, ripped jeans, leather jacket, shades, hair in long greasy bangs, and he adopted it for the entire band, who all adopted stage names, ending in Ramone. A style was born. Strangely, The Ramones enjoyed limited success in their own country, but when the came to England, the disaffected youth of the day, fed up to the back teeth of the wheezing monster of progressive rock, adopted The Ramones like they were family.

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Why were The Ramones so successful in England

Because unlike New York, where innovation was coming out of every street corner, England had nothing like this! The sight and sound of Joey, who was impossibly tall, leaning over his mike stand with his hair covering his face, his torn jeans, and his whiney sub-pop vocals, made a huge impression on everyone who saw and heard the band. Their catch phrases 'Gabba gabba hey' and 'Hey ho, let's go' summed up the band's philosophy perfectly ' keep it simple, keep it short ' it wasn't until the band's fourth album 'Road To Ruin' that their recorded output managed to get past the thirty-minute mark!

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So The Ramones had big success in England

Not massive, but bigger than the US. They enjoyed a bona fide hit single, 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' and their legendary live shows ensured they earned a living as a touring band for over twenty years, never selling out their original ideals, even though their sound changed occasionally as they attempted to move sluggishly with the changing times. Behind the band was always Joey's philosophy ' The Beatles and Phil Spector were great artists, but so were The Bay City Rollers! It was that tongue-in-cheek pop sensibility that made The Ramones' subtle humour such a success in England, while the irony of what they stood for sailed over their compatriots' heads.

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Just how influential were The Ramones

It's probably fair to say that British punk, which was successfully exported back to the United States, got its vital kick-start from the input of The Ramones. The notion of adapting surf-style and sixties kitsch into perfect under-two-minute anthems was embraced by British teenagers. Phil Oakey of The Human League even name-checks the three founders in the lyrics to 'The Things That Dreams Are Made Of' ' The Ramones were a branded identity that stretched way beyond their own modest recording success.

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How did it all end

After decreasing returns on their albums, in spite of a willingness to try new ideas that did not always find favour with their die-hard fans, the band split up, and Joey was working on a solo project when he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Joey Ramone died on April 15 2001, aged 49.

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So why all the coverage in the music media

Aside from the long shadow cast by the musical influence of The Ramones, Joey was known as a genuinely nice guy, and having been a pivotal figure for so long, he made loads of friends among his contemporaries, and the new 'new wave' of bands like Green Day who followed his blue-print to massive success with the next generation of bands. The idea of keeping it real, keeping it short, and keeping it true is one that appeals to musicians from The Ramones' early days until the present day. Joey lived his ideas.