Joey Ramone, who died on April 15th aged 49, was the driving force of the groundbreaking, 1970s punk-rock band, The Ramones. He was also a politically-attuned artist, capable of penning sharp, socially-conscious, satire.
The Ramones were essentially a dynamic, high-volume fun band, and few visiting groups equalled their 1978 Dublin concert in the State Cinema in Phibsboro, which had the audience dancing on the seats.
The four-piece band was formed in Queens, New York, in 1974. "We decided to form our own group," explained Joey Ramone, "because we were bored with everything we heard. We missed hearing songs that were short and exciting and good. We wanted to bring the energy back to rock 'n' roll."
The Ramones' frenetic live performances quickly attracted a following and they were the first bona fide punk band to sign a record deal.
Joey Ramone was born Jeffrey Hyman at Forest Hills, New York, on May 19th, 1951. Although his parents divorced, he enjoyed a comfortable childhood, living with his mother, who ran an art gallery. His artistic nature first found expression in painting after which he took up music. At 13, his grandmother bought him a drum kit and he studied jazz drumming for a time. As Jeff Starship he sang with local bands such as The Snipers before teaming up with the other Ramones.
The band first attempted to master the songs of the artists they most admired - Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, the MC5, Alice Cooper and Slade - but found that they lacked the necessary musical skills. So The Ramones then turned to writing their own material, a pared-down, two-chord fusion of surf music, early rock 'n' roll and tribal chant.
Joey Ramone initially played drums, but after a few months switched to vocals. His impassive, sullen stage persona and monotonous nasal drone became key elements of the band's image.
Within 18 months of forming, The Ramones secured a residency at New York's prestigious CBGB Club despite an inauspicious debut performed before an audience of five people. Their first single, Blitzkrieg Bop, was released in 1976, the year the band first toured England.
The Ramones' concert at the Roundhouse, London, was hugely influential on British punk. Dressed in black leather jackets, torn jeans and wearing dark glasses, the band crammed 20 songs into a frantic 40minute set, barely pausing to count in each number, which finished with a rousing yell of "gabba gabba hey!"
The band generated an atmosphere buzzing with irony, energy and a touch of (carefully-cultivated) menace. The concert made a lasting impression on the aspiring punk rockers present, not least on Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols.
The Ramones became more popular in Britain than in America, where they never had a Top 40 hit. The two albums that followed their debut album, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia (both 1977), sold well in Britain, and the single Sheena is a Punk Rocker became a Top 30 hit.
The Ramones' 1978 album, Road to Ruin, included an unusually melodic and poignant version of the Searchers' classic, Needles and Pins. Following the release of the live album It's Alive, The Ramones appeared in Roger Corman's film, Rock 'n' Roll High School.
Phil Spector produced The Ramones' next album, End of the Century (1980), which reached 44 in the US charts, the highest position reached by the band in their home country. A single version of The Ronettes' Baby I Love You taken from the album reached eight in Britain's Top 10.
In the 1980s, Joey Ramone nailed his political colours to the mast. He wrote Bonzo Goes to Bitburg in protest at Ronald Reagan's 1985 visit to the German military camp at Bitburg, where the then US president laid a wreath in a cemetery containing graves of Waffen SS soldiers. The song outraged conservatives who objected to the ridiculing of America's chief executive by reference to the monkey he appeared with in his film career.
Also in 1985, Joey Ramone was among those who recorded the anti-apartheid anthem Sun City, written by Steven Von Zandt of the E Street Band and latterly a star of The Sopranos TV series. Nelson Mandela praised the song as a vital contribution to the international struggle to free South Africa.
Political commentary continued to feature in Joey Ramone's songs. He criticised the influence of big business on media and music and attacked censorship. On the 1992 album, Mondo Bizarro, he took issue with Tipper Gore's music labelling proposals, declaring:
Hey, hey all you senators' wives
Better take a look at your own lives
Before you go preaching at me.
The Ramones disbanded in 1996; their last album, We're Outta Here, was released in 1997.
Joey Ramone: born 1951; died, April 2001