JOEY'S SECONDS MORE THAN LEFTOVERS

"... ya know?"
Released 2012

743 Miles To Go

Johnny Ramone wanted to be tough. Joey Ramone wanted to be adored.

Johnny was the band's self-appointed drill sergeant who kept the Ramones on the road long after the band could have self-destructed from commercial disappointment, Dee Dee's fatal drug daze, and the severed relationship between the two leaders with a truce that only existed on stage.

Joey was the leather-clad praying mantis sporting a mop top, tattered jeans, and singing in a New York voice with a hint of fake English.

Johnny supplied the chainsaw guitar. Joey chewed the bubblegum surf pop soul.

"... ya know?" is Joey's second solo effort, released 10 years after Don't Worry About Me and 11 years from his death from lymphoma. According to the liner notes, a nasty rights fight between Joey's estate and Daniel Rey (a frequent Ramones co-conspirator) prevented an earlier release.

"VERY special thanks to Ed Stasium. Were it not for him finally anchoring the rope - joining my mom, Dave Frey and me in our eight year long tug-of-war with the person who was withholding Joey's demo tapes from all of us - this would be a four song album," writes Joey's brother Mickey Leigh, one of the album's co-producers and art director.

Fortunately, the familiar spoils of the war are well worth the wait - 15 songs of punchy Joey jams.

Some are straight off the Ramones' assembly line, others extend into the ballad ground that Johnny so passionately despised.

A line-up super friends joins the fray including Little Steven Van Zandt, Lenny Kaye, Handsome Dick Manitoba and Bun E. Carlos. Joan Jett guests on guitar and vocals for 21st Century Girl. Meanwhile, Leigh and Stasium supply a variety of vocal and instrumental fills throughout and Ramones ex-pat Richie drums on four songs.

The lyrical view alternates between his rosy wire rimmed spectacles and that of someone seeing the finish line coming sooner and more painfully than hoped.

Rock 'n' Roll Is The Answer is a Joey-styled attitude adjuster, while New York City plays like Big Apple tourism commercial.

Holly Beth Vincent (Holly and the Italians) trades verses with Joey on Party Line, an original calling from a musical era gone almost as long as that telephone technology.

Conversely, Going Nowhere Fast, Seven Days of Gloom and There's Got To Be More To Life are as dark as their titles, but delivered with a ray of Ramones humor.

"Seven days of gloom

here in my room

if it wasn't for Stooges

my life would be doomed"

  - Seven Days of Gloom

 Joey leaves with us a simple goodbye:

"Life's a gas

So don't be sad,

'cause I'll be there

DON'T BE SAD AT ALL ..."

Johnny would have hated the tinkling wind chimes at the end, ya know?

Song for the Soundtrack: Party Line

Running Data for Wednesday, April 10:

4.52 Miles

49:31

In The Mileage Change Jar: 0.80 Miles