Posthumous Joey Ramone LP set for release

22 February 2012

by Shannon Andreucci

Just over a decade after Joey Ramone’s lymphoma-induced death in 2001, the lead vocalist of the Ramones releases a new album from the grave.

The new collection of demos written during and after the reign of punk band Ramones – who called it quits in 1996 –is slated for release on May 15 and called Ya Know?

Endearingly titled after the way Joey would finish his sentences with his Queens accent, the 17-track album was completed and produced by Ed Stasium and Jean Beauvoir, who previously worked with the Ramones.

It features contributions by friends and fans Joan Jett, Steven Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Richie Ramone and members of Cheap Trick and the Dictators who recorded the overdubs in 2010 in New York.

The follow-up to Joey’s posthumous solo debut Don’t Worry About Me (2002), includes the prideful anthem Rock & Roll Is the Answer as well as hometown homage New York City and Waiting for That Railroad.

After Joey passed away, his mother Charlotte Lesher and younger brother Mickey Leigh, were cleaning the iconic singer’s New York apartment and stumbled upon an old pizza delivery receipt.

“She was about to throw it away,” Leigh recounted to Rolling Stone. “I turned it over, and there were song lyrics on the back.”

“His health was up and down,” Leigh says of his brother’s last years. “But when the chemo cocktail was effective, that’s when he did his work. Joey had no intention of retiring. His health was holding him back. But he was finally feeling free.”