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Joey Ramone lives through a new album

A new album with songs written by Joey Ramone as demos before and after the Ramones will be released in May.

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After the death of Joey Ramone in April 2001, his mother Charlotte Lesher, and his younger brother, Mickey Leigh, cleaned the apartment of the Ramones singer in New Charlotte York when she found an old receipt from pizza delivery. "Almost threw the damn thing away", sayd Mickey Leigh, "when I saw the back of it where verses were written. Even until the end, Joey worked something on his mind".

On May 15, a decade from the album Don't Worry About Me (2002), comes a new album by Joey titled 'Ya Know?', his characteristic words. The new album includes 17 songs - demos written by Joey for Ramones and after their dissolution in 1996. Album includes the songs "Rock & Roll Is the Answer", "New York City" and the country ballad "Waiting for That Railroad". Producers Ed Stasium and Jean Beauvoir, who had worked with the Ramones, completed the songs that Joey worked on. Joan Jett, Steven Van Zandt of E Street Band, drummer Richie Ramone and members of Cheap Trick and Dictators is some of those that contributed in the new album.

The creation of the album was delayed in 2009 because of protracted negotiations for some demos, which were done by Joey with producer Daniel Rey. Stasium says the original plan was "to have the remix of demos by famous singers and musicians from very popular bands that were influenced by Joey. Instead, we chose friends who were really friends with Joey". Stasium recorded the remakes in New York in 2010, one week after Joey Ramone's Birthday Bash show.

"The vintage feel of the material is everywhere" says Leigh, who has his own band, Rattlers, and plays in Ya Know?. He had recorded on tape a slow implementation of "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" in the mid 80's in Joey's apartment. In the same apartment, Andy Shernoff of The Dictators watched television with Joey at the beginning of the 90's when they started to write "Trembling". He was maturing, his voice become more soul," said Shernoff. "He would go on in this direction. He liked to sing so".





Source: Rolling Stone