It’s a sad state of affairs when a punk rock legend has to release an album as bad as this. What makes everything worse is that this is a posthumous release which blatantly rings of cash-in.
Joey Ramone fronted quite possibly the finest punk band of them all. The Godfathers of punk rock if you will. Or indeed, if you will not. But this release, completed just weeks before the great man’s death in April 2001, isn’t a fair and honest reflection of how good Joey Ramone was. Infact, the best (and possibly only) good track is a cover. And that says it all.
It’s ironic that the opening track should be a cover of ‘What A Wonderful World’, highlighting Joey’s positive outlook on life despite his fight against lymphatic cancer. Vocally it isn’t on a par with Louis Armstrong, yet it still seems as strong with Joey’s classic nasally layrnx shining through. It’s a shame that everything goes downhill from here.
The other ten tracks here stink of mediocrity. The Ramones faded out as their career went on and Joey’s last record continues this unfortunate trend. ‘Stop Thinking About It’ is bland and boring and ‘Mr Punchy’ is just crap. Things pick up slightly with ‘Maria Bartiromo’, but it’s still not a patch on the bands classics like ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’.
‘I Got A Spirit In My House’ and ‘Venting (It’s A Different World Today)’ are very, very average and ‘Like A Drug I Never Did Before’ sounds like every other average Ramones song in the world. Infact it’s like listening to a poor quality Ramones cover band, dredging up poor Ramones songs. It’s just not good.
‘Searching For Something’ is slow and doesn’t suit Joey at all, ‘I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up) is slightly better but bland and ‘1969’ is an absolute stinker. Even the closing track, ‘Don’t Worry About Me’ isn’t that great, although it has added poignancy after his death.
I tried to like ‘Don’t Worry About Me’, I really did. But it’s just a poor record, an unfitting tribute to one of punk rock’s elite. The Ramones are quite rightly highly praised, but that doesn’t mean everything they touch turns to gold. This is one for die-hards only.
Paul Savage