Punk giant Joey Ramone shuffled off the stage more than a decade ago, but that’s not getting in the way of the release next month of his sophomore album …Ya Know? — which will be preceded by a Record Store Day release of lead-off track “Rock ‘N’ Roll Is The Answer” on red-vinyl 7-inch, which you now stream right here.
Due out May 22, Ramone’s sophomore album features 15 tracks “drawn from a cache of demos and unreleased recordings that Joey had cut at various times during the last decade and a half of his life,” according to a news release. Ramone’s brother, Mickey Leigh, supervised the project: “It was of the utmost importance to me that these remaining songs of Joey’s be finished properly, and made available for the world to hear.”
The album features appearances by Joan Jett and Little Steven Van Zandt, plus members of The Plasmatics, The Dictators, Cheap Trick, The Smithereens and The Patti Smith Group. Most of the songs are originals, but Ramone did record new versions of the Ramones’ “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)” and “Life is a Gas.”
“Over the past eight years, I’ve been getting barrages of emails and Facebook messages from Joey’s fans, wanting to know when this album would be coming out,” Leigh says in the new release. “So having it finally become a reality gives me a feeling of triumph – not for me, but for my brother, and for his fans. And there’s not the slightest doubt in my mind that people are gonna be blown away by it.”
Tracklist: Joey Ramone, …Ya Know?
1. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is The Answer”
2. “Going Nowhere Fast”
3. “New York City”
4. “Waiting For That Railroad”
5. “I Couldn’t Sleep”
6. “What Did I Do To Deserve You?”
7. “Seven Days of Gloom”
8. “Eyes of Green”
9. “Party Line”
10. “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)”
11. “21st Century Girl”
12. “There’s Got To Be More To Life”
13. “Make Me Tremble”
14. “Cabin Fever”
15. “Life’s A Gas”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Record Store Day 2012: The Cure, Morrissey, PiL, Devo, The Fall, Kate Bush, The Clash
- New releases: Ramones live in 1979 on CD, Public Image Ltd. live in 1983 on DVD
- Ramones reissuing first 4 albums on 180-gram vinyl with bonus blue-vinyl 7-inches
Thanks for the info! Sounds cool.
Hope the tracks are as good as his first solo CD.
Linked ya up on ye olde Ramones blog.
Check out the Ramones interview on Regis post.
….ya know?
Here is the direct link to the Ramones on Regis & Kathy Lee show referenced above:
http://ramonesaretootoughtodie.blogspot.com/2009/06/ramones-and-reeg.html
Joey saying “ya know”.
this is cool. and i LOVe watching vinyl get pressed.