He passed away Sunday at 2:40 p.m. ET in New York of complications from lymphoma, which he had been battling for about seven years.
Born Jeffrey Hyman in the Forest Hills section of Queens, New York, the gawky geek decked out in sunglasses and black leather founded the Ramones in 1974 with friends Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy. Each adopted the surname Ramone, after a stage name (Ramon) used by Paul McCartney during the earliest Beatles days.
Best known for such two-minute anthems as "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Blitzkrieg Bop" "Rockaway Beach" and "Teenage Lobotomy," the Ramones are credited with founding what would later be dubbed punk rock. According to legend, it was all an accident. Novices on their instruments, the quartet knew four chords and played them at breakneck speed to prevent listeners from discerning the mistakes. An average concert consisted of about three dozen songs in about 90 minutes.
Punk caught on and found a home at the downtown Manhattan club CBGBs, where the Ramones performed with like-minded souls Richard Hell, Patti Smith and Television. After a Ramones tour in 1976, the genre spread to England, where the Sex Pistols and Damned copied what they saw but added a more rebellious edge.
"Everybody adapted their sound from ours," Joey told this reporter in 1995. "Whether it be the Sex Pistols or the Dead Kennedys or Black Flag or whoever, nobody else was playing that way [before us]."
In 1979, the Ramones appeared in the Roger Corman movie Rock 'n' Roll High School, recording the title song for the soundtrack. Ten years later they contributed the title track to Pet Sematary, based on the book by Stephen King. But mainstream crossover success consistently eluded them. Although their fiercely delivered, winkingly inane pop songs about social misfits were hailed as rock classics, none ever cracked the Top 40. The Ramones' commercial profile consistently paled in comparison to each new generation of groups they inspired--from the Clash and Blondie, through the Offspring and Green Day (two of whose members named children after the Ramones) and now Blink-182 and Fenix TX.
"It's frustrating that we haven't really gotten our justice in America," Joey said in '95. "I think maybe we're too real, maybe we don't kiss enough ass. I really don't understand it. I'm a bit eluded by the whole thing."
Over 22 years and several lineup changes the Ramones recorded 13 albums. They released their last, Adios Amigos, and broke up in 1996, after performing a farewell show--their 2,263rd--with guests including Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell.
Ramone coproduced a 1999 EP called She Talks to Rainbows by his idol, Ronnie Spector, and was said to be working on a debut solo album during healthy windows in his illness, which was first reported last year. His condition grew worse after he was hospitalized for a hip injury three months ago, according to a source close to the group.