DON'T
WORRY ABOUT ME - Joey Ramone (Sanctuary Records)It's finally here...sadly, posthumously. There was a worldwide expression of grief when Joey Ramone passed on, making for another low point of 2001. He
left
behind a part-completed album that he seemed to have been working on for an
eternity (the reason why is obvious, in retrospect.) "Don't Worry About
Me" isn't the masterwork of Joey's career - how could it be? - but is sure
to alternately raise a smile and tug the heartstrings.Produced by longtime Ramones cohort Daniel Rey (who also plays guitar), "Don't Worry About Me" compares favourably with Joey's former band's latter-day output. Sure, it's uneven in places (the cover of "1969" was done with Poison Idea for the Iggy tribute and seems out of place and some of the original tunes sound under-done) but that won't worry most fans. Production-wise, it sounds like a cross between "Adios Amigos" and "Halfway to Sanity", with mid-paced tempos and layers of brightly buzzing guitars. Name players abound with Marky Ramone and a past and present Dictator in Andy Shernoff and Frank Funaro sharing backline duties. Captain Sensible, Joe McGinty, Jerry Only and Mickey Leigh (former Lester Bangs backing muso and member of Stop and The Rattlers) are among the guests.
Lyrically, this is a simple album but still manages to go some emotional places the (Dee Dee-less) Ramones never went. It's hard not be moved by the starkness of "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" with lines like "Sitting in a hospital bed...I want my life". Joey's other nemisis, OCD, gets an airing in "Like a Drug I Never Did Before". The title tune, on the face of it, is about a broken relationship but takes on a different pathos in the album's posthumous context. "Venting (It's a Different World Today)" would have sat well on "Halfway to Sanity" and pointedly judges the sort of contemporary nihilsm that manifests itself in schoolyard mass murder.
It's not always dark. "Mr Punchy" lifts the spirits (and was brilliantly nailed by one of the denizens of the often nasty but occasionally hilarious Ramones newsgroup as "a Who song".) I could almost grow to like the punked-up cover of "What a Wonderful World" (almost) - and it shits all over the maudlin tripe that Nick Cave and Shane McGowan foisted on their public some years ago. "Maria Bartiromo" is a grand ode to the American TV finance reporter of the same name (shades of Bro Wayne's Racketeers trib to war zone TV reportage, "Christiana.)
The Ramones were always the sum of their parts and the former members will never match their previous work (even the living ones) so judge this on its merits. It's a solid work, never self-pitying. R.I.P., Joey. You've done fine. - The Barman
