Rock ‘n’ roll is dead. It died April 15, 2001, not with a bang, but a whimper. On that date, Joey Ramone, singer of the Ramones, succumbed to lymphatic cancer at the age of 49.

The cliche is that the Ramones defined punk rock. Bridging the gap betweenthe Stooges and the Sex Pistols, the Ramones produced the simple formula that hundreds would mimic but never duplicate. Essentially the Beach Boys at 78 rpm or the Beatles with longer hair, the Ramones were four good ol’ boys from New York singing deceptively stupid hooks about sniffing glue and whatever a “Blitzkrieg Bop” is.

Since the Ramones began their career, many artists have been touted as the saviors or destroyers of rock ‘n’ roll. But next to Joey Ramone, they are all false messiahs.

So now, almost a year after his death, Joey Ramone’s first and only solo album, Don’t Worry About Me, has finally been released, and it is one creepy affair.

These are songs written by an icon on his deathbed. Sickly ironic, Ramone reflects on life and his impending death. These are the musings of an aging punk (by some standards, THE aging punk) distraught and confused. Joey Ramone’s image is partly based on his being a perpetual outsider, the Carter-era slacker who just wanted to have some fun. But how does he react as a fish-out-of-water to the world of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears? A world where Blink 182 sells millions of copies of his recycled material?

As he sings in “Venting,” “It’s a different world today, I just don’t understand.”

Don’t Worry About Me kicks off with a rapid-fire cover of “What A Wonderful World” which, placed in the context of Ramone’s impending doom, is pretty disturbing. “Maria Bartiromo,” an ode to CNBC’s broadcast personality, plays as a window into the yearning experienced by the bed-bound, whose only accompaniment is the warm glow of television.

You get the feeling the same voice that sang “I Wanna Be Sedated” would give anything to just be able to get up again.

Don’t Worry About Me is the freewheelin’ and carefree gone deadly serious. Although the lighthearted humor and wit of previous Ramones albums is still present, it now shines through a tinted lens that does its best to optimistically present the last days of rock ‘n’ roll.

In “I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Back Up),” Ramone sings, “Sitting in a hospital bed, I want life, I want my life.” It’s the last letter of a wounded soldier who knows that, short of a miracle, no one will read his words until after he has perished. The song concludes with a chorus of “I got knocked down, but I’ll get back up.” Maybe he believed that if he wished it long enough and hard enough, that miracle might just come true.

While it’s now obvious Pete Townsend was lying when he said, “I hope I die before I get old,” Joey Ramone actually did it. Don’t Worry About Me is a fitting farewell to a beloved man. nyou

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A punk rock eulogy

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Joey Ramone’s posthumous solo album is a funny, powerful, fitting farewell to one of punk’s founders. By Seth Porges

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Medill freshman Seth Porges is an nyou writer. He can be reached at s-porges@ northwestern.edu.