A Tribute to Joey Ramone

By: Frederika Skrobotova

A cover of “Waiting For That Railroad” and a tribute to Joey Ramone. 

When I was a kid, I hated any genre of music that wasn’t mainstream pop or Disney soundtracks. I thought all rock, punk, and metal songs had nothing more to them than loud yelling into a microphone. When I got older, I gave a rock song a closer listen, and I thought it was beautiful. I began listening to more of the genre, and though some of it was, in fact, just yelling into a microphone, most of it had a level of depth that I couldn’t find in the pop songs I used to listen to. One of the bands that I discovered by searching for more of this kind of music was the Ramones. 

Today, the Ramones are deemed to be more of a pop punk band. However, back in the 70s, they were considered to be one of the first punk bands in the music scene. Initially, I didn’t think that their music was for me, but their songs kept on getting stuck in my head, and I kept coming back to them. I began to love their music, and sought out recordings of live concerts, past interviews, and physical vinyls of their albums. What I loved most about the Ramones was that most of them were good people. Unlike many notorious artists in the industry, the Ramones had never been, to my knowledge, outright terrible people. They loved their fans, even writing a song about them in their last studio album. Commercialism and making a profit weren’t their first priority. Above all, they weren’t hateful people, and for me, all those factors were a site for sore eyes. Stories from those who met them describe it as a positive experience, and most of the encounters I’ve read about talk about meeting Joey Ramone. They had described him as kind, somewhat shy and pretty laid-back off-stage. On stage, however, both him and the rest of the Ramones were a powerhouse, playing a total of 2,263 concerts in the 22 years they were active. A year before the group disbanded, Joey Ramone had been diagnosed with lymphoma, which he died of in 2001. I wasn’t alive for any of the time he was, but upon learning of it, I was upset about his death regardless. After all, he was a good person, and it’s always upsetting when good people die.

I chose to play this song at my homecoming shortly after listening to a live performance of it. I thought it was melancholic and beautiful, and I wanted to replicate that in my cover of it. I shortened it, slightly altered the bridge, and I played it, not before almost being too scared to do so. Joey Ramone means a lot to me, and to so many other people. He was a brother, a friend, and an inspiration to many. May he rest in peace.

Sources

Beauvoir, Jean. “Ramones.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramones. Accessed 25 October 2026.

lovell, shelly. “List of Ramones concerts.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ramones_concerts. Accessed 25 October 2026.