Joey Ramone Place

East Village

New York City

Art & Culture | History

An Homage to a Punk Pioneer

Ramones CBGB Roberta Bayley East Village Historical Photo

The Ramones Roberta Beyley East Village History

About Joey Ramone Place

& why it made the Carpe City list

Hey Ho! Let’s Go! Punk Music & New York City = Joey Ramone
Called “The Father of Punk” Joey Ramone was the lead singer of The Ramones a Punk Rock band formed in 1974.
Famous hits were, I Wanna Be Sedated, Blitzkrieg Bop and Rock & Roll High School.
The band was together for 22 years. They released 21 albums and played more than 2,200 shows.
Many of their early shows were played just down the street at the famous rock club CBGB.
FYI – CBGB closed in 2006 and is now a Jon Varvatos store that has preserved a bit of the CBGB heritage.
Joey lived for while at 6 East 2nd street which was the loft apartment of Arturo Vega, The Ramones’ creative director, friend, confidant, lighting director, logo designer etc etc. You name it he did it for the band.
Further down the street, inside Albert’s Garden you will see the wall in front of which The Ramones posed for their debut album in 1976.
Around the corner on Extra Place, you will find the back entrance to CBGB and the wall where the Ramones posed for the cover of their 3rd Album, Rocket to Russia. FYI – On the other side of Extra Place you’ll find one of our favorite stops, Momofuku Ko Bar.
Joey died in 2001 at the young age of 49 after a battle with lymphatic cancer.
The street sign was dedicated to Ramone in 2003 and is the most stolen street sign in New York City. The city used to place it much higher up than normal street signs but we assume they have just given up and keep a stack of replacements handy.
FYI – The pictures of the Ramones above are courtesy of Roberta Bayley a punk icon in her own right. She famously chronicled the Punk era of the 70’s & 80’s. Check out more of her fabulous photos here.

Carpe City Trivia

Were the Ramones related?

None of the original four members of the Ramones were related. Their real names were: Jeffrey Ross Hyman (Joey Ramone), John Cummings (Johnny Ramone), Douglass Colvin (Dee Dee Ramone) and Thomas Erdelyi (Tommy Ramone). They all knew each other from growing up in Forest Hill, Queens. The name Ramone was actually influenced by Paul McCartney. Before the Beatles hit it big, McCartney used the stage name, Paul Ramon which he thought sounded “suitably exotic.” Dee Dee was a diehard Beatles fan and talked the entire group into taking up the Ramon moniker with a newly added “e” and thus the Ramones were born.

A little known fact about Joey Ramone:

You probably would not consider someone called the “Father of Punk Rock” to be a poster boy for professionalism, but Joey Ramone was just that. He took his role very seriously, taking voice lessons from an opera coach, doing regular breathing exercises and often used a vaporizer to open up his vocal cords. One night, during a long and arduous time of touring on the road, Joey nearly died when his vaporizer blew up in his face. Like the rock star he was, he went on stage anyway and then after the show was admitted to a hospital burn unit with third-degree burns. This experience became the catalyst for the lyrics of one of their most popular songs, I Wanna Be Sedated.

What are some other commonly stolen road signs?

Like Joey Ramone Place, there are some other spots in the world that tend to have their road signs stolen on a regular basis.
We feel like we are in an episode of South Park reporting on this list.

Stoner Avenue in Bemidji, Minnesota
Richard Bong State Recreation Area, Brighton, Wisconson
Butt Hole Road, Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England (We heard this one has changed though due to tourists buses and bare-bummed selfies.)
F*****g, Austria – Yes this really is a place. It was founded in the 6th century AD by a Bavarian nobleman named Focko. The name actually means, place of Focko’s people.
Shitterton, Dorset, England – Well this is a name that actually is what it sounds like. It means “farmstead on the stream used as an open sewer.” which apparently it was about 1000 years ago.
Bat Cave, North Carolina
Katies Crotch Road, New Portland, Main
Exit 69 off Big Beaver Rd., Troy, Michigan
Intercourse, PA
And last but not least, Big Bone Lick Park on none other than Beaver Road in Union, Kentucky.