The death of Joey Ramone in the summer of 2001 and Dee Dee Ramone in June 2002 provided ample evidence of the high regard in which his band was held by fans and critics.
Once regarded as a joke, their music little more than an adrenaline rush of one minute five second noise, The Ramones have come to be regarded as having influenced almost every star struck guitarist who knew just three songs and wanted to write a song.
But the story of the cartoon band from Queens, New York is laced with all the ingredients of a rock saga - drugs, fallings-out, financial catastrophes, inter-band rivalries, bad management and death.
Everett True has interviewed all the main characters in a story that is at times sad and at other times simply exhilarating. Here for the first time is the definitive warts and all biography of one of the most loved bands from the punk era, a band whose legacy informs just about every garage rocker that succeeded them.
