Punk Icon Joey Ramone Dies

April 16, 2001 -- He wanted shock treatment. He wanted to be sedated. He wanted the airwaves. He even wanted to be your boyfriend.

Punk fans are mourning the loss of Joey Ramone, lead singer of the seminal 1970s punk rock band The Ramones, who died Sunday of lymphatic cancer, longtime Ramones artistic director Arturo Vega said.

He was 49.

His band inspired a generation of anti-establishment rock groups, from the Sex Pistols to the grunge bands of the 1990s.

Ramone, born Jeffrey Hyman on May 19, 1951, entered the hospital last month to treat the disease, a cancer that attacks the body's ability to fight infection.

He died as U2's "In a Little While" played in his hospital room, according to the New York Daily News.

"Just as the song finished, Joey finished," His mother, Charlotte Lesher, told the newspaper. "He's free now. He heard it, and now he's gone."

New York City Originals

In 1974, the singer hooked up with three friends from Queens, N.Y. — Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy — and each took on the surname Ramone — Joey would later say it was because Paul McCartney once used the name Paul Ramon in the early, leather-jacket days of The Beatles.

The Ramones themselves have been hailed as "The Beatles of punk rock," and the comparison was not hyperbole: the band defined punk before there was a punk. In fact, without the Ramones, there may not have been a punk rock.

"All the better-known punk groups that followed — The Sex Pistols, The Clash, whoever — they would be the first ones to say that without The Ramones the whole punk movement never would have happened," said Spin magazine editor-in-chief Alan Light.

It was the band's tour of the United Kingdom that kicked off on July 4, 1976, that reportedly influenced later punk legends such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash.

A Rock ’n’ Roll Landmark

The Ramones' 1976 debut was recorded in just two days and cost $6,000. Light said the 29-minute recording was a landmark.

"That first Ramones album will stand forever as the most definitive document of punk rock," he said.

The driving beat of that first recording, the endless energy, became the Ramones' musical signature, in both their studio recordings and on-stage performances, in which it was not unusual for the band to belt out 30 songs in less than two hours, with little more than a shout of "1,2,3,4!" separating each one.

"The Ramones were the ones who really stripped everything down to the purest energy and the purest essence of rock and roll back to these two-chord, two-minute-long blasts of songs," said Spin's Light. "The Ramones defined that. They defined an aesthetic, a sensibility that changed rock and roll forever."

They defined a look as much as a sound: long black hair, dark sunglasses and black leather.

High in Influence, Low on the Charts

But despite their influence, the bank never had a Top 40 hit. Outside their hometown of New York, where many people grew up listening to Ramones' songs full of local references, "I Wanna Be Sedated" is probably their best-known song.

Legend has it that Bruce Springsteen wrote the song "Hungry Heart" for The Ramones after seeing the band play in Asbury Park, N.J.

Obviously, The Boss kept it for himself.

In 1979, The Ramones were featured in the Roger Corman-produced film Rock 'n' Roll High School. It predated 1980s teen-angst comedies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Breakfast Club.

The Ramones' 1980 album, End of the Century, was produced by studio genius Phil Spector. On it, the band covered Spector's 1960's classic "Baby I Love You," and the album peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard chart — their highest ever.

Adios, Amigo

The Ramones broke up after touring in support of their 1996 farewell studio recording, aptly titled Adios Amigos. The title of the 1997 live recording of material from that final tour summed it up in typical Ramones fashion: We're Outta Here.

Joey Ramone has been low key since the band's breakup, but he had been working on solo recording.

Hours after the announcement of Joey's death, The Ramones' official Web site was updated with the news, a black slash through the band's name and eagle logo.

"We remember you," read the short tribute beneath. "Adios amigo."

A series of photos followed.

ABCNEWS' Vinny Marino, ABCNEWS.com's Ed Mazza and ABCNEWS Radio contributed to this report.