punkboy74

For three months running, Amy Rigby's "Dancing With Joey Ramone" is still my favorite song in the world.

Little Steven has said of his Underground Garage radio program that he populates the playlists exclusively with music that influenced or was influenced by the Ramones, setting the band as the de facto nexus between all the music that mattered and all the music that will matter. This is not to say that the Ramones embody rock 'n' roll. Instead, the Ramones (and Joey, in particular) have always embodied the love of rock 'n' roll. For proof, just pick up a copy of Acid Eaters.

If the Ramones were a metaband, then Rigby's "Dancing With Joey Ramone" is a metasong. Over a catchy, crunchy guitar riff, Rigby sings of a rapt Ramone pulling her to the dance floor while commanding, "Girl, shut your mouth, they're playing 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone.'" From there, song titles ("Hanging on the Telephone", "He's So Fine") and band names (the Shadows of Night, the Brooklyn Bridge) pack the verses, creating a perfect companion piece for the Ramones' own open love letter to rock, "Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio."

By choosing Joey as her fictitious dance partner, Rigby manages to create a joyous tribute to a man, a band and the whole of rock 'n' roll in a single three-minute track. And when she sings, "I closed my eyes for a minute and then he was gone/the room looked different but the music kept playing on and on and on," she seems to understand that when Joey died, rock lost not only one of its most unique voices but also its biggest fan.