I never met Joey Ramone.  The closest I ever got to him was a few feet away during many of those early great Ramones shows that I was fortunate to attend.  Usually you were having way too much fun to worry about getting hurt and the Ramones had an irresistible urge to pull you closer to the stage without any regard for personal safety.  As time went on, the Ramones graduated toward bigger halls, but I am proud to say that sitting down at a Ramones show was never an option.

The news has come out that Joey Ramone lost his battle with cancer and passed away.  I've been getting emails from people over the last few days asking me about my feelings.  I guess that I have become the local Ramones expert as I always did my best to try to expose all my friends to this great band.  Usually they nodded their heads and went back to listening to their Led Zeppelin or Stones.  Once in a while, you could see their eyes light up and you knew that they would be jumping up and down next o you at the next Ramones gig.

I first heard about the Ramones during the dark ages, now known as the 1970's.  I read a review in Creem and heard some stories about this crazy new band from New York City that played twenty minute sets and never stopped between songs.  I didn't even have a car yet, so I hopped on my bike and rode out to Hazel Park to buy this strange new album.  I must have listened to it for 3 or 4 straight days.  Then I calmly picked up all my rock & roll albums and traded them in at the used record store.  There was no turning back.  The Ramones  soon came along on tour and I was already near the stage screaming along "Hey Ho - Let's Go" like I had been following them all my life.

Time went on...the Ramones were soon followed by the Sex Pistols, Clash, Dead Boys and a host of others who pushed punk further and further.  The Ramones were no longer the loudest or fastest band in the world, but they remained the best.  Each new album was eagerly anticipated as a tour inevitably followed.  Pretty soon, songs like "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Cretin Hop" had become huge hits in the punk scene, but never in the charts.  The Ramones seemed to accept this, but I never could.  One of my main missions in life was to spread the gospel of the Ramones and in that, like many other things, I miserably failed.  I would watch the Grammys with contempt and anger as a succession of loser bands would take their obligatory bow and the Ramones would be ignored.  This just wasn't fair !!!!

Finally, the tide seemed to turn.  A trio of punkers from Seattle, who also first saw the light with the Ramones opened the commercial floodgates and punk rock had entered the mainstream.  As Nirvana, Green Day, the Offspring sold millions and millions of records - it was time for the Ramones to receive their due.  But these happy endings never occur in real life.  The Ramones endured on and finally called it quits after 20 years on the road.  I was at the last show in Detroit to see the boys go out in fine style.  Pavarotti may have been singing that night at the Detroit Opera House down the street, but the real musical genius that night was provided by Joey, Johnny, CJ and Marky Ramone.

Well, the road ended for the Ramones back in 1996 and Joey's life ended last week.  A rock & roll star's death usually shows fans weeping desperately after a person that they never knew, while the rest of us is silently resigned to a slew of new records coming out by the dead artist.  I'm not in mourning - most of us have to deal with death at a personal level and I certainly don't equate this with losing a loved one.  I'm sorry that Joey is gone, but I'm glad that I got an opportunity to see them play so many times. 

GABBA GABBA HEY !!!!!!!!!