CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE RAMONES
/ AND BONO'S INTERVIEW ABOUT THE RAMONES, FROM TIME MAGAZINE

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Copyright 2001, 2011 -> for everything in this page by TIME Magazine and Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone.

Interview is released at TIME Magazine on April 22, 2001, week after our Joey passed away (April 15, 2001).

Basic information:
Bono is singer of the U2. U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976. The group consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums and percussion). U2's early sound was indebted to post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music.
They have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band, and they have sold more than 150 million records.
They (especially Bono) have campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes, including Amnesty International, the ONE/DATA campaigns, Product Red, and The Edge's Music Rising. etc. etc.



1) Bono's tribute for Joey, Joey listened U2 in his last moments...

2) Eulogy: Bono Remembers Joey Ramone (interview from TIME magazine).



I know many Ramones fans has mixed feelings about U2. But they are personal opinions. Connections between Joey and Bono are true, and how much Bono appreciate Ramones in general. Bono was one of the last musicians who spoke with Joey, Bono phoned some days before king passed away. Joey wasn't able to say much, but according to Joey's brother Mickey, "You could really see him perk up."
U2's and Bono's manager wrote personal E-mail for me and confirmed I had permission to use Bono's small text in my debut book, Heaven Needed A Lead Singer: Fans Remember Joey Ramone.



1) Bono's tribute for Joey, Joey listened U2 in his last moments...

Arturo Vega wrote to me (Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone) that Joey's loving family was there at his bedside. On his last moments Joey listened U2-song: In A Little While. Mickey was brought a copy of that U2 album: All That You Can't Leave Behind, which contain that song In A Little While.
- Just as the song finished, Joey finished, Joey's mother Charlotte told and continued.
- He's free now. He heard it and now he's gone. He was too, too young to go, but we'll always love him. People will never forget his music.

And then I do continue with my own comments:
Because of Joey I (Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone) later got good quality live recording of U2 show at Rose Garden in Portland, OR, USA on April 15, 2001. It was sold-out show, with 16 600 people attending.
Bono dedicated U2 songs One and Walk One for Joey, and played partly Ramones song I Remember You. Before One Bono had 30 seconds speech for Joey. He explains something how hard show is for him and then says:
"This is a..., I sing this for Joey Ramone. Great, great singer of greatest punkrock band ever. Joey passed away this afternoon, late this afternoon, so I am thinking about him. He kinda was my first influence, you know what I mean? So thinking about Joey."
And then begin One with lyrics: "Is it getting better. Or do you feel the same. Will it make it easier on you now..." and later goes for example: "When all you got is hurt, one love, one blood, one life, you got to do. what you should." and next Bono instead of "One life, with each other, sisters, brothers. One life..." sang "One life, Joey Ramone, my big brother. One life..."

Bono is crying if I hear correctly, then he sing partly Ramones song I Remember You. These lyrics: "awake at night and thinking just of you. But things don't last forever and somehow baby they never really do. They never really do.
I remember you, I remember you, I remember you. I remember lying awake at night and thinking just of you. But things don't last forever and somehow baby they never really do."

My third book Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives also includes Bono related stories, one is by Jesse Malin. Jesse explains about the U2 TV show Joey and he attended and how great way U2 treated Joey etc.

Later Bono and U2 found out Joey listening their song In A Little While...

APRIL 17, 2001: U2 had next show after Portland at Sports Arena in San Diego on April 17, 2001. It was also sold-out, 14 000 people attended. As well Bono spoke of the Joey and the Ramones. How he was 16, Edge 15 and Larry 14 years old, they heard of the Ramones and their world changed. He told Joey had passed away that week etc. Also in some other nights U2 played I Remember You.

In October 2001, Marky Ramone appeared on MTV TV channel accepting a lifetime achievement award presented by Bono to the Ramones (see photo in right).

Week after Joey was became an angel, got released article at TIME magazine entitled: "Eulogy: Bono Remembers Joey Ramone". Read it below.



2) Eulogy: Bono Remembers Joey Ramone

Interview is released in TIME Magazine on April 22, 2001, week after our Joey passed away (April 15,2001).

Bono: When we first formed the band, Adam and I were 16, Edge was 15, and Larry was 14, and we were fans of the Ramones. They kind of stopped the world long enough for bands like U2 and others to get on. It was suddenly the end of progressive rock and virtuosity over melody and the end of interminable guitar solos and the rock-band-as-music-school. These were all the things that prevented you from getting on the train when you were a kid if you hadn't been to music college.

At one of our rehearsals, we were visited by a big-shot TV director who was going to give us a break on the national airwaves. We'd been fighting in our garage about how our own songs should end, or start or even what middles they should have when this TV director was coming to see us, so we played him two Ramones songs when he arrived and told him they were ours, and he thought this was amazing. And then when we went on the TV show, we played them two of our own songs, and they didn't notice. So that's our first debt.

This was the best punk rock band ever, because they actually invented something. There were great bands like the Stooges and the MC5, but I think that they were still blues bands. The Ramones were actually the beginning of something new. They stood for the idea of making your limitations work for you. In film jargon, they would be "a pure situation." They talked like they walked like they sounded onstage. Everything added up. That takes an extraordinary intelligence to figure out.

When I was standing in the State Cinema in Dublin in 1977 listening to Joey sing and realizing that there was nothing else [that] mattered to him, pretty soon nothing else mattered to me. If they remind me of anything now, it's that singular idea. It travels further and deeper than the baggage of possibilities you pick up along the way.
This was a really important moment in the last 25 years, because suddenly imagination was the only obstacle to overcome. Anyone could play those four chords. That's why hip-hop has taken off, because you don't have to be a virtuoso, you just have to have great taste. You have to be able to hear it more than you have to be able to play it. Suddenly, the grasp becomes more important than the reach. Suddenly, a bunch of kids from the north side of Dublin who would never have had a chance to get on the musical merry-go-round watched it stop for just long enough to jump on. We were a band before we could play. We formed our band around an idea of friendship and shared spirit. That was a preposterous notion before the Ramones.

I spoke to Joey a couple of days before he died. He wasn't able to say much, but I just told him that we were thinking about him. He was indomitable to the last minute. A doctor wanted to put a tube down his throat to help with his breathing, and Joey wasn't having any of it because he didn't want his voice affected, because he had some solo gigs coming up. He was fighting it off and fearless. A great spirit.