What the public didn't know about Johnny Ramone is
> > that he cared.
> > > Johnny cared about the people he may have not paid
> > enough attention to
> > during his life and he cared about anybody he
>might
> > have inadvertently hurt
> > along the way to creating music history.
> > > ''I didn't ever want to do anything to hurt
> > anyone,'' he told me as we
> > gathered notes for his upcoming memoirs, which we
> > began working on in April.
> > ''I was always doing the best with what I had.''
> > > To begin the upcoming book, Johnny says something,
> > which he dictated with
> > succinct precision, as if he had been holding it
>in
> > for the moment: ''I want
> > you Ramones fans to understand that I would not
>play
> > the way I play if I
> > were not the person I am, and the Ramones would
> > never have been the band it
> > was without that.''
> > > It seemed to be an apology of sorts, as if the
> > person that he had been did
> > not square with the person he grew into, who was a
> > faithful husband, and, by
> > all accounts, a very true friend.
> > > Johnny would hate for his legacy to be
> > ''whitewashed,'' a word he used when
> > he read or heard something that glossed over the
>bad
> > or negative aspects of
> > an issue.
> > > So to some, Johnny was a nasty, difficult person.
> > Many have said as much,
> > it's out there among the books and articles and
> > video collections. Some of
> > it is true. Some of it isn't. Some more of it will
> > soon be out there for
> > people to decide.
> > > But from this vantage point, even in the throes of
> > his illness, he was never
> > brusque, never impatient. Listening back to the
> > tapes of our many hours of
> > conversations, he was at times strident and
> > opinionated. Other times, he was
> > tired, worn out by the sickness that he fought
>with
> > such courage.
> > > His illness had sapped some of his anger, he noted
> > ruefully.
> > > "It has changed me and I don't know that I like
> > how,'' he said. ''It has
> > softened me up and I liked the old me better. I
> > don't even have the energy
> > to be angry. I liked being angry. ''
> > > But he kept on and we kept on, daily phone calls
>and
> > several weeks of
> > meetings at his Los Angeles home. Sometimes he
> > talked baseball. Sometimes he
> > bitched about liberals. > > And he always understood his lot in life and
>how
> > lucky he was to play music.
> > And he was very grateful.
> > > " There are people who really have to work for a
> > living, they work in coal
> > mines, they sweep streets, they collect garbage,''
> > he told me. ''It was
> > taxing on the mind because of all the travel and
> > there were certain
> > pressures, but it was nothing like real work that
> > most people do. I was very
> > lucky.''
> > > As Arturo Vega, the band's lighting man and art
> > director for all of its 22
> > years, most aptly said, ''Johnny was the
> > misunderstood Ramone. What he did
> > was so basic and elemental that it was beyond the
> > idea of liking him. People
> > never like authority and that was what he had to
> > exert in the Ramones. He
> > was misunderstood because he was not the lovable
> > Joey or the crazy punk Dee
> > Dee.''
> > > The Ramones were what counted for Johnny, more
>than
> > himself, and bigger to
> > him than any other entity in his universe. He
>loved
> > that unit more than he
> > loved himself.
> > > When we worked through changes in the manuscript,
> > Johnny would quietly
> > chastise me if anything looked as if he were
>taking
> > credit, due or not.
> > > It was that selflessness that made the Ramones the
> > giants they were.
> > > When Johnny recognized that a guitar part could be
> > played better by someone
> > other than himself, he stepped aside.
> > > The guitar chord at the end of ''You're Gonna Kill
> > That Girl'' was Tommy.
> > Walter Lure and Daniel Rey played fills on some
> > albums that, Johnny said,
> > ''would've taken me longer to get down and even
>then
> > they wouldn't have
> > sounded as good.''
> > > His leadership corralled the formidable individual
> > talents of the Ramones
> > and sent them from cult band during their
>existence
> > to the mass acceptance
> > of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
> > > ''The Ramones were his band, he was always right
>and
> > he's a bully, a real
> > bully,'' said Danny Fields, the band's first
> > manager. ''But always for the
> > right reasons. His sense of justice was
> > impeccable.''
> > > Gary Kurfirst, who succeeded Fields in 1980, saw
> > right away who ran the
> > show.
> > > ''Johnny was the glue,'' Kurfirst said. ''They
>would
> > work for three months
> > straight, come home for two weeks and take one day
> > off, then he made them go
> > into rehearsal so they wouldn't lose their chops.
>I
> > asked him how they could
> > do that and he said it was like a basketball team,
> > 'you have to practice or
> > you lose it.' That was Johnny.''
> > > The fans were his playground, the people who made
>it
> > worth all his while.
> > Johnny signed endlessly for anyone who requested.
> > > ''I started to see them when I was 16 they were
>one
> > of my favorite bands,''
> > said Jose Theodore who is now all-star goalie for
> > the Montreal Canadians.
> > ''But when I was 17, me and my brother and a
>couple
> > of friends when to see
> > them in Montreal and we waited outside the venue
>and
> > followed them to their
> > hotel and when they got out of their van I asked
> > them for their autograph. I
> > told Johnny that I was going to play NHL hockey
>and
> > they were all really
> > nice.''
> > > In the exchanges of fandom and partings, Jose gave
> > his address to Gene the
> > Cop, Johnny's friend who was traveling with the
> > band.
> > > ''That Christmas, I got a card and it said 'Merry
> > Christmas' and it was
> > signed by Johnny,'' Theodore said. ''With that
>kind
> > of thing, and how nice
> > they were, they taught me how to treat my fans. I
> > was just a kid and they
> > treated me like that. Imagine.''
> > > Johnny relished the attention and felt humbly
> > honored by those fans.
> > > ''I always had that in mind, to treat people like
> > I'd like to be treated,''
> > Johnny said. ''I tell people who are becoming
> > celebrities how important
> > that is. I hope someone pays attention to that.''
> > > Johnny was the tough Ramone, though, and nobody
> > forgot about it. This was
> > part of the reason for his remorse that was noted
>at
> > the top of this page.
> > He knew he knocked heads and he felt the tension
>he
> > created in the band.
> > > As for the money, well, Johnny was all about it.
>He
> > watched his money grow
> > with capitalistic glee as his career progressed,
> > befitting his Republican
> > status. He hated wasting dough and would scold
> > others if he saw it going on.
> > They stayed in cheaper hotels unless the promoter
> > was paying.
> > > And he was characteristically honest and unashamed
> > about his quest for
> > financial security.
> > > When ''Blitzkrieg Bop'' became a music bed for a
>Bud
> > Lite commercial, Johnny
> > was ecstatic even as some cried sellout.
> > > "I thought it was terrific. I liked seeing the
> > commercial and I would get
> > questions about how I could let them do it. It was
> > the easiest money I ever
> > made. It made the Bud commercial better. It would
> > have been bad if it was a
> > lame commercial, but I mean, beer, which is
> > all-American. I thought it was
> > good.''
> > > Johnny departs as the purveyor of what is the most
> > important musical
> > movement of the 20th century, punk rock. It was
>born
> > when rock music was
> > still just breaking out of adolescence at the age
>of
> > 20 or so.
> > > The man who changed its direction was a 6-foot
>tall
> > lightening bolt of wiry
> > fury, a man who burst the sonic volume level with
>a
> > frown and a Mosrite that
> > was cranked to the heights, the man who influenced
> > generations.
> > > And the movement continues.
> > > We sat in his living room one afternoon last
>month,
> > several weeks after
> > Johnny had narrowly escaped death via an infection
> > he had developed related
> > to his cancer. He was tired and we were about to
> > wrap up a day of book talk.
> > > But that mind, ever sharp, honed in on what is the
> > substance of the parting
> > chapter in the book, one in which he describes his
> > battle with prostate
> > cancer.
> > > ''We all have time limits and mine came a little
> > early,'' he said to me,
> > quietly, his eyes closing.
> > > ''But I've had a great life no matter how it turns
> > out now. I've had the
> > best wife, Linda, that I could ever hope to find
>and
> > I've had such great
> > friends that really care about me and would do
> > anything they could for me.''
> > > President Bush, speaking in eulogy of Ronald
>Reagan,
> > who passed away in June
> > and was one of Johnny's few heroes, said that the
> > late president had
> > ''principles that are etched in his soul.''
> > > Johnny's own principle-riddled soul is finally
> > resting. May his afterlife be
> > as fruitful as his life was here with us.
> > > Steve Miller
> >
Avalanche50@hotmail.com
> >
