Lifetime Achievement Award for Joey “Jeffrey Hyman” Ramone

Last night, Joey Ramone’s Mom received the Lifetime Achievement Award on his behalf. Read all about it on Jewschool.

A lot of people are confused as to how Joey is a Jewish artist. For me, this subtext became clear on my favorite Ramones song.

My Favorite Ramones song: Bonzo Goes to Bitburg

Topic of that song: Anger at Reagan for gracing a cemetary in Germany that included Nazis. Reagan wanted to find a middle ground and put the past behind him. Joey resented and protested any attempt to create such an expedient gray area.

My favorite lines in that song and why: “My brain is hanging upside down, I need something to slow me down.” Also, “Don’t Become one of Hitler’s children.”

I would argue that the punk movement was not just an artistic movement, but also a New York expression and the front lines between updown and downtown, rich and poor, beautiful and not so beautiful, have and have nots, with the Punk Rock front arising out of disgust at the elitism of the uptown disco movement, and a dancehall so enticing but selective in who was permitted entrance that people were literally dying to get in.

In this manner, Mr. Hyman was less a revolutionary figure but more of a general, and the way he was remembered last night suggests that perhaps we are remembered not so much for what we defy, but for what we uphold.