I'm The Innocent Bystander

Eight years ago, we lost a great talent. Wonderfully warm, sardonic, twisted, I grew up listening to his songs via my uncle Jay. Seven years old, I could sing the lyrics to this song. Explains a lot, I think :)

My uncle, only 10 years older than I, introduced me to some tremendous classic rock. I thank him for those formative tunes.

Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon

Third Verse, Different From the First

I'm not talking about my colossally crappy week tonight. Instead, I'm going to talk about how I remembered where I was the afternoon I heard Joey had passed, and how I predicted it.

WBCN lunchtime 80s hour. I was driving to the center of town; I don't know why I was home this afternoon. Maybe it was Saturday, but I was all excited to hear "I Wanna Be Sedated" on the radio. Then, "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker", which, two in a row, made me nervous. Then, on the third song, "Blitzkrieg Bop", I knew something was terribly wrong.

And as the DJ came on air after the third song, and announced the sad passing of Joey, from lymphoma of all things, I remember shouting no, no, no. Joey's supposed to die in some weird overdose scenario with Iggy Pop and a goat, not something as ORDINARY and NOT PUNK ROCK as lymphoma. Dammit, I hate finding out my idols are human...

So, in Joey's honor. Ten years gone. We miss that slur, old friend.

Judy Is A Punk - The Ramones

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