Eulogy

By Bono

When I was 16, the idea of being in a band and making records seemed out of reach to me and Adam and Edge and Larry until we heard the Ramones. Something about their humility and the humor just struck us when we saw them in Dublin in 1977. They seemed like the antithesis of every other band we went to see, where, intentionally or not, you felt like you were the peasants. In that sense, it was a revolution. More than a musical revolution, it felt like our people were onstage. When I was standing in the State Cinema that night listening to JOEY RAMONE and realizing that there was nothing else that mattered to him, pretty soon nothing else mattered to me. Imagination was the only obstacle to overcome. Anyone could play those four chords. You had to be able to hear it more than you had to be able to play it. 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 and formed our band around an idea of friendship and shared spirit. That was a preposterous notion before the Ramones. --Bono, lead singer, U2