Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Forget James Cramer and his ilk, how would Joey Ramone invest in this troubled market?

Given our recessive economy, Theresa K. at Punk Turns 30 asks a sensible question, Where is stock market wiz Joey Ramone when you need him? Indeed! As she notes, "While Joey Ramone made his mark in public singing songs like 'Teenage Lobotomy' and 'Cretin Hop' and seeming to endorse a loser way of life . . . in reality, he was very well aware of his stock portfolio. Yes, the man had investments. He was no dummy although he played one on (m)TV."

This article in the Guardian UK from July 2006 examines the friendship Ramone struck with the Money Honey, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. At first, though, she igonored his e-mails when they first appeared in 1998. Probably just another weirdo!

After a while though, curiosity got the better of her and Bartiromo, arguably the most recognisable business journalist in the United States, replied. "I started getting e-mails from him and he would say Maria, what do you think about Intel or what do you think about AOL and I thought who is this person emailing me? It's crazy, he's calling himself Joey Ramone," she recalls. "Sure enough it was him and we developed this friendship. And he was attuned to the markets. He really understood his own investment portfolio. Joey Ramone was a fantastic investor."


Ramone, of course, also wrote the song "Maria Bartiromo," which appeared on 2002's "Don't Worry About Me," the first posthumous release to come from his estate.

As the song goes:

What's happening on Wall Street
What's happening at the stock exchange
I want to know
What's happening on Squawk Box
What's happening with my stocks
I want to know
I watch you on the TV every single day
Those eyes make everything OK
I watch her every day
I watch her every night
She's really out of sight
Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo

Bartiromo had this to say about the track:

"He said to me Maria, I wrote a song about you and he said just come down to CBGBs in Manhattan, be there at midnight. I said, Joey, I'm sorry to tell you but I have to be on the air at 6am and I can't be anywhere at midnight except in my bed, so I didn't go." Instead, at Ramone's urging, she sent a camera crew. "Sure enough, the cameraman came back with the tape and there's him and his band with this song Maria Bartiromo and I just love it. It's a tremendous tribute. I just love that. It's great, just great."


Here are two versions of the song....the first with some Money Honey cheesecake...



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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 23, 2008 at 1:47 AM

    i dunno grieve, interesting story yes. but finding out that joey had any interest in the that wall street harpie-shill is right up there with hearing johnny ramone say "god bless george bush". really blows the whole ramones mystique for me. another fallen hero.......

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  2. AnonymousOctober 23, 2008 at 10:21 AM

    Well then HG, you'll want to skip my upcoming post on Stiv Bators' love of golf and his numerous country club memberships.

    But seriously...I get you on Joey and his stocks. I guess I was thinking that here's proof that not everyone into the stock market is an asshole. Or something.

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  3. Theresa K.October 25, 2008 at 1:06 AM

    hey grieve, thanks for checking out my blog and cross referencing me! i gotta say, i was not too keen on the prospect of meeting maria bartiromo when i did, but she turned out to be a nice woman, and ridiculously pretty. she genuinely liked joey and for me, that completely overshadowed everything.

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  4. Robert BaumanApril 27, 2017 at 6:16 AM

    Joey Ramone brilliant singer-songwriter, much better than a lot of todays artists. Maria Bartiromo such a beautiful song, touching lyrics.

    ReplyDelete

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