Dee Dee Ramone

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Dee Dee Ramone with electric bass at a Ramones concert, 1977. The bassist wears the typical Ramones “stage uniform”: “ bowl haircut”, black motorcycle leather jacket and blue jeans

Dee Dee Ramone (actually Douglas Glen Colvin ; born September 18, 1951 - according to his own information and other sources 1952 - in Fort Lee , Virginia ; † June 5, 2002 in Hollywood , California ) was a German-American musician, songwriter, author and painter. He has become known to a larger audience since 1974 through his role as a founding member, electric bass player and composer as well as choir and occasional lead singer of the New York punk band Ramones . His departure from the band in 1989 was followed by a solo career as a musician and the expansion of his artistic activities to include writing and painting, which he carried out until his death from a heroin overdose in 2002.

life and work

Childhood and early adolescence in Germany

Dee Dee Ramone was born Douglas Glen Colvin in Fort Lee, Virginia, the only son of his parents. In his autobiography he briefly reports on a younger sister named Beverly. His mother was a German born in Berlin in 1931, his father an American born in 1911, who came to Germany as a member of the US armed forces (" GI ") as an occupation soldier during World War II . In 1951 the newly married couple moved from Berlin to the United States. Since his father was stationed as a Master Sergeant in the US Army after the birth of his son at regularly changing locations in Germany, Douglas Colvin grew up in Munich , Bad Tölz , Pirmasens and Berlin . As a child he regularly roamed ruins and rubble; one of his passions was collecting pieces of military equipment scattered there from the Second World War. Several songs written by Colvin for the Ramones were inspired by this phase, including Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World , as well as It's a Long Way Back [to Germany] and Born to Die in Berlin .

Colvin bought his first guitar at the age of thirteen in Berlin. Since he did not get along well with the instrument, he soon developed the desire to play the electric bass instead . According to his own statement, Colvin chose the pseudonym Dee Dee Ramone for himself at this age . He got the suggestion for the first name from reading about a US wrestler ; He took the surname Ramone when he found out about the stage names that the young members of the British rock band The Beatles had given themselves before their commercial breakthrough - Beatles bassist Paul McCartney was for a time under the during the "Silver Beetles" phase The pseudonym Paul Ramon occurred.

It was also during his youth in Berlin that Dee Dee Ramone first came into contact with illegal narcotic drugs, which were to influence his life and artistic work for many years. One of his first drug experiences was the injection of morphine , which he regularly bought in ampoules at the Berlin Zoo train station .

Career with the Ramones

As Dee Dee Ramone was 15 years old, his parents separated and he moved with his mother to New York City , in the district of Forest Hills in the district of Queens . There he made further drug experiences, including with LSD and heroin , which he bought in Manhattan and partly resold in Queens at higher prices to finance his increasing drug addiction. At Forest Hills High School and in the neighborhood, Dee Dee Ramone gradually got to know the other later band members of the Ramones - Jeffrey Hyman (later known as Joey Ramone , vocals), John Cummings (later Johnny Ramone , guitar) and Tamás Erdélyi ( later Tommy Ramone , drums). With these, he had a love for the music of protopunk rock bands like the New York Dolls , The Dictators , MC5 and The Stooges . When he founded the band Ramones together with Cummings and Hyman at the beginning of 1974, inspired by Erdélyi, Dee Dee Ramone had initially taken on the role of lead singer and rhythm guitarist. The first bass player of the newly formed band was Ritchie Stern, another young neighbor from Forest Hills, who left the group after just a few rehearsals. A little later it turned out that Dee Dee had difficulties singing and playing the guitar at the same time and that he got a hoarse voice after just two pieces . So he switched to background vocals and electric bass, and Hyman from drums to lead vocals. The trio was expanded to include Erdélyi, who also acts as the band's advisor, as drummer to form the quartet.

As the bass player for the Ramones, Dee Dee Ramone was responsible for a large part of the band's compositions. One of his earliest works is the track 53rd & 3rd , released on the Ramones' 1976 debut album , which tells of a male prostitute ("hustler") waiting for clients on the street at 53rd Street and Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan . When he finally finds a customer, the protagonist of the song murders him with a razor to prove that he is not homosexual . In band biographies, several contemporaries, including the author Victor Bockris , as well as the younger brother Joey Ramones, Mickey Leigh, and Ramones manager Danny Fields unanimously report that they saw Dee Dee Ramone on this street corner, waiting for customers. Another of his early compositions is the song Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue , which is about inhaling the solvent vapors from glue ("glue sniffing"). His band colleague Johnny Ramone described him as a tireless songwriter who was still able to continuously write lyrics even in personal crises. Ramones co-author and studio guitarist Daniel Rey confirms that Dee Dee Ramone was mostly able to compose several songs on the spot and in a very short time.

Solo career

In 1989 he separated from the Ramones because he wanted to change his life and try his hand at rapper "Dee Dee King". But he was denied a career as a rapper. After a short time he devoted himself to punk rock again, published several solo albums with various accompanying musicians such as ICLC and the Chinese Dragons and toured the globe until his death. He also continued to write songs for the Ramones. After writing several books, including the autobiography Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones and the novella The Chelsea Horror Hotel , he devoted himself to painting. His works include works in acrylic on canvas as well as collaborations with Paul Kostabi.

Gravestone of Dee Dee Ramone in Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Dee Dee Ramone died on June 5, 2002 at the age of 50 of a heroin overdose . His grave is in Hollywood Forever Cemetery , Hollywood . I Gotta Right to Love Her and Horror Hospital were the last songs Dee Dee Ramone recorded for Wanker Records before his death . The front cover was designed at the same time with his wife Barbara Zampini and Paul Kostabi. Inside the cover pocket, fans from all over the world have signed “in memory of Dee Dee Ramone” . Shortly before his death, Dee Dee Ramone and friends from Augsburg planned an exhibition of his paintings, which was realized there in March 2003 under the name "Rampe3". After his death, his artistic works were exhibited several times in Germany, most recently in June 2005 in Paris.

Musical influence

Dee Dee Ramone is not only considered one of the most influential bassists in punk rock (he was a role model for, among others, Sid Vicious , bassist for the British punk band Sex Pistols ), he was also the main songwriter of the Ramones with Ramones singer Joey Ramone. His exclamation "one-chew-free-faw" (one-two-three-four), which counted the songs in the live performances of the Ramones as well as on some of their studio recordings, was a trademark of the band. Johnny Ramone attested to having "set the standard by which all punk-rock bassists look up."

Works

Music releases with the Ramones

→ Discography of the Ramones

  • From the band's 1976 debut album called Ramones to their 1989 studio album Brain Drain , Dee Dee Ramone is featured on all Ramones record releases as a bassist, songwriter and singer. Even after he left the group, he contributed his own compositions to almost every album of the band until they broke up in 1996 (the only exception is the 1993 Ramones album Acid Eaters , which only contains cover versions of music by other artists).

Music publications under his own name

  • 1989: Standing in the Spotlight (as Dee Dee King. Warner Bros. Records )
  • 1994: Chinese Bitch (as Dee Dee Ramone ICLC Extended Play CD; Rough Trade )
  • 1994: I Hate Freaks Like You (as Dee Dee Ramone ICLC ; Rough Trade)
  • 1997: Zonked (Other Peoples Music)
  • 2000: Hop Around (with Chris Spedding and others)
  • 2000: Greatest & Latest (mostly Ramones songs; Conspiracy Music / Robison Records)
  • 2002: Do The Bikini Dance ( Wanker Records )
  • 2002: I Got The Right (split EP with terror group ; Wanker Records )
  • 2003: Too Tough To Die Live in NYC (Artmonkey Records / Wanker Records)
  • 2008: Dee Dee Blues (solo recordings - electric guitar and vocals - from the early 1990s. Extinkt / MVD Entertainment)
  • 2015: Final Sessions (Cleopatra Records)

Music publications with other artists

  • 2002: The Ramainz - Live in NYC (Ramones- Tribute-Band with Marky Ramone and Barbara Zampini)
  • 2002: Youth Gone Mad - Youth Gone Mad featuring Dee Dee Ramone (Trend is Dead! Records / Wanker Records)

Book publications

  • Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. (Autobiography, English) by Dee Dee Ramone with Veronica Kofman. Thunder's Mouth Press, New York 2000, ISBN 1-56025-252-9 .
  • Chelsea Horror Hotel - a Novel. (English). Thunder's Mouth Press, New York 2001, ISBN 1-56025-304-5 .
  • Legend of a Rock Star - a Memoir. (Memoirs, mixed with fictional elements; English). Thunder's Mouth Press, New York 2002, ISBN 1-56025-389-4 .
  • Chelsea Horror Hotel. German translation by Matthias Penzel. Milena Verlag, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-85286-224-8 .

Painting exhibitions (selection)

  • 2005: Art XS 2005 Paris - Galerie des Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville, Paris
  • 2006: General Ramones Underground Art & Music Fest - Rampe4, Augsburg
  • 2010: Dee Dee Ramone A Birthday Memorial Art Show - La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles

Honors, awards

literature

  • Vera Ramone King: Poisoned Heart. I Married Dee Dee Ramone (The Ramones Years). A punk love story. Phoenix Books, Beverly Hills CA 2009, ISBN 978-1-59777-612-7 (autobiography, English).
  • Monte A. Melnick, Frank Meyer: On The Road With The Ramones. Sanctuary Publishing, London 2003, ISBN 1-86074-514-8 , (English).
  • Dee Dee Ramone, Veronica Kaufman: Lobotomy. Surviving the Ramones. 2nd edition. Thunder's Mouth Press, New York NY 2000, ISBN 1-56025-252-9 , p. 231 (autobiography, English).
  • Everett True: Hey Ho Let's Go. The Story of The Ramones. Omnibus, London / New York NY 2002, ISBN 0-7119-9108-1 (English).
  • Lech Kowalski (camera, director): History on my Arms. Interview with Dee Dee Ramone. Three biographical documentaries on DVD (113 minutes; English). Extinkt / MVDvisual, MVDV4818; 2008.

Web links

Commons : Dee Dee Ramone  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b knerger.de: The grave of Dee Dee Ramone
  2. ↑ Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 10.
  3. ↑ a b Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 23.
  4. ↑ Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 8 ff.
  5. ^ A b c Melnick: On the Road with the Ramones. P. 44.
  6. ^ True: The Story of the Ramones. P. 22.
  7. ↑ a b Melnick: On the Road with the Ramones , p. 32.
  8. ↑ Illustration of an autograph card signed by Paul McCartney with Ramon and dedicated to Johnny Ramone. Johnny Ramone: Commando: the autobiography of Johnny Ramone. 159. Abrams Image, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-8109-9660-1 .
  9. ↑ Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 26 f.
  10. ↑ Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 28 f.
  11. ↑ Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 31 ff.
  12. ^ True: The Story of the Ramones. P. 24.
  13. ↑ Dee Dee Ramone: Lobotomy - Surviving the Ramones. P. 57 f.
  14. ↑ "The fact is that Dee Dee Ramone wrote the lion's share of all Ramones songs, even after officially quitting the band." (German: "In fact, Dee Dee Ramone wrote the lion's share of all Ramones songs, even after he officially left the band.") - Chris Frantz / Tina Weymouth in the foreword to: Vera Ramone King: Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone ( The Ramones Years) - A Punk Love Story (Autobiography), p. Xi. Phoenix Books, Beverly Hills 2009, ISBN 978-1-59777-612-7 .
  15. ^ True: Hey Ho Let's Go - The Story of the Ramones. P. 33.
  16. ↑ Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain: Please Kill Me - the uncensored history of punk. Hannibal, Höfen 2004, ISBN 3-85445-237-3 , p. 214: Chapter 53rd & 3rd .
  17. ↑ “He would write a couple of verses off the top of his head […] Dee Dee was amazing. He'd sit down and write four songs in an hour. " (German: "He could just write a number of stanzas out of his head [...] Dee Dee was amazing. He sat down and wrote four songs in an hour.") - Daniel Rey, quoted from Melnick: On the Road with the Ramones, p. 194.
  18. ↑ "He set the standard that all punk rock bassists look to." - Johnny Ramone, quoted from Melnick: On the Road with the Ramones. P. 44.
  19. ↑ List of exhibitions of the paintings by Dee Dee Ramones on general.de
personal data
SURNAME Ramone, Dee Dee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Colvin, Douglas Glen (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician, bass player with the Ramones
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Lee , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 2002
Place of death Hollywood , California