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‘Chinese Rocks’: Members of MC5, Blondie, and Replacements pay tribute to the Heartbreakers


 
As much as any band could, the Heartbreakers both aesthetically and individually personified the bridge between proto-punk and punk rock. They coalesced in 1975, when New York Dolls Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan joined forces with Richard Hell, who’d just left Television. The quartet was completed a few months later with the addition of guitarist/vocalist Walter Lure.

The next year, their best-documented lineup was formed when Hell was replaced by Billy Rath (Hell would go on to form a namesake band, and it’s easy to wonder if he didn’t do that to make it difficult to oust him from a THIRD epochally crucial group), and this version of the Heartbreakers would record their lone album, L.A.M.F. (Like a Mother Fucker), which was one of punk’s great letdowns. A terrible mix buried confident performances of fine songs, and the shittiness of the record prompted Nolan to quit the band.

That album has been remixed and remastered a fair few times, and it contains some of punk’s earliest enduring anthems, like “Born to Lose” and “Chinese Rocks.” That latter song was eventually performed by the Ramones on their 1980 LP End of the Century under the title “Chinese Rock,” and the song is partly noteworthy for a years-long dispute over exactly who wrote it. It’s long been accepted that the song was a collaboration to some degree between Richard Hell and Dee Dee Ramone, a reality reflected in the End of the Century credits. But on the original pressing of L.A.M.F., Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan are credited as songwriters—a credit that’s absent from the many subsequent reissues. If that claimed writing credit was an attempted money-grab, karma for that larceny was pretty instant—L.A.M.F. didn’t really generate all that much money at first. According to Dee Dee Ramone in his memoir Lobotomy:

For a while dope was called “Chinese Rock” in New York. When you would walk around the Lower East Side people would smirk at one another on the sidewalk and let you know with hand signals that they have the Chinese Rock. It was supposed to be good luck if someone had rocks. I must’ve had a lot of luck.

Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders used to call me quite frequently. Jerry would come over to my place and pick me up and then we would go cop some dope. The Heartbreakers we’re just getting together with John, Jerry and Richard Hell. I guess those guys were all dope fiends then… Richard Hell had mentioned to me that he was going to write a song better than Lou Reed’s “Heroin,” so I took his idea and wrote Chinese rocks in Deborah Harry’s apartment that night.

I wrote the song about Jerry calling me up to come over and go cop. The line “My girlfriend’s crying in the shower stall” was about Connie, and the shower was at Arturo Vega’s loft. The intro to the song was the same kind of stuff I had put in songs like “Commando” and the chorus of “53rd and 3rd.” I wrote those songs before “Chinese Rocks” and the Ramones had already performed and recorded these tunes.

When Jerry was over at my place one day, we did some dope and then I played him my song, and he took it with him to a Heartbreakers rehearsal. When Leee Childers started managing them them and got them a record deal, “Chinese Rocks” was their first single off L.A.M.F. …but the credits are false. Johnny Thunders ranked on me for fourteen years, trying to make out like he wrote the song. What a low-life maneuver by those guys! By then, I was really too fucked up to care.

Much more after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Ron Kretsch
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11.21.2017
02:09 pm
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Punk ain’t cheap: One of Dee Dee Ramone’s bass guitars sells for $37,995
07.06.2015
12:54 pm
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Dee Dee Ramone and his Fender Precision bass
Dee Dee Ramone and one of his Fender Precision basses
 
According to the folks at musical gear auction site Reverb, some posh punk has paid $37,995 to become the proud owner of one of Dee Dee Ramone’s personal bass guitars (like the one pictured with Dee Dee above).
 
One of Dee Dee Ramone's Fender Precision bass guitars
Dee Dee Ramone’s Fender Precision bass guitar that just sold for $37,995
 
Dee Dee Ramone's Fender Precision bass guitar case
Dee Dee Ramone’s hard shell Fender bass case that sold along with his Fender Precision
 
According to the listing, the Fender ‘75 precision bass (with black pickguard pictured above) has been hanging out in a private collection since the 80’s, gifted to its owner by the Ramones themselves. The bass is said to still be in playable condition and even came in the original case (with a Ramones stencil on the back). Also included was a letter from Monte Melnick, the band’s former road manager, validating the instrument’s authenticity. Dee Dee played the Fender Precision for most of his too-short career and used them pretty much exclusively from 1974-1988, favoring the model with the black pickguard from 1975-1977.
 
Dee Dee and his Fender Precision bass
 
Another of Dee Dee’s Fender Precision basses (the all-white one you can see Dee Dee playing in the video below when the Ramones performed on the Old Grey Whistle Test on February 26, 1985), sold at a 2014 auction for a cool $37,694.48.
 

The Ramones perform “Wart Hog” (with Dee Dee on lead vocals) and “Chasing the Night” (from 1984’s Too Tough to Die) on The Old Grey Whistle Test, 1985

Posted by Cherrybomb
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07.06.2015
12:54 pm
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MAKE IT STOP: See how far you can make it through Dee Dee Ramone’s rapping!
09.24.2013
04:23 pm
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Dee Dee King
 
Poor Dee Dee. He went through so much in his life! An erratic childhood with an alcoholic father, heroin addiction, working with Johnny Ramone—the list goes on! But nothing, and I mean nothing excuses his foray into rapping. Below is his single, “Funky Man,” recorded in 1987 as “Dee Dee King.” Listen, if you dare.

One thing in his favor, Dee Dee was a legitimate hip-hop fan, and he was really dedicated to trying to contribute something new and meaningful to the genre. Unfortunately, this also meant that he started to wear track suits and gold chains. According to legend, Johnny Ramone refused to board a plane with him until he changed back into his Ramones “uniform.” He even quit The Ramones in 1989, citing a focus on his rap career as the impetus for the decision.

Dee Dee later expressed regret at his rap venture, acknowledging the project was a bust.
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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09.24.2013
04:23 pm
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Dee Dee Ramone Mr. Potato Head
11.15.2012
01:12 pm
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In celebration of Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head turning 60 years old, here’s a Dee Dee Ramone version by Nacho Tamez.

Via Neatorama

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.15.2012
01:12 pm
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Dee Dee Ramone Contacts Fan From Rock & Roll Heaven
11.24.2010
04:23 pm
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A painting of Dee Dee Ramone and a two-page note were placed in a stairwell of the Chelsea Hotel by a fan named Tara. In her note, Tara writes that she fears she may have offended Dee Dee by calling her portrait of Dee Dee ‘crap’ and his spirit responded by turning off her cell phone.

The portrait is rather…um…impressionistic.

The Hotel Chelsea blog reports:

It seems that Tara’s dark pilgrimage was rewarded with a message from beyond. This is the first Dee Dee spirit story that has come our way, but we’re sure there will be many more to follow.

 
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Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.24.2010
04:23 pm
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