Credit: Dangerous Minds / Alamy

For some reason, it’s gone down in history that the self-titled first album by the Ramones was a massive critical and commercial disaster. It’s widely accepted that it was simply too far ahead of its time, and no one had any time for it whatsoever.

Everyone always points to that “10,000 toilets flushing at once” quote, but the thing is, no one can actually source where that quote came from. Probably, because it was almost certainly made up. Turns out, the first Ramones album was received as rapturously on release as it is now, at least in the press. Yes, it was aggressive and noisy and ahead of its time, but from time to time, critics actually pick up on that and appreciate it when it counts.

Especially because the record is incredibly easy to appreciate. It’s 29 minutes of dazzling, rough-hewn pop-punk joy that, on the surface, has all the thrills the band would later become widely cherished for. However, there’s always something darker and sadder just under that same surface waiting to be discovered. Case in point, the album’s 11th track ’53rd & 3rd’, a song about a Vietnam veteran in such dire straits after returning home from the war that he turns to prostitution, then murders someone who picks him up “to prove that [he’s] no sissy”.

Now, punk rock is full of songs like this. The whole point of the genre, arguably, is to be as provocative and shocking as possible, and ’53rd & 3rd’ is both of those things, yet that wasn’t the extent of the Ramones’ music. There’s a surprisingly innocent sadness at the heart of the creation. A hurt that comes from being, as Joey sings in the chorus, “The one they never pick”. For a genre seemingly geared at outsiders, it’s rare that a punk band gets that vulnerable, especially one from its 1970s heyday.

Perhaps it’s a sign that, as the legend goes, this is a song that really was written from bassist Dee-Dee Ramone’s personal experience.

Wait, Dee-Dee Ramone actually lived that shit?!

The man born Douglas Colvin fell on such hard times before the band took off that he turned to prostitution to fund his heroin addiction, according to legend. These alleged experiences are claimed to have informed ’53rd & 3rd’, except for the murdering part at the end, which was a flight of fancy based on how insecure the work made him feel about his masculinity. Not to mention the whole “being a Green Beret” bit. The Ramones were many things, but military material wasn’t one of them, much to Johnny’s chagrin.

Dee-Dee Ramone never talked about the rumour in interviews, so confirmation of this fact doesn’t come from there. Neither does it come from any of his books. The man published two memoirs and doesn’t mention turning tricks in either of them. Considering it’s one of the most infamous rumours surrounding the band, and he wasn’t above spinning stories about the old days for the sake of a few bob, one would have thought he’d clear it up either way.

No, instead it’s something that people mention in passing about him, but no one who actually knew him, neither his bandmates nor any of his partners, actually mentions it themselves. Perhaps he did, and perhaps he didn’t – what’s more likely is that it was Dee-Dee who was responding to the circumstances of growing up poor in New York City in the ’60s and ’70s. Joey Ramone said in an interview that the song was about “what we thought was normal”, which sounds more likely than Dee-Dee actually taking part in it.

Maybe he did and took the secret to his grave – his heroin addiction drove him to armed robbery, so I wouldn’t put it past him, but the Ramones were always a deeper band than most gave them credit for. Moreover, Dee-Dee was a talented and creative enough songwriter to embody a character that was not just his personal experience.

Without him, I guess we’ll never truly know for sure.