Lux Interior (Eric Lee Purkiser) died today (Feb. 4th, 2009) at 4:30 AM in a hospital in Glendale, California of a heart ailment. Lux was one of the first people I met when I moved to New York City in 1977 and although I never knew him well I feel as though I learned a lot from just watching and listening to him. There is no facet of popular culture that hasn’t been influenced by the Cramps and although they never got their due in terms of record sales, they changed thousands, maybe millions of lives. He was truly the last of a breed. R.I.P. The above photo was taken by Stephanie Chernokowski in the fall of 1977.
I wouldn’t get too bummed out just yet, there’s a good chance he will rise from the dead sometime soon.
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Dynamic Duos II: God’s Army – Johnny & Luther Htoo
It was January 25, 2000 that the above photo appeared on the front page of the New York Times.
It’s a chilling photograph. Child soldiers (there are an estimated 1,000,000 children under the age of fifteen serving as soldiers around the world at any given moment), age 12, they looked closer to eight or nine. Twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, one angelic (Johnny on the left), the other impish with the sides of his head shaved and smoking a cheroot (Luther on the right). They were from what used to be Burma, now Myanmar, members of an ethnic, tribal minority– the Karen (pronounced Kur-IN) who have been at war with the ultra-oppressive Burmese army since 1949. Their home was the isolated mountain region in the mid-east of the country near the Thai border. Their names in Karen are Ehkalumu (Johnny) and Ehkalutaw (Luther) which mean The Patriot Who Will Never Die and the Honest Patriot. Their parents obviously knew their spawn where born to a purpose. They were born in a tiny, farming village called Pe Cha in November, 1987. Since natural gas had been struck in the area and a pipeline was being built to ship the gas through Thailand with the help of U.S. and British corporate money, the Burmese leaders in Rangoon had decided the easiest and most profitable solution was to ethnically cleanse the area of the Karen, slaughtering entire villages, and racking up the usual depressing list of human rights abuses as documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the U.S. State Department: rape, torture, forced relocation, slavery– as in using Karen as forced labor to work on the pipeline or as porters for the army. The Karen have always fought back, their fight led by the Karen National Union (KSU) whose leaders are mostly in exile in Thailand, and had been losing (there are at least 100,00 Karen refugees on the Thai border) until the Htoo twins took over as guerrilla leaders, rising quickly to the rank of generals in their rag tag band known as The Soldiers Of God’s Holy Mountain AKA God’s Army. The Karen are fundamentalist Christians having been converted by American missionaries from Salem, Massachusetts in the early 19th Century. Their beliefs include a vegan diet, no swearing or pre-martial sex, and much quoting of scripture. Many Karen believe that the KSU leaders have been corrupted by living the high life in exile while they fought it out in the jungle against the better armed and more numerous Burmese military. After a raid on their village in which the Burmese killed and raped with impudence, Johnny and Luther, at the time aged nine, approached their local KSU commander and asked for seven guns. That night they led a counter attack on the village and defeated an entire battalion of soldiers. Along with their cousin, a black tongued dwarf named Thoo Pleh they began leading raids from their mountain encampments.
There are dozens of eye witness accounts of what is said to be their supernatural powers (including the eye witness testimony of an American born Nun, one sister Mary who has worked among the Karen for decades). They are said to be the reincarnation of 15th Century Karen warriors and as such are bullet proof. They are crack shots who never miss their target. They are able to appear and disappear at will.
When not at war they acted like normal children, albeit chain smoking children. They played hide and seek, tag and of course War.
The Htoo twins showed up on the radar of the Western media through a very bad tactical error.
Hooking up with a radical, pro-democracy student group several members of God’s Army joined the students in the October, 1999, seizure of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. The siege ended without a shot fired, the Thai army provided a helicopter for the radicals escape and the hostages were freed. Their next action did not end so well. In January of 2000, the same group seized a hospital in Ratchaburi, Thailand in an attempt to draw attention to the cause. This time the Thai army, fed up and disgusted that the Karen would seize a hospital full of innocent bystanders (hospitals are considered sacrosanct even in guerrilla warfare) they attacked, leaving a score of students and their God’s Army attachment dead. This hardened the Thai hearts against the Karen cause considerably, but it did make worldwide headlines, where the above photo of the pre-pubescent generals appeared on the cover of newspapers all over the U.S. , Europe and Asia.
And the fighting continued, with the now weakened Karen more often than not at the losing end. In 2001 Johnny and Luther, after years on the run and hiding out in the mountains, out of ammo and close to starvation crossed the border into Thailand and gave themselves up to the Thai army. Then Prime Minister– Chuan Leekpai was on hand to receive their surrender, shaking Johnny’s hand in a photo op reminiscent of the end of Clockwork Orange. The twins were kept in a refugee camp where they eventually both married and fathered children (Luther married his English teacher). But life in a refugee camp is oppressive and dull, they were not permitted to work, keep arms, train as soldiers, or even farm. In 2006 Johnny left the camp, recrossing the border into Myanmar and gave himself up to the Burmese Army. His current whereabouts are unknown. Luther remains in the Thai refugee camp and has taken up the guitar to pass the time. I keep a photo of Johnny and Luther over my desk where it continues to haunt me. Video footage can be found here.
Dynamic Duos I: Don & Dewey
Don & Dewey (Don “Sugarcane” Harris and Dewey Terry) were, and still are, the greatest duo in the whole history of rock’n’roll. They never had a chart hit but they originated at least half dozen standards, many of which charted for acts as diverse as the Premiers, Dale & Grace, Donnie & Marie Osmond, the Olympics, the Searchers, the Righteous Brothers and Neil Young. Of course, that’s not what makes them great. What makes ’em great, is that they were great– Mormon incest fantasies be damned.
The story begins in Pasadena, California which is where they came from. At John Muir High School they sang with a doo wop group called the Squires. The Squires cut a couple of singles for Kicks and Vita records and called it quits. That was in 1955. Our subjects could not be satisfied with mere harmony. Both were multi-instrumentalists, Dewey played guitar, piano and bass while Don mastered guitar, bass and violin. They both sang and together their sound took off like a rocket ship. In 1956 Don & Dewey hooked up with a guy named John Criner (later to become the manager of the Olympics) who recorded two singles with them, both issued in January 1957. Nobody seems to know which disc was issued first but one, released on Spot was a Little Richard styled rocker– Miss Sue b/w My Heart Is Aching which would hint at glories to come. The other 45 Fiddlin’ The Blues b/w Slummin’ was on the Shade label and both tunes are instrumentals, showcasing Don Harris’ bluesy electric violin, a talent that wouldn’t be fully exploited until after Don & Dewey’s break-up, but one that kept him in work for decades.
By the time these records hit the streets Don & Dewey who had been gigging around the L.A. area, were spotted by Specialty Records’ Art Rupe and he cut their first session on January, 29, 1957. Rupe’s thinking was sound, if one Little Richard sold a million records, two Little Richards should sell two million–at least. Their first Specialty single was perhaps the most auspicious debut in the history of history….aw, hell–just listen to it– Jungle Hop b/w A Little Love. A stripped down affair, Dewey played piano, Don guitar, they were accompanied by the monstrous Earl Palmer on drums and a bass player nobody remembers. They both screamed their lungs out. Despite a growing following around L.A. the disc was just too raw for the radio and while it sold well locally it never charted. Seven more sessions followed in the next two years. Rupe would fill out their sound bringing in ace session men Plas Johnson on sax, the severely under rated Rene Hall on guitar, Ted Brinson on bass, and eventually (in March of ’58) turning over production duties to future Scientologist, Congressman and spazz skier Sonny Bono.
Their next single was probably their best seller– I”m Leavin’ It Up To You b/w Jelly Bean got airplay in L.A. but the rest of the country wouldn’t hear the tune until it became a hit for Dale & Grace in 1963 and then again for Donnie & Marie in 1973. Still, Rupe believed in them as belied by the fact that he kept recording and issuing records, some of the highlights– Farmer John (later a hit for Chicano garage rockers the Premiers), the frantic Justine (and it’s equally wild flipside Bim Bam), Big Boy Pete (a hit for the Olympics), the stop time instrumental Jump Awhile (issued on the Specialty subsidiary Fidelity), the you gotta hear it to believe it Kill Me (also released on Fidelity) on which Dewey Terry’s guitar solo comes close to matching his idol, Specialty label mate Guitar Slim. Some of the material that Rupe didn’t release was better than some of what was, like their sublime rendition of Joe Liggins’ Pink Champagne, the only time Rupe let Don Harris take his fiddle out of its case, and the rockin’ Mammer-Jammer, the most un-folk like disc to ever mention a hootenanny. The later two saw light of day when Specialty finally got around to putting out a Don & Dewey LP– Rockin’ Til Midnight, Rollin’ Til Dawn in 1970. It’s one of the greatest LP’s of all time. What Rupe did issue was often trite, like the Sonny Bono tune Koko Joe, although their delivery overcomes the material.
By 1959 Don & Dewey had packed it in with Specialty. They recorded a few singles for Rush and then joined Little Richard’s band when he returned from touring the U.K. where he had played with both the Beatles and the Stones. In 1964, Richard led them right back to Rupe’s doorstep where they backed Little Richard on his final, glorious Specialty single– Bama Lama Loo b/w Annie’s Back, Rupe’s attempt to re-introduce Little Richard to America by replacing his saxophone heavy sound with wild electric guitars. It failed to sell but remains one of Little Richard’s greatest discs. At the same session Don & Dewey waxed their fairwell to Specialty, a killer rocker called Get Your Hat which turned out to be their prophetic swansong. Soundwise, it could have been recorded eight years earlier, but it was out of step with the Beatlemania that ruled radio that year. Nothing good lasts for very long and by 1965 Don & Dewey split up. Don “Sugarcane” Harris cut a few solo singles for Johnny Otis’ Dig label and would eventually join the Mothers Of Invention (where he can be heard soloing on Willie The Pimp), play in a hippie group called Pure Food and Drug Act and finally land a deal with Epic where he cut a couple of LP’s. He also appears on sides by Harvey Mandel, John Mayall, Johnny Otis, and a punk band led by Mayall’s son called Tupelo Chain Sex. Dewey Terry cut a blues album called Chief for the Tumbleweed label in 1972.
They reformed a few times in the 1990’s, appearing mostly at Festivals in Europe, and when Don Harris (real name Bowman) passed away in 1999, Dewey did a few shows with a replacement Don. Dewey Terry himself bought the farm in 2003. The complete Don & Dewey on Specialty/Fidelity is available in the U.S. on Specialty (now owned by Saul Zaentz’s Fantasy Records) and in the U.K. on Ace (available here). It has nine un-issued tracks (but not the Spot and Shade singles). A complete discography can be found here.
James Williamson 1966 and 1972
Found these lovely photos the Stooges’ guitarist James “the Skull” Williamson. The top photo is the Chosen Few, that’s James, bottom right with the Fender Jaguar, Scott Richardson is on the top left holding his nose. He would marry Robert Mitchum’s daughter. Ronnie Asheton told me he got to go to Mitchum’s ranch and hang out on several occasions. Mitchum cooked up a big pot of chili and shared his home grown herb with him. Ron Asheton played bass briefly in the Chosen Few (that’s where he met Williamson). Scott Richardson went on to form the Scott Richardson Case aka SRC which eventually became Blue Sceptor. Richardson later worked as a screenwriter on Hearts Of Fire a film that starred Bob Dylan with a cameo by Ian Dury.
The bottom pic is circa 1972, taken in a cemetery in London somewhere during the recording of Raw Power. I’ve never been one to argue Ron Asheton vs. James Williamson or Funhouse vs. Raw Power. I love them both, they’re very different records. Just because you love champagne doesn’t mean you have to stop drinking red wine. I agree with Lenny Kaye, the best possible scenario would have been if they recorded Raw Power a year earlier with both Ron Asheton and James Williamson playing guitars, too bad Elektra dropped them. Woulda, shoulda, coulda…as Jim Dickinson says, the best performances don’t get recorded, the best recordings don’t get released, and the best releases don’t sell. Or something like that. As I’ve previously voiced, the best mix of Search & Destroy (and Penetration) is the 45, available from Sundazed. For a look at James Williamson today go here and scroll down. There’s an excellent interview with his eminence in the new issue of The Fretboard Journal (#12, Winter 2008….yes, they misprinted the date on the cover, it just came out). Not new, but probably the best interview Williamson’s ever given can be found here . And when you’re done with that click around, the I-94 site has tons of incredible interviews with Bob Quine, Greg Shaw, Ron Asheton, and dozens of others. A small label in London is releasing a live Stooges disc recorded in ’71 with the Williamson/Asheton double guitar line up this spring. More info as it appears. BTW, a reminder, if you missed the Funhouse Sessions box set you can get it here (scroll down).
5 Great 45’s
I just got back to NYC and even though it ain’t what is used to be it’s always a relief to be home.
Five days back in Florida where I spent the greater part of my youth and I feel like somebody took a vacuum cleaner and stuck it in my ear and sucked out that dried up little peanut looking thing that now sits where there was once part of a brain. Since I can’t seem to finish anything I start today, I’ll just do what I’ve been doing since I got home last night, spinning 45’s. Somehow these little buggers always cheer me up, they’re my favorite type of record, and the perfect delivery system for rock’n’roll. Here’s five great 45’s, in fact, five of my absolute favorites.
First one is Tommy Jim Beam & his 4/5th’s; if that isn’t the coolest band name ever, it’ll do ’til the coolest gets here. They were out of Fort Worth, Texas (despite the Tulsa and Nashville label info) and issued this disc on their own 100 Proof label. I’m gonna post both sides of this baby, the a-side (which I favor) is a spooky ballad called Bayou and it never fails to put chills up my spine. It’s probably the best white disc ever to feature bongo drums. The b-side is a feral rocker: My Little Jewel which gets extra points for mentioning Dragnet. I believe it was released in 1958.
Next in the stack is from the great Fortune label from Detroit, Michigan. Fortune might just be the greatest label of all time, it’s roster included John Lee Hooker, Nolan Strong & the Diablos, Dr. Ross, Andre Williams, Johnny Powers, Nathaniel Mayer, and this guy, Eddie Kirkland who began his career as John Lee Hooker’s sidekick. He is often billed as Eddie Kirk for reasons known only to him. He’s still alive and has made many great records, and is often seen beneath the ultimate sartorial touch– a turban. He cut this canticle thrice, first on Volt as The Hawg (Pts 1 and 2), then this version retitled The Grunt, he re-cut it a third time for King as Hog Killin’ Time. The year of our Lord, 1966.
Plop goes the automatic changer and the next disc that hits the turntable is Bop Cat Stomp on the Folk-Star label, a subsidiary of Eddie Shuler’s Goldband Records from Lake Charles, Louisiana. The titled might make you think it’s a rockabilly platter, but it’s not, it’s a wild R&B instrumental rocker. The artist is King Charles and his Orchestra (the orchestra being guitarist Left Handed Charlie wailing away, a sax, piano, a bass player and drummer). If they still made records like this the world would be a much better place.
Since the subject sort of came up anyways, I must say rockabilly and Goldband Records are two things that go together well as exemplified by this beat up old slice of polystyrene. Ray Vict and his Bop Rockers– We Gonna Bop Stop Rock. I think this band’s gimmick was they tuned their instruments after the song, not before it like normal people do. Have you ever heard anything like this before? Or since? I think this one is from ’58 also.
Now we set the Wayback machine for Chicago, 1966 and bingo, we land on Baby Huey & the Babysitters’ Monkey Man on the Satellite label (not the Satellite label from Memphis that became Stax). Baby Huey & the Babysitters where hugely popular on the frat circuit around Illinois, and the rotund Baby Huey has received much posthumous acclaim for the LP- The Baby Huey Story: Living Legend, produced by Curtis Mayfield, it’s something of a funk classic. I prefer this earlier and cruder sounding disc. Baby Huey (James Ramsey) was only 26 when his heart gave out in 1970.
So keep your box sets, wax cylinders, and digital downloads, I’ll take the little ones with the big holes every time. Maybe I’ll do this (post five 45’s) once a month, or once a week. Or never again.
Stranded In Canton- Eggleston’s Harrowing Home Movies
I’m away for a week and won’t be posting so here’s a long one for you, it runs 1:17 hrs. It’s put together from footage shot in the early 70’s around Memphis and New Orleans by the photographer William Eggleston, one of the greatest and most famous photographers alive.
If you’re in NYC you can catch the retrospective at the Whitney (which ends Jan 25th so hurry), where this is also showing. Otherwse, turn to full screen and sit back. It’s mostly drunken, quaaluded out, late night debauchery you could find anywhere in the south around that time. It reminds me a lot of growning up in Florida. Although I’ve never seen anyone bite the head off of a chicken as seen here. And Eggleston doesn’t know any paint huffers.
You’ll also spot some (in)famous faces like bluesman Furry Lewis, Jim Dickinson, Jerry McGill (I think the only Sun Recording artist to go into bank robbery as a career, he made this great record with Jim Dickinson in ’66, the last good Sun 45), Johnny Woods, Stanley Booth, Dewey Phillips, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, et al, all make cameos. It’s fun and haunting and sometimes a bit unwatchable, but always riveting.
It was edited together by Robert Gordon, author of It Came From Memphis (Pocket Books, 1995) and Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life Of Muddy Waters (Little, Brown, 2002), both excellent.
I’ll be back around the end of the month and hopefully have something to say.
Lightnin’ loses his choppers…
Nothing to say today, but I love this clip of Lightnin’ Hopkins from some European TV show circa 1962. If you look close at the end you can see him spit out his fasle choppers.
Nick Tosches has something to say, check out his take on things here.
Hound Dog Taylor
Hound Dog Taylor’s left hand, count the number of fingers.
Live with Little Walter on harmonica.
Hound Dog Taylor with the House Rockers.
Here’s some nice footage of Hound Dog Taylor, and that’s Little Walter, near the end of his life (he was only thirty two when he died) on harp. The second clip I just added thanks to who ever left the comment. The photo is H.D.’s six fingered left paw, no he didn’t use the extra pinkie to play slide, it was just there because God thought it looked cool. Although he died back in ’75, Hound Dog Taylor & his House Rockers were probably the last really great blues band. Blues has become one of the most offensive marketing tools in history and by this point just the word gives me a headache, it brings to mind bands like best exemplified by Blue Hammer, the jock blues band in Terry Zwigoff’s film (taken from Dan Clowes’ comic book) Ghost World (2001), white guys in thrift store suits and silly hats, and idiot guitar solo worship. Or as my old pal Ike Turner said–“Who want to hear white guys imitating what the blues used to be”? But Hound Dog Taylor & his House Rockers were kinda like the punk rock of the blues, primitive, noisy and proudly showing off the chops they didn’t have. They’re a good place to plant the tombstone for blues, and a great band whose music hasn’t dated at all– sloppy, drunk and derivative (those are compliments), their sound makes me miss drinking. Theodore Roosevelt Taylor, born in either 1915 or 1917 in Natchez, Mississippi had been kicking around for years, cutting the odd 45 for Chess, Bea & Baby, Alley and other small labels before Bruce Iglauer started Alligator Records in Chicago to record him and his House Rockers (Brewer Phillips- guitar and Ted Harvey- drums), releasing three albums: Hound Dog Taylor & his House Rockers (which can be found here) Natural Boogie, Beware Of Dog (here), and later two more LP’s of outtakes and live recordings-Genuine House Rockin’ Music (here) and Release The Hound (look here, downloaders), all great, all sounding pretty much the same. They would be the only good records Alligator ever released as Alligator soon pioneered the beer commercial sound that we think of today as blues. Death to digital reverb. As Hound Dog said of himself, “When I die they’re gonna say–he couldn’t play shit, but it sure sounded good”. Calling him derivative is besides the point, all blues (in fact all pop music) is derivative. Hound Dog Taylor based his sound on Elmore James’ “Dust My Broom” riff, of course Elmore James got it from Robert Johnson, who got it from Kokomo Arnold, who got it from somebody else, it hardly matters who. On his earlier sides he comes off as just another enjoyable but fairly generic Elmore imitator (c.f. his version of Watch Out with Big Walter Horton on harp, issued by Chess in ’67), but with the House Rockers’ rhythm section he found a way to put his own personal stamp on the old riff, which is really what it’s all about. Here’s some highlights: Kitchen Sink Boogie, My Baby’s Comin’ Home, Roll Your Moneymaker, The Sun Is Shining, Dust My Broom and Brewer Phillips’, who played the bass parts and lead guitar simultaneously, is showcased on this whacked out version of What’d I Say. They could even take a goofy tune like “She’ll Be Comin’ Around The Mountain” and make it rock and roll (I’d like to have heard ’em tackle “The Ink Dinky Spider”). It’s obvious from these recordings that these guys were pretty drunk for most of their sessions and gigs. Now let’s face it music was better when it worked on the alcohol standard (i.e., musicians were paid in booze and just enough money to buy a new set of strings). Perhaps a return to such practices would improve the dire state of modern music, if not the lifestyles of the rich and useless. I don’t know if any amount of booze could help Coldplay but they sure couldn’t get any worse. And I doubt if Hound Dog Taylor & his House Rockers would have sounded any better sober. The richer the artist the worse the music. Something to think about….
Dee Dee
I really miss Dee Dee Ramone. Of all the Ramones, Dee Dee is the one I knew best. We hung out on and off for around 25 years. It was always a pleasure to run into Dee Dee, he always had a funny story, a strange antidote, bizarre things always happened to Dee Dee. In a way he sought them out, but in another way he was just a magnet for nuts and weirdos. Dee Dee was a doer, and not in a small way. Whatever Dee Dee did, he did a lot of, good or bad. When he decided he was going to be a writer he knocked off three books in less than five years, and all three are great: Poison Heart: Surviving The Ramones (with Veronica Kofman) (Firefly, 1997, this has also been published as Lobotomy), Chelsea Horror Hotel (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2001), and Legend Of A Rock Star: The Last Testament Of Dee Dee Ramone (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002). When he got into painting he churned out hundreds of paintings (with help from wife Barbara and Paul Kostabi) we bought the one pictured above. He wrote thousands of songs. When he decided to move out of New York City, he moved dozens of times, first to Argentina, then Amsterdam, then a small town in the Netherlands, then back to New York, then upstate New York, then L.A., with Ann Arbor thrown in somewhere. He got a dog, an Airedale, it died. He got another dog, also an Airedale, it died, he got another. He couldn’t figure out why they kept dying. If Joey had OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), Dee Dee had CCD (Compulsive Compulsive Disorder, a condition I just made up).
When I went into the bar biz, Dee Dee really wanted me to do well so he offered to play (for free!) every Tuesday night. But since he’d long since stopped drinking he couldn’t wait until show time and would just show up and start playing, sometimes before the audience even got there. If showtime was 9:30 he’d want to go on at eight, and sometimes did. He got Joey onstage with him, two weeks in a row, the first time they’d performed together since he’d left the Ramones eight years earlier, but everyone missed it because Dee Dee was insistent on going on so early! I don’t even have a photo. When his novel Chelsea Horror Hotel came out he demanded that the book release party be held at the Lakeside (where the above photo was taken) instead of Barnes and Noble or someplace that would help sell the book. It was the last time I saw him. He sat an autographed books until he got bored, then plugged in his guitar, a rhythm section appeared and he played for an hour. He also gave me a tape of this song, I think it eventually was issued on a small label in Europe, he wanted it to be included if a film was ever made from the book that my wife co-wrote: Please Kill Me (by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil, Grove Press, 1996) in which Dee Dee plays a major (and hilarious) role. Hopefully such a movie will never be made. It’s amazing that he was writing great tunes right up to the end of his life, he never lost his touch. We had a strange conversation that day, he was very bummed out by Joey’s death and said something that would later haunt me. He had been clean for years and somebody at the bar offered him some dope, he declined but said, “If I ever kill myself that’s how I’m going to do it, I’ll shoot up ten bags”. Five months later he was dead from an overdose, ten bags in the cooker. I’m sure he killed himself.
Of course there was the crazy Dee Dee also, as detailed in the aforementioned PKM, and also in his own books. Chelsea Horror Hotel is an interesting look inside Dee Dee’s mind. It starts off like a very well written horror story, then takes a left turn into insanity, much like Dee Dee himself. I only saw the crazy side of Dee Dee occasionally. I saw much more of his good side.
He’s often compared to a puppy, and that carried over to his loyal side. One story I want to share is that of a guy named Phillip Smith, a rather sleazy, low end drug dealer. Phil had lots of money and lots of coke and therefore lots of friends. Phil contracted AIDS around ’90-’91 and went into Cabrini Hospital to die. It was ugly, and Phil’s friends soon abandoned him, stealing everything in his apartment, etc. Except Dee Dee. Dee Dee was at the hospital almost every day for months. He gave Phil sponge baths, sang to him, brought him food and magazines and tapes. He never abandoned the guy, he was there until the bitter end. By the final days even Phil’s family and girlfriend had stopped coming to the hospital but Dee Dee was loyal and stayed with Phil to the bitter end. My respect for Dee Dee jumped immeasurably. I could understand Dee Dee’s freak outs and paranoia better after that, Dee Dee was willing to give a lot of himself to people and couldn’t understand why they always let him down. It made him crazy.
Or crazier. The only time he ever got mad at me was when he asked me to manage him and I turned him down. He already had a publishing deal and didn’t want a big record deal (and couldn’t have gotten one if he did) and there was little for a manager to do except babysit and/or keep him on the road touring, something he’d long burned out on after years of touring the world as a Ramone. I felt bad turning him down but as I explained he didn’t need to give up 20% of his earnings to somebody who could do little to help him, I suggested he hire a good road manager to babysit. He was mad for a couple of days then forgot about it, but I felt like I let him down. I still feel guilty.
One other thing I’d like to add is that by no means was Dee Dee dumb. The press, especially the British press loved to play up Dee Dee as idiot savant but it was an act. His thick Queen accent might have made him sound goofy but he mostly played dumb as a defense mechanism. It gave him a way to feel people out, to see if they’d try and put one over on him, but believe me, uneducated- yes, dumb, no way, Dee Dee didn’t miss a trick.
I miss running into Dee Dee on the street and hearing his latest crazy story. Or the phone calls (sometimes accidental because for years me and Joey Ramone had similar phone numbers, I was 777-9408 and Joey was 777-6881, so Dee Dee would call me by mistake and often babble for minutes before I could get a word in edgewise:
Dee Dee– “Joey, I have to talk to you, things are not right, this is fucked, we have to talk…
Me–“Dee Dee, it’s Jim, not Joey, you dialed the wrong number”.
Dee Dee– “Jim Marshall? Sorry…” (phone hangs up).
(phone rings again)
Dee Dee- “Joey, this is Dee Dee…
Me– “Dee Dee, you did it again, it’s Jim”.
Dee Dee– “Sorry, you got any pot”?
Me– “Yeah, come on over and we’ll smoke a bomber…”
Dee Dee Ramone, he overcame tremendous odds to leave his mark on the world, but leave his mark he did. Every time I see a Ramones t-shirt, or hear the “Hey Ho” part of Blitzkrieg Bop at a ball game, I think of Dee Dee, and how much I miss him.
The above clip is from Lech Kowalski’s movie Hey! Is Dee Dee Home? a short documentary made mostly from left over interview footage from an interview Dee Dee gave Lech for his Johnny Thunders’ flick. It gives a good sense of Dee Dee’s personality.
It Came From Outer Space…
This is Chester. Cute little duffer, no? He showed up at our front door one day with a note taped to him that said: “I like magazines, loud noises, teeth, and stories about monkeys”. The note also claimed he was from Pluto. We found a small, abandoned space ship a few blocks from our house. I know this sounds crazy, and after years of being told you are crazy you do start to wonder about yourself, but my wife agrees, this little critter seems to be trying to communicate with us. Sort of by telepathy. His favorite TV shows are Orangutan Island, Charlie Brown specials and the Teletubbies. Here’s a few of his favorite records: the Ran-dells- Martian Hop, Little Ernest Tucker – Gonna Get Me A Satellite, Ray Sawyer- Rockin’ Satellite, Nervous Norvus- The Fang, Bob & Jerry- Ghost Satellite , Bill Thomas- The Sputnik Story, the Equadors- Sputnik Dance ,the Roulettes- Venus Rock, Roosevelt Sykes- Satellite Baby ,Speedy West- Spacemen In Orbit ,the Medallions- Rocket Ship,Big Charles Green- Gonna Rock On The Moon Tonight, Charlie Ryan- Hot Rod Rocket , the Thunderbirds- Flyin’ Saucers Rock’n’Roll, Joe Tate & his Hi-Fives- Satellite Rock , the Dovers- The Invasion , Jimmy Bryant & Speedy West- Stratosphere Boogie, the Jive 5- People From Another World , Terry Dunavan- Rock It On Mars , the Atlantics- War Of The Worlds , the Vigilantes- War Of The Satellites , the Fallouts- Satellite, Joe Meek and the Blue Men- Orbit Around The Moon , the Tornados- Life On Venus.
I’d say he has pretty good taste in records, given his chartreuse Mohawk hair-do, you’d expect him to be into GBH or something. I wonder what the critter is trying to tell us?