Janitor of Lunacy, Identify My Destiny

Dee Dee, Dee Dee, Dee Dee... What happened? Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll happened. The third greatest bassist in the world, and I grew up worshiping him. I was ten when he died of a heroin overdose, and a single tear dropped onto the newspaper as I read the fifty word article on his death. I lost Joey a year earlier and then my beloved Dee Dee. His death day anniversary just past and I sit at the computer, blasting Brain Drain, maybe, in my opinion, the epitome of Dee Dee [the sex] Ramone.

Dee Dee Ramone was an original Ramone. He was everything the Ramones were. He was the loudest, fastest, toughest, and, above all, the most artistic. He wrote their greatest hits, he was the original "1-2-3-4!" guy, he (and Joey) were the beating hearts of the Ramones. Dee Dee was also the cutest. What? I can't let the giggly little girl in me run wild for a while? Dee Dee was it. Dee Dee was what the Ramones were. Dee Dee was the punkest punk. Dee Dee was everything.

I first heard of Dee Dee when I was eight, when my father played Leave Home for me, after I said something about the original "California Sun" when I heard it on TV somewhere. He said something about the Ramones' version being better than the version I heard. He was right. I fell in love with the Ramones, and I fell in love with the guy with the black mop top shredding the bass.

Dee Dee was a storm, though. He was a wild drug addict, had Multiple Personality and Bipolar Disorder, and had daddy issues (but all rock stars do). I didn't care, I liked him anyway. He was my second love, right after Steve from Blues Clues.

Dee Dee molded my opinions and the way I speak. The sound of my voice, beleive it or not, is kind of a refined version of Dee Dee's and Edie's. It's subconsiously affected. My hair is getting very Dee Dee, mostly because my Edie hair is growing out.

Dee Dee is great. He is absent minded, yet intelligent. He was born in Virginia, grew up in Berlin, and took his first shot of heroin before he turned 14. He had a fasicination with Nazis, occasionally yelling out the classic "Deustchland, Deustchland uber alles!" during certain songs at concerts. Joey Ramone, however, didn't mind at all. I sometimes just yelp "Deustchland, Deustchland uber alles!" with less effective results. My boyfriend, descendant of those affected during WWII, pretends to care greatly.

I wanted to learn bass because of Dee Dee! But my dad said, "No, you want to learn guitar." But I'm milling around with my cousin's bass. I'm horrible at it, but I do it for Dee Dee.

See ya, Dee Dee.

"I'd like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back."

--Dee Dee Ramone from his Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech