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the time and I of course had utmost respect. Some unusual things happened that night, and despite minor memory loss due to alcohol consumption I pretty much recall everything... Dee Dee while sitting at the table for signing before his set noticed I was wearing a Johnny Thunders L.A.M.F. T-shirt and, reaching over the table, opened my leather jacket and smiled. He then asked if it was okay to write with permanent marker on the shirt. Of course I agreed, wondering about what he would write... well, he inscribed the words "Chinese Rocks" over Johnny's chest and guitar! Now I know about the legendary feud between Thunders and Dee Dee about that all time classic song and who wrote what and why and how... I think this may have been one of his last "statements" about that drug-hell anthem and I have the shirt hanging on my bedroom wall. Who knows? Maybe it will become legendary itself, one day, but to me it's already worth a million +. Also, he at first, when arriving, did not want to let my then girlfriend (who I'm now thankfully separated from! Better for us both!) because he assumed she was underage (meaning under 21 - she wasn't). When Dee Dee approached the door out front, I began to ask him something and he came back quickly with "I ain't gettin in no underage girls here!!!". However, the girl befriended his publicist at that time and snuck right in with D's entourage, to the dismay of the bouncers. Later, I explained that despite her youthful appearance she was of age and Dee Dee quietly nodded. I wonder about his reasons... two days before, I had also sang with Dee Dee and his band (Ena Paul Kostabi on drums and ________ on guitar), this time at the Lakeside Lounge... there's more to this but I will save it for my book, which will be coming out eventually. These two exciting experiences were punctuated by my "running into" D on St. Marks Place the day after Lakeside Lounge. I was carrying my 1966 Hagstrom semi-hollow body bass guitar and he wanted to see it and he loved it... I was asked once why I didn't ask him to sign it, and the truth is I never saw him in that way... we were friends, fellow musicians (although I was viciously outclassed!). I have a lot of Dee Dee Ramone true life stories to share with fellow Ramonees that happened over the years... I first saw D at the Ritz in NYC in 1982 (or was it 81? It's a little fuzzy - 21 fuckin years, you know?!) and last seen him at the Spa that night we performed together. I never thought back in the early eighties that I would one day share the stage with a man that I practically idolized - to me he is, was, and always will be the greatest bassist, punk rocker, songwriter, and true friend that there ever was. |
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This flyer is from 1996 and my old band, Sewage, which is why Dee Dee named me "Kevin Sewage", was given the honor of opening the show for Dee Dee's I.C.L.C. (Inter Celestial Light Commune - a place he lived in Amsterdam in the early nineties). In his zine Taking Dope, he described Sewage's performance as "great, a real horror". You can check that out in issue #3 of his great fanzine. Issue #2, however, is where I'm on the cover and pictured with him over five times... In one shot, Marky Ramone, Dee Dee, me and Sewage's now imprisoned lead singer, Spike, are outside of CbGbs. Spike was hated by Dee Dee then as well as until his untimely death. Spike Polite (he was anything but - he's now doing 15 to life for 2nd degree murder! (next page) |
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