Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin) is best remembered as a founding member of punk rock band the Ramones. Though nearly all of the Ramones' songs were credited equally to all the band members, Dee Dee was the group's primary lyricist and songwriter, penning songs such as “53rd and 3rd" (a song about male prostitution at 53rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, allegedly based on personal experience), “Glad to See You Go” (written about his then-girlfriend, a stripper and fellow drug user with a volatile personality), “It's a Long Way Back to Germany,” “Chinese Rock"” (recorded by Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers first and the Ramones later on, as guitarist Johnny Ramone was not enthusiastic about the Ramones playing songs about drugs), and “Wart Hog” (which Dee Dee wrote in rehab).
He was the bass guitarist for the group from their formation in 1974 through 1989, although at first he wanted to play the guitar. He then left to pursue a short-lived career in rap music under the name Dee Dee King. Afterwards, Dee Dee returned to his punk roots and released three little-known solo albums featuring brand new songs (many were used later on Ramones records).
Dee Dee wrote three books: Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones (a.k.a. Lobotomy); Legend of a Rock Star: The Last Testament of Dee Dee Ramone, a daily journal of commentary on his last, hectic European tour in the spring of 2001; and the novel Chelsea Horror Hotel, in which he and his wife move into New York City's famous Chelsea Hotel and believe they are staying in the same room where Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
Dee Dee struggled with drug addiction for much of his life, especially heroin; he began using drugs as a teenager, and continued to use for the majority of his adult life. He seemed to clean up his act in the early 1990s and to remain clean for most of that decade until 2002, when he was found dead from a heroin overdose.
GODLIS began photographing CBGB’s and the streets of New York City in 1976. Shooting long handheld exposures with a 35mm Leica camera, he captured the look and feel of the NYC punk scene under the nighttime glow of the Bowery streetlights. Known for his photos of Patti Smith, the Ramones, Television, Blondie, and Talking Heads, his work has been published and exhibited worldwide. Featured in the book Blank Generation Revisited, the traveling exhibition catalogue Bande à Part, and numerous films and documentaries, his work can be seen online at
GODLIS.COM.
