Dee Dee Ramone's book/novel Chelsea Horror Hotel
was released on May 10th, 2001. So this got published 13 months
before Dee Dee passed away. Below you can basic details, description,
story and many photos of book release party, book review by fan etc.
etc.
1) Publisher of original / USA version of
Chelsea Horror Hotel is
Thunder`s Mouth Press (May 10, 2001). 252 pages.
2) Publisher of Chelsea Horror Hotel version in
Czech is Publisher Mata
Publishing
(title in Czech is Chelsea Hotel Hruzy). Book got published in Czech in
2011. More
details.
3) Reissue edition of the Chelsea Horror Hotel
got published on March 2016
in the USA by Da Capo Press. This new edition has a new foreword by Joe
Dante, horror icon and director of Gremlins, The Howling and Twilight
Zone: The Movie.
4) Cover painting of the Chelsea Hotel is by Paul
Kostabi. Kostabi
explains on my book Rock
In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone following.
"Dee Dee wanted me to do the cover and the publisher was negotiating
with some artists. Dee Dee called me up and said, "You better fucking do
that painting because they're going to give me some shitty fourth rate
heavy metal artist and my book is going to look like shit. You better
get this done!" So I painted this really quick, in forty minutes, the
whole painting because I didn't want to do it. He was offering me money
and I didn't want to paint it for money, Paul Kostabi said"
DESCRIPTION OF CHELSEA HORROR
HOTEL
Take a wild ride with Dee Dee Ramone in his first novel of drugs,
humancanine communication and the supernatural powers that just won`t
leave him alone in Chelsea Horror Hotel. This is fictional book.
Dee Dee wrote this fiction story about the infamous Chelsea Hotel in New
York while staying there. The premise of the story is that Dee Dee and
his wife Barbara Zambini are living in the hotel with their dog
Banfield. There are many unsettled souls inhabiting the hotel which Dee
Dee must deal with. His story brings back to life all of Dee Dee's old
friends including Johnny Thunders, Stiv Bator, Sid Vicious and his
girlfriend Nancy Spungen...
Here's the description of Chelsea Horror Hotel: A Novel that's on
Amazon.com:
Dee Dee Ramone doesn't quite know what he's getting himself into when he
and his wife Barbara move into the squalid Chelsea Hotel with their dog
Banfield. He spends most of his time trying to score drugs and walking
Banfield, with whom he can magically communicate. Meanwhile, he can't
stand his neighbors and shies away from violence, but wishes everyone were
six feet under. He also thinks that the room he's staying in is the very
room where his old friend Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungen, and begins
having nightmares of Nancy emerging from the bathroom with a knife
wound.
After one of his nightmares, an evil force enters his hotel room and hurls
him against a wall. Dee Dee also gets involved with the transvestite lover
of one of his gay fellow addicts. When his wife finds out, the two fight
it out and become seriously wounded. During all this, Dee Dee is tormented
by the living and dead demons that plague the hotel, along with the ghosts
of his old dead punk rock friends Sid Vicious, Johnny Thunders and Stiv
Bators. And that's when the Devil himself decides to join the
party...
BOOK RELEASE PARTY AND SIGNING
PARTIES
Release party:
Dee Dee's Chelsea Horror Hotel book release party was at the Lakeside
Lounge on Ave B in the East Village, New York, USA (near of great
Manitoba's-bar), June 8, 2001.
Check out story with below or from here
here story
with photos of that night, thanks Linda Iorio and David
Kelly.
Signing parties:
BTW, I UPDATED THIS IN 2012: I THINK BOTH SIGNINGS HAPPENED, I HAD GOT
THESE INFORMATION IN ADVANCE. DEE DEE PASSED AWAY 1,5 MONTHS AFTER THESE
DATES.
1) Dee Dee will be appearing at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair on
Saturday
April 27th, 2002 in support of this Chelsea Horror Hotel. He will be
also signing copies.
2) Dee Dee will be reading from the Chelsea Horror Hotel and signing
copies at Borders Books at 1415 Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA
on Sunday April 28th, 2002 at 7:00pm. Admission is
free.
THIS IS A STORY WRITTEN BY DAVID KELLY OF BOOK
RELEASE PARTY, PHOTOS ARE TAKEN BY LINDA IORIO.
I knew the LakeSide Lounge would be packed to the hilt for Dee Dee's
special book signing and performance. Having read the book Chelsea
Horror Hotel the night before I was excited to see the "king of punk".
As I walked up Avenue B past Tomkins Sq. Park. I could see the crowd
spilling out the door. People were partying hearty and having a good
time. I bought two more copies of the book for Dee Dee to sign. Dee Dee
looked great with the same overgrown bowl haircut but dyed blond. Dee
Dee gave me a "double crossed handshake" and some kind words as he
autographed wildly. After this I went to the bar and got some
refreshments.
Soon after I heard the opening chords of Loudmouth blasting from the PA.
One second later the back room was packed to the hilt with fans standing
on chairs and what not. Dee Dee sounded great and was very aggressive in
the way he played. He went on to play Blitzkrieg Bop, I Wanna Be Sedated
and Beat
On The Brat. He then got into some Heartbreakers/Dolls tunes Born To
Lose and "Rock And Roll Nurse??" with everyone appropriately singing
along to the Lower East Side classics. Last but not least was a
blistering version of Chinese Rock.
This was the last song of the evening. With Dee Dee retreating to the
bar to chill out for a few with some old friends. I handed a thirsty
looking Dee Dee a Coke (SODA) and he thanked me profusely. Everybody
hung out for
a while and then Dee Dee gathered all of his gear which included some of
his artwork and left with his entourage.
I mentioned to Dee Dee that I and Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone (I, website
holder) were together for a few weeks-going around NYC and stuff. He was
really cool and glad to hear about Jari!! Dee Dee said "Jari! hey wow
cool".
(Jari-Pekka's note: I had toured second time with Dee Dee few months
earlier in Scandinavia)
Thanks David Kelly of this story. And thanks Linda of
photos.
"I picked up this book as a Ramones fan, and on a whim. I was expecting
something entertaining, perhaps crass and cutting edge, but I was
floored to find a really great piece of work by Dee Dee Ramone.
Where do I start? How do I categorize this book? Horror? Humor?
Autobiography? All of the above, I must say.
Part Dante's Inferno, part Kafka's Metamorphosis, part Phillip K.
Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," yet
all Dee Dee Ramone. I'm serious! My major in college was Comparative
Literature, and reading Chelsea Horror Hotel brought me back to the most
beautifully twisted examples of literature, both classic and modern,
that I have read. Put Dante Alighieri and Franz Kafka in a time machine,
point them toward CBGB's, and you're there!
Dee Dee Ramone sets himself as the central character, shacking up with
his girl Barbara and dog Banfield at The Chelsea Hotel, New York's
hang-out for the underground hipsters. It is also the site where Sid
Vicious killed Nancy Spungen in the late 1970s.
The entire story takes you through Dee Dee's paranoia of AIDS, perpetual
quest to shoot up, repeated encounters with ghosts of dead friends like
Sid Vicious and Stiv Bators, bloody murders, the awareness of a secret
Satanic society that conducts grisly tortures in the hotel basement, and
occasional desperate plea-bargains with God. What makes this story so
twisted is the coming and goings of the "fine lines." There are times
when it is clear that a segment is grounded in Dee Dee's light grip on
reality, but these moments often morph into disturbing paranormal events
that seem to indicate that Dee Dee is swimming through a blurry array of
nightmares, drug induced hallucinations, sheer paranoia, or improbable
realities. It's often hard to tell! Yet the reader is never lost; you
will find yourself racing through the pages, eager to see how each
frightening misadventure is solved.
Part of what makes this story work so well is that while Dee Dee is the
main focus of the story, he avoids painting himself as a sympathetic
character. He portrays himself as a borderline sort who, despite
frequent self-serving and malicious actions, believes that he is a nice
person who is wronged and agitated by all who surround him. He does an
excellent job of illustrating an individual who is emotionally tormented
and forever craving a fix. Unlike so many "street poets," you see no
glamour in his crack & heroin surroundings; you see one great big
nightmare.
Nightmarish from start to finish, yes. Strange thing is, despite the
desperation throughout the novel, I did not find it depressing in the
least. I found myself impatient to get to the next page, just to see the
next twisted mess Dee Dee would get himself into.
And forget the lame anti-drug films our health teachers showed us
throughout our junior high years; "Chelsea Horror Hotel" would make me
steer clear of the rock, the pipe, and the needle FOR GOOD!
One caution: this book is not for the weak of heart (or stomach). Lots
of graphic descriptions of blood, vomit, and millions of grotesque
mealie-mealie bugs!
"Chelsea Horror Hotel" is Dee Dee's crowning bookshelf glory. It may not
be a bestseller, but I hope it nevers fades into complete obscurity. Dee
Dee Ramone may be gone from this world, and I hope he's at peace in a
much more placid setting than The Chelsea Horror Hotel!
Thanks K. Brown "El Rudo Lucky Pierre!", this was really great
review.