DEE DEE RAMONE'S BOOK LEGEND OF A ROCK STAR: A MEMOIR: THE LAST TESTAMENT OF DEE DEE RAMONE

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Dee Dee Ramone's last book Legend Of A Rock Star: A Memoir: The Last Testament Of Dee Dee Ramone was released after his death. We lost Dee Dee on June 5, 2002.
Thunder's Mouth Press was originally scheduled to release the book in June 2002 but it was delayed until January 2003. Also Da Capo Press has published this book. Book has 288 pages.
Dee Dee for example writes about his European tour (2000) in this book in a one half real, one half fiction style. Many events in this book are horrific and nightmarish.
You can also find from pages many photos that are taken for example by Keith Green, Paul Kostabi, John Nikolai, David Godlis, Michel Solis, Andy Poncherello...
Also you will see scanned images of Dee Dee's handwritten texts and pages from Taking Dope fanzines. Also paintings which Dee Dee did together with Paul Kostabi and his wife Barbara Zampini etc.

Dee Dee shared with me (Jari-Pekka) some pages of this book while I was touring with him in May 2000. Dee Dee gave me one of his personal handwritten diaries (see photo in right). The final version of this book contains three text parts about me, two of them being partly fiction... Read one part below (photo having text).

Here's book description:
"So you want to be a rock n roll star? Maybe you should listen to what Dee Dee Ramone has to say first. In Legend of a Rock Star the myth of the rock n roll good life is destroyed once and for all. Touring is hell, and Dee Dee should know, after fifteen plus years with the legendary Ramones, he's back on the road with a new band and a new set of nightmares. Riddled with acerbic hilarity, Legend of a Rock Star offers a fantastic, unflinching look at the abysmal underbelly of the rock n roll dream as Dee Dee and his new brothers tour Europe in a tiny cramped van and try their best not to kill one another. With shifty promoters out to suck him dry, and fans who mean well but just wont leave him alone, all Dee Dee can do is wrestle with his conscience and hope the drugs aren't bad. Written in a fierce chaotic prose uniquely his own, Dee Dee also offers a brutally honest, yet surprisingly touching account of the weeks leading up to and just after the death of friend and longtime bandmate Joey Ramone."

Marky Ramone commented following of the book in January 2003:
" I read Dee Dee's new book "Legend Of A Rock Star". It's entertaining and fun and really good reading. He talks about the Ramones and the workers such as Monte Melnick, our great tourmanager that we had, Arturo Vega, our tshirt man and all around confident and lighting director to the roadies and everything in general about the Ramones. It is typical Dee Dee style. Loved it. "

Some reviews:
1) This review is by Robin Schroffel:
"Part memoir, part hallucination, Legend Of A Rock Star by punk pioneer Dee Dee Ramone, bassist of legendary New York group The Ramones, is a thoroughly compelling read.
The Ramones were one of the most influential bands in the history of music, forming in Queens, New York in the mid-1970s, performing at the epicenter of the exploding American punk scene and forever altering music's future with their three-chord bubblegum anthems. One of four outcasts who formed the group was bass player Douglas Colvin, better known as Dee Dee Ramone. Dee Dee struggled with drug addiction throughout his life and, finally, unable to kick the Chinese rocks completely, one last hit spelled his end in 2002.
Working on his diary-formatted memoir Legend Of A Rock Star at the time, Dee Dee diligently kept journals during his final solo tour of Europe, opening himself up for the world to consume in the same manner his words reveal he felt it always did.
Dee Dee's deeply personal stories take the reader posthumously inside the heart and mind of one of punk rock's most important figures, into his own little world where fantasy and reality occasionally blend seamlessly, revealing the man as a truly bizarre, sweet, paranoid, gold-hearted human being.
His writing is childlike and often surprising with flashes of true insight. Photo reproductions of Dee Dee's actual handwritten pages show rough drafts filled with spelling and grammatical mistakes, not entirely corrected in the final manuscript.
With Dee Dee's passing, his diaries suddenly end and touching pseudo-eulogies from friends and fans begin, filling the back pages. These are followed by a very interesting complete discography of everything Dee Dee ever laid hands on, from his Ramones days to Dee Dee King, rap superstar, and beyond into more recent projects such as Youth Gone Mad.
Dee Dee was a passionate visual artist in addition to his music and writing careers, and reproductions of paintings done in collaboration with artists Paul and Mark Kostabi are printed in the book. He also created comic strips, represented in Legend Of A Rock Star by a hilarious, ridiculous junkie-Sid-Vicious-at-the-Chelsea-Hotel example.
Although silly and fun at times, Dee Dee's memoir is, overall, quite depressing. Expect some sincerely heart-wrenching moments, especially in entries written following the death of Ramones vocalist Joey Ramone, an event that occurs midway through Dee Dee's European tour.
The strongest example? Dee Dee's desperate, impassioned plea: "Please don't kill me now, God. I would love to be the last Ramone to die."
A slice of the real life of one infamous man, Legend Of A Rock Star is a must-read for Ramones fans and anyone interested in the inner workings of the unusual mind of one of punk's early heroes.

2) Review by Robyn Hale.
Hop in the van with Dee Dee and his band as they take off on the chaotic and tiresome journey of life on the road. Legend gives us the report of just how unglamorous a tour can be, especially if you're Dee Dee Ramone. Cramped in a tiny van, Dee Dee and his new set of brothers travel through Europe dealing with shifty promoters, unrelenting groupies and fans who mean well but just won't leave the man alone. Dee Dee also give us a brutally honest yet touching account of the weeks leading up to and just after the death of Joey Ramone. Part Chelsea Horror Hotel, and part Lobotomy, Dee Dee mixes fact and fiction and it's up to the reader to decipher which is which.
Completed before his untimely death in June 2002, Thunder's Mouth Press delayed the printing and added a tribute section in the back of the book with passages from many associated with The Ramones camp including Johnny and Tommy Ramone, Daniel Rey and Arturo Vega. But it's the tributes by Dee Dee's music/art collaborator Paul Kostabi and photographer John Nikolai that tug on the heartstrings and turn on the water works for me. If you love punk rock then you love Dee Dee Ramone. However I can't help but wonder what Dee Dee would think of all this if he was still with us.

3) This review/comment is from Amazon.com by fan who has nickname sirhilarybray:
"I've just read Legend Of A Rock Star, the Last Testament of Dee Dee Ramone. If Everett True's book nailed what it was like to be in the Ramones, this book nails what it was like to be an ex-Ramone. The first half of the book is a William Burroughs-esque diary of a low rent series of European solo gigs in which Dee Dee's imagination runs riot over his actual memory of the tour. However, the last section of the book is mostly factual account of the build up to the Ramones' induction into the Hall of Fame. Riveting stuff. Dee Dee's prose is poignant, depressing and funny in more or less equal measures. The final section of the book is a load of tributes from Tommy Ramone, Arturo Vega, Daniel Rey etc. etc."