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.
REVIEW BY K. BROWN "EL RUDO LUCKY PIERRE"
Here's a Customer review of this book in Amazon:
K. Brown "El Rudo Lucky Pierre!" (Walnut, Ca USA) wrote this on March
25, 2004."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.