Release date of CD: January 20, 2000 and January 27,
2000 (Corazong
Records and Other
Peoples Music)
Release date of LP: March 14, 2002 (Woimasointu Records). You can
order LP by E-mail: info (a) woimasointu.com
1) LINE-UP AND TRACKLIST: HERE.
2) INFORMATION OF CD VERSIONS: HERE.
3) INFORMATION OF LP VERSION (AND HOW TO BUY IT): HERE.
4) INTERVIEW COMMENTS BY CHRIS SPEDDING: HERE.
5) HOP AROUND REVIEW: HERE.
Dee Dee Ramone's fourth solo album is produced by Chris
Spedding.
Spedding plays guitars and keyboards on it also. Dee Dee started
recording this Hop Around solo album at Signal To Noise in Toronto from
25th or 26th September 1998 (and the mixed-down finished on the 15th
October, 1998).
I did with Spedding interview to my 2nd book Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone.
Part of that interview you can also read below
here.
LP contains different versions of songs Rock & Roll Vacation in L.A. and
Hop Around than what versions are on CD. Also cover is different.
300 numbered copies are on red vinyl. And for the quality seekers
there is also pressing on 220 gram heavy weight black vinyl. There
is 500 copies on black vinyl. Ask more details: info (at) woimasointu.com
At the same time with LP release Woimasointu put out 7' single Born To
Lose / Hop Around and it has Hop Around that is similar to version on
CD. 300 copies of the single on white vinyl, 300 copies on blue and rest
on black. You can order LP and single by E-mail: info (a)
woimasointu.com
7' cover have pictures taken by me (Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone), from
my touring with Dee Dee Ramone, Barbara Zampini and Chase Manhattan in
Scandinavia in 2000. Read more of tour here.
About distribution of CD: UK distribution by Grapevine/Universal, Canada
through OPM/EMI, Eire by RMG/Sony, Benelux through Arcade/CNR,
Scandiavian countries through MNW/Kommunikation and USA through Virgin
or Revolver.
Chris Spedding produced Dee Dee Ramone's album Hop Around. Also man did
produce Greatest &
Latest (2000). Spedding also played on both
records. I did with Spedding interview to my 2nd book Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone
(2004). Here are few parts of it.
Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone: When did you meet with
Dee Dee for the first
time and how did the projects you worked on with him come about?
Chris Spedding: I met him in Toronto, Canada,
when I was hired by the OPM record company (Other
People's Music) to produce his album. We both enjoyed working together
on the first album Hop Around, but Dee Dee was disappointed with the
record company (OPM) delaying it's release and then not promoting it
properly. He wanted to re-record everything again and put it out on a
different label. He asked me to produce the new one. At this time, he
and Barbara moved to Los Angeles near where I was living in Santa
Monica. I dissuaded him from re-recording the songs from the previous
album and we recorded what was to become our last album together,
Greatest & Latest.
Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone: Can you describe a
little bit of the
production style that worked best for Dee Dee?
Chris Spedding: All a producer does is to get
the artist's music down on
tape as well as
possible, and to the artist.s satisfaction. With Dee Dee this meant
working quickly because Dee Dee uses a lot of energy in the studio and
got bored quickly. Because of this I think we were well suited.
On this record Dee Dee Ramone plays guitar and sings lead vocals. Dee
Dee's wife Barbara Ramone plays bass and sings lead vocals on a few of the
tracks. Most of these songs sound a lot like typical Ramones songs (some
of them even have similar titles to Ramones songs). If the Ramones had
stayed around a few years longer, I think they could have used some of
these songs for their albums (the way on Adios Amigos, the Ramones took
Makin' Monsters For My Friends from Dee Dee's solo album I Hate Freaks
Like You, and they also took the Crusher from Dee Dee's solo album Dee
Dee King).
There are some killer tunes on this album. Now I Wanna Be Sedated is an
angry, fun punk song about living in a mental institution, which actually
does not sound like the Ramones classic of a similar name. I Don't Wanna
Die In The Basement sounds as if it could have easily fit in on an early
Ramones record. The title words are the only lyrics on booklet. This
record also has another studio version of the Ramones classic Chinese
Rocks, but this is much faster, and more punk than the version on the
Ramones album End of The Century.
Hop Around and Rock & Roll Vacation in LA are two songs sung by Barbara,
which were also on the Ramainz live record, but here they have some
extra intsruments being played in the background. What About Me? is a song
Dee Dee also played on a 7" record in 1993, called Dee Dee Ramone & the
Chinese Dragons; the production is better here. They cover a kind of slow
song called Hurtin' Kind, written by the Bittersweets; it is sung by
Barbara, and it is not really a Ramones-type song, but it is very good.
Nothin' is also a cover, but played and sung in a way that makes it sound
like any other song off the record, sounds as if it could have been
written by Dee Dee.
I Saw A Skull Instead Of My Face and Master Plan, both sound like heavy
metal songs, and really are not very good. Overall this is a great record,
and Dee Dee proves that twenty-five years after starting the Ramones, he
can still write and perform great punk rock songs.