Every once in a while the punk rock geniuses here at Dying Scene like to unleash some punk rock trivia to enlighten and enhance the minds of you, the readers. Today’s trivia regards one of the finest punk rock bassists of all time, Dee Dee Ramone, and his regrettable decision to take his solo career in a direction he clearly couldn’t handle.
After leaving the Ramones, Dee Dee Ramone continued with various musical projects… the first of which was a hip hop album, “Standing in the Spotlight”, released under the moniker “Dee Dee King”. Taking a break from his usual style, Dee Dee tried his hand at creating an old school hip-hop album, full of silly rhymes and classic samples of 1950’s surf rock and doo-wop. It was poorly received to the point where it was said that the album “will go down in the annals of pop culture as one of the worst recordings of all time” and shortly after releasing “Standing in the Spotlight”, Dee Dee returned to guitar-based music which was undoubtedly his forte.
One piece of Dee Dee’s short lived career as a rapper did survive however: his song “The Crusher” was later recorded by his former bandmates and appeared on their final album ¡Adiós Amigos!, released in 1995. Interestingly, the Ramones version featured lead vocals by none other than Dee Dee’s replacement, CJ Ramone.
Interested in hearing the scratchy voiced punk rocker try his hand at rapping? You can listen to his song “Commotion in the Ocean” right here.
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