Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone

This is the first post in the new Books category for the blog. Ramones books aren't rare, but most are from family, friends, or biographers/scholars. Aside from Monte Melnick's On the Road with the Ramones, and the upcoming book Johnny was writing prior to his death, you know what you'll be getting isn't directly from any of the members of the group.

Poisoned Heart: I Married Dee Dee Ramone oozes of the family and friends category to a fault. Vera Ramone, Dee Dee's first wife, writes about her long, troublesome relationship with the the band's most unstable member in a conflicting dichotomy throughout the whole book. In one side, her relationship with Dee Dee is full of lovely anecdotes of Dee Dee being goofy and an amicable husband, but the other side is pure horror. The horror is all based on his barely controlled drug use and his deteriorated mental condition, and how it leads to the brutal stories of domestic (physical and psychological) abuse that trumps some of the stuff that I've read in Pattie Boyd's Wonderful Tonight or John Lennon's biographies. The problem with the two opposing sides and the book in general is that, after writing about those impressionable moments, it all feels as it's swept under the rug with her unabashed love for the man. It's a battered wife story that unfortunately is common in life and in rock, and it never comes off well when it all sounds excused. It's great that this is not a hagiography of one of punk rock's infamous pioneers, but it's off-putting either way.

If you're looking for new bits of non-Dee Dee related Ramones dirt or stories, you won't find much here other than expanded information on older tales (The day when the band realized Johnny and Linda were together, some stuff on Joey's personal life). Her opinions on the band members and those around them coincides with what others have written about (Johnny Ramone is cold and distant, Joey was a romantic, etc..). If there's one story that unfortunately sticks to mind about the band in general, it's the 7-11 incident in Texas where Dee Dee savagely assaults Vera in front of the band, and no one but Monte gets involved.

I recommend the book to Dee Dee fans who want more information on his personal life and stories behind some of his later Ramones work, and I also recommend it to those that want to confirm stories and character portraits as Vera doesn't paint in broad strokes. However, her overall attitude about Dee Dee creeps me out, but...

Her book says enough to make my own opinion.

(On a side note- Is there anything outside of that Too Tough To Die Tribute DVD where Johnny Ramone doesn't come off as an asshole?)