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Encyclopedia > Chinese Rocks

"Chinese Rocks" or "Chinese Rock" is a song about heroin written early in the careers of New York City punk legends Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell, circa 1976. It was first recorded by Hell's former band, The Heartbreakers, and later by Dee Dee's band The Ramones. For other uses, see Heroin (disambiguation). ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Dee Dee Ramone, 1979 Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin) (September 18, 1951 - June 5, 2002) was a German American songwriter and bassist, best remembered as a founding member of punk rock band The Ramones. ... Richard Hell (born October 2, 1949) is the stage name of Richard Meyers, an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Heartbreakers was a punk rock group formed in New York in May 1975 by Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jerry Nolan (drums) who had just quit the New York Dolls and Richard Hell (vocals/bass) who was forced out of Television, the band he had founded with Tom Verlaine... The Ramones (L-R, Johnny, Tommy, Joey, Dee Dee) on the cover of their debut self-titled album (1976), cementing their place at the dawn of the punk movement. ...

Contents

Origin

Hell and Dee Dee were in agreement that the song was mainly written by Dee Dee. "The reason I wrote that song was out of spite for Richard Hell, because he told me he was going to write a song better than Lou Reed's "Heroin", so I went home and wrote 'Chinese Rocks'," Dee Dee is quoted in Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. "I wrote it by myself, in Debbie Harry's apartment on First Avenue and First Street."[1] Lewis Reed[1] (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. ... Debbie Harry on the cover of her collection Most of All: Best Of Deborah Harry (born July 1, 1945) is a Miami-born American rock and roll musician who originally gained fame as the frontwoman for New Wave band Blondie, which originated in the late 1970s and achieved commercial success...


According to Dee Dee, the song was "about Jerry [Nolan, of The Heartbreakers] calling me up to come over and go cop" heroin, a form of which was known in those days as Chinese Rocks. "The line 'My girlfriend's crying in the shower stall' was about Connie, and the shower was at Arturo Vega's loft," where Dee Dee, his girlfriend Connie and Joey Ramone all lived at one point.[2] Jerry Nolan (May 7, 1946 – January 14, 1992) was a U.S. rock and roll drummer, who played with The New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers. ... Joey Ramone (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001), born as Jeffry Ross Hyman, was a vocalist and songwriter best known for his work in the punk rock group the Ramones. ...


Dee Dee wanted to record it with The Ramones, but bandmate Tommy Ramone vetoed it, claiming that it was too obviously drug-related.[3] Dee Dee then took it to Richard Hell, also with The Heartbreakers at the time. "Dee Dee called me one day and said, 'I wrote a song that the Ramones won't do,'" Hell recalled. "He said, 'It's not finished. How about I come over and show it to you and we can finish it if you like it?'"[4] Tommy Ramone (born Tamás Erdélyi, January 29, 1952 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian-American record producer and drummer. ...


According to Hell, "Basically the song was done, but he just didn't have another verse. I wrote two lines. That's all. It was basically Dee Dee's song, though I think the lyrics, the verses I wrote, were good." Dee Dee similarly recalled, "Richard Hell put that line in, so I gave him some credit."[5]


The Heartbreakers

There were differing recollections about how the song became part of The Heartbreakers' repertoire. "I brought it to the next rehearsal, exactly as it was done by the Heartbreakers for all those years. I would sing it because it was a song I brought in."[6] Dee Dee, on the other hand, wrote in his memoir, "When Jerry was over at my place one day, we did some dope and then I played him my song, and he took it with him to a Heartbreakers' rehearsal."[7]


In either case, the song became one of the band's most popular songs. "After I left the Heartbreakers, they kept playing 'Chinese Rocks' and then ended up recording it" for the band's 1977 debut album, L.A.M.F.. "And they put all of their names on it, though nothing had changed about the song--they just added their names to it. Johnny Thunders...had nothing to do with 'Chinese Rocks' at all."[8] Nevertheless, on the first pressing of L.A.M.F. the song is credited to Heartbreakers frontman Thunders and guitarist Walter Lure, as well as to Ramone and Hell. The 2002 CD reissue of L.A.M.F. names Joey and Johnny Ramone as well as Dee Dee--but not Hell--as the songwriters. L.A.M.F. was the only studio album of Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, which included such musicians as Walter Lure, Billy Rath, and Thunders New York Dolls bandmate Jerry Nolan. ... Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr (July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991), was a rock and roll guitarist and singer, first with the New York Dolls, the proto-punk glam rockers of the early 70s. ... Joey Ramone (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001), born as Jeffry Ross Hyman, was a vocalist and songwriter best known for his work in the punk rock group the Ramones. ... John William Cummings (October 8, 1948 – September 15, 2004), better known by the stage name Johnny Ramone, was the guitarist for the punk rock group The Ramones. ...


"The credits are false," Dee Dee wrote in 1997. "Johnny Thunders ranked on me for fourteen years, trying to make out like he wrote the song. What a low-life maneuver by those guys!"[9] The online databases for both ASCAP and BMI, however, credit the song to just Dee Dee Ramone and Hell. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is an organization known as a collecting society that protects intellectual property, ensuring that music which is broadcast, commercially recorded, or otherwise used for profit, pays a fee to compensate the creators of that music. ... Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) is a collecting society that protects composers intellectual property in the communications business, especially radio. ...


In the Heartbreakers' live performances of the song, Thunders and Lure would often change some of the lyrics to more sexually explicit ones (sample revision: "I'm just fucking a Chinese bitch" instead of "I'm just digging a Chinese ditch").


The Ramones

It later appeared on the Ramones' 1980 album End of the Century--credited to The Ramones as a whole, with no mention of Richard Hell. End of the Century is the fifth album by the Ramones. ...


The Ramones' version is called "Chinese Rock", with no s on the end. There is another slight lyrical difference between the versions: The Heartbreakers' lyrics begin, "Somebody calls me on the phone / They say hey hey is Dee Dee home", while the Ramones change "Dee Dee" to "Arty", an apparent reference to Arturo Vega, in whose loft the song is set. Vega was a long-time friend of the band and the designer of the Ramones' "presidential seal" logo. However, in live performances after Dee Dee left the band, Joey Ramone sometimes did sing "Dee Dee" instead of "Arty" (as on the Ramones' 1993 live CD Loco Live). Ramones 1991 live album that has apparently (at least) two versions. ...


Other usage

The song was covered by Sid Vicious on his album Sid Sings, during his brief solo career after the Sex Pistols broke up. The Insane were also another band to cover it, only in a slightly different style. The Violent Femmes also covered this. Their version was included on the 'Machine' single and features only Gordon Gano singing and playing an electric piano. Another cover can be found on the release "Keep Laughing" from mid-80s skate punks RKL/Rich Kids on LSD. For the professional wrestler, see Sid Eudy. ... Sid Sings is the title of the lone solo album of punk rocker Sid Vicious. ... The Sex Pistols were an iconic and highly influential English punk rock band, formed in London in 1975. ... The Insane were a UK punk band formed in Wigan in the late 1970s and were heavily influenced by the New York Dolls. ... The Violent Femmes are a rock and roll band, originally forming in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the early 1980s. ... Gano in concert with the Violent Femmes, 2006. ... 1. ... Album cover of 1985 Keep Laughing LP Rich Kids on LSD (R.K.L.) are a Californian hardcore punk band formed in 1984 in Santa Barbara, California. ... Album cover of 1985 Keep Laughing LP Sticker of RKL beanie guy, 1985 Rich Kids on LSD (R.K.L.) was a Californian hardcore punk band formed in 1984 in Santa Barbara, California. ...


The band Hanoi Rocks' name is influenced by the song. When brainstorming band name ideas "Chinese Rocks" was one name that popped up, as the band were influenced by The Heartbreakers and Ramones. They decided it was too close to the song, and instead settled on the name Hanoi Rocks. Hanoi Rocks is a Finnish rock band formed in 1979, their most successful period came in the early 1980s. ... The Heartbreakers was a punk rock group formed in New York in May 1975 by Johnny Thunders (vocals/guitar) and Jerry Nolan (drums) who had just quit the New York Dolls and Richard Hell (vocals/bass) who was forced out of Television, the band he had founded with Tom Verlaine... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Ná»™i, Hán Tá»±: 河内)  , estimated population 3,145,300 (2005), is the capital of Vietnam. ...


References

  • Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk.
  • Dee Dee Ramone with Veronica Kaufmann, Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones.

Notes

  1. ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
  2. ^ Ramone, p. 88.
  3. ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
  4. ^ McNeil and McCain, pp. 213-214.
  5. ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
  6. ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
  7. ^ Ramone, p. 89.
  8. ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
  9. ^ Ramone, p. 89.
v • d • e
Ramones
Members Joey Ramone • Johnny Ramone • Dee Dee Ramone • Marky Ramone
C. J. Ramone • Richie Ramone • Tommy Ramone • Elvis Ramone
Discography
Studio albums Ramones (1976) • Leave Home (1977) • Rocket to Russia (1977) • Road to Ruin (1978) • End of the Century (1980) • Pleasant Dreams (1981) • Subterranean Jungle (1983) • Too Tough to Die (1984) • Animal Boy (1986) • Halfway to Sanity (1987) • Brain Drain (1989) • Mondo Bizarro (1992) • Acid Eaters (1993) • ¡Adios Amigos! (1995)
Live albums It's Alive (1979) • Loco Live (1991) • Greatest Hits Live (1996) • We're Outta Here! (1997) • You Don't Come Close (2001) • NYC 1978 (2003)
Compilations Ramones Mania (1988) • All The Stuff (And More!) Volume 1 (1990) • All The Stuff (And More!) Volume 2 (1990) • Hey Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology (1999) • Ramones Mania Vol. 2 (2000) • Masters of Rock: Ramones (2001) • Best of the Chrysalis Years (2002) • Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits (2002) • The Chrysalis Years (2002) • The Best of The Ramones (2004) • Weird Tales of the Ramones (2005) • Greatest Hits (2006)
Tribute albums Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones (1991) • Ramones (1992) • Rocket to Russia (1994) • Rocket to Ramonia (1996) • Road to Ruin (1998) • Leave Home (1998) • Blitzkrieg Over You (1998) • File Under Ramones (1999) • The Song Ramones The Same (2002) • We're a Happy Family - A Tribute to Ramones (2003)
Films Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) • Lifestyles of the Ramones (1990) • Ramones - Around the World (1993) • We're Outta Here (1997) • End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (2003) • Ramones: Raw (2004) • It's Alive 1974-1996 (2007)

  Results from FactBites:
 
Chinese Rock (1956 words)
Chinese pop/rock songs had played a role in the 1989 student movement (1) and many of the singers and groups who performed in Tiananmen Square were subsequently harassed and temporarily banned from appearing.
While the excessive propagation of rock was supposedly forbidden in the Chinese-language media until mid 1992, the capital's bands are so much part and parcel of the expat-ghetto-cum-tourist scene that they were featured in the weekend edition of the China Daily in late 1991.
As the flagbearer of mainland rock, Cui has felt in the past that it was his task to negotiate performing space for rock as a whole, and perhaps it is in the grey zone of cultural tolerance and coexistence that he continues to perform his most important service.
Chinese rock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1373 words)
The birthplace of Chinese rock was in Beijing, which as the nation's capital was firstly, highly politicised and secondly, opens to a range of foreign influences.
The first Chinese rock song was arguably the Northwest Wind anthem "I Have Nothing", first performed in 1986 by Cui Jian, widely recognised as the father of Chinese rock.
By 1994, Chinese rock was obviously in decline.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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