Chinese Rocks
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- This article is about the Johnny Thunders/Ramones song. For the musical genre, see Chinese rock
"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.
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[edit] 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]
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]
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]
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]
[edit] 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.
"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.
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").
[edit] 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.
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).
[edit] Trivia
- 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.
- 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
- ^ Ramone, p. 88.
- ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
- ^ McNeil and McCain, pp. 213-214.
- ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
- ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
- ^ Ramone, p. 89.
- ^ McNeil and McCain, p. 214.
- ^ Ramone, p. 89.
