Dee Dee & Stiv
Two Dead Boys. I miss them, Dee Dee Ramone and Stiv Bators.
Back in 1979/80, The Ramones took us around as support for one of their many tours - Stiv & crew, which often included me at that point in time. The Wanderers opened for the Ramones at the Palladium (it too is gone. In its footprint is a dorm for NYU students). At the time, I was totally in awe of the Ramones, still... even though I'd seen them a million times. Joey was always taller than I remembered, Johnny more business-like, but Dee Dee was the friendly one - at least to me. That smile and those cheekbones! I thought he was so incredibly photogenic. He's the Ramone I photographed the most - though not on stage that much.
Here, Dee Dee was in LA when Stiv was. Stiv was recording "Disconnected" when this photo was taken. The band for this show was the band that had previously toured with Stiv as the Dead Boys, although only Stiv and Jimmy Zero from the original line-up remained. It seemed time to just called it a solo act. So a solo record was made.
There was fun, chaos and pretend mayhem when Dee Dee joined Stiv on stage at the Whisky. He kept coming back for more songs. Backstage was a who's who of punk and rock and hanging out, including Sabel Starr, Pleasant, Bebe Buell, the B-Girls, Debbie Harry, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Belinda Carlisle, Nigel Harrison, Rodney Bingenheimer.. I'm trying to recall if there were more men, but Stiv always drew a female crowd.
Recently, I've been taking this photo on tour with me when I exhibit. Twice I've sold out of prints. If you like this one, you can own it! This is an image that is available through my Online Store at Dot Photo. You can click right here, or keep browsing the site and click on the Links to "Buy Photos." I promise the online store won't be sold out of this. They're printed to order.
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