Poisoned
Heart: I Married A Ramone – By Vera
Ramone King (Phoenix Books – 2009)
If you, like me, are the kind of rock -n-
roll fan that loves information, and you can
spend hours pouring over history, AND the
Ramones happen to be your favorite band, you
may be interested in reading this book. Poisoned
Heart really does, at times, give you
a closer look at the highly entertaining and
very intriguing character we all lovingly
know as “Dee Dee” from the perspective
of the person that spent more time with him
during his Ramones career than anyone....his
ex wife. ("Booo!" goes the crowd.)
As you read this book, you will find tidbits
of historical information that you can tuck
away into your 'Ramones know it all' bank.
(And of course, another version of the Phil
Spector “kidnapping” incident.)
However, in the end you will have to sift
through a lot of garbage and force yourself
through several pages too. I'm not trying
to discourage Vera, because I'm no master
of the art or writing, but the book reads
like it was written by a Jr. High Student,
and a gossipy one at that. As I read the book,
visions of the ex-wives club sitting around
the salon with rollers in their hair spreading
gossip about their ex-husbands' band mates
kept popping into my head. I kept waiting
for the next chapter or page that would be
about something that interested me, like information
about certain tours, albums, songs, etc. But
I kept finding myself forcing my eyes to read
through another Johnny Ramone jab (the guy's
dead.. can people stop coming out of the woodwork
to attack him? Where was all this Johnny Ramone
bashing when he was alive to kick your asses
for it?) or another self-glorifying statement
from Vera about how she “was Dee's Dee's
sobriety” and how she was responsible
for his each and every move, and spent her
days watching over poor Dee Dee like a loving
mother, followed by a story about her and
Dee Dee buying eight-balls of coke and smoking
an ounce of weed a day. The book is simply
full of contradictions, and paints a better
picture of a bitter ex-girlfriend than it
does of our quirky, pop-genius, bass-playing
hero Dee Dee Ramone.
Much like the film “End of the Century,”
Poisoned Heart – I Married a Ramone
leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth
as you find out things you really didn't want
to know in the first place. Like a bad romance
novel, Vera Ramone paints Dee Dee as a wife-beating
lunatic who didn't even have enough sense
to dress himself, and introduces us deprived
Ramones fans to Dee Dee's savior angel, Vera.
As we all know, sadly, Dee Dee wasn't saved
by anybody.
While you will get some interesting closer
looks into the mind and man that was Dee Dee
Ramone, you will also be annoyed by the author,
who, I'm sorry... (this is gonna hurt) writes
like a catty broad on a mission of self recognition.
For the most part, all the historical, factual
information that you get in this book is available
through far superior books such Ramones:
An American Band, the “End of the
Century” film, or Poison Heart,
Dee Dee's autobiography. The only thing you
will find in this book that you won't find
in others is a story involving a “Ramones
Curse” - Dee Dee getting possessed and
speaking in “tongues,” and a medium
that brought the ghost of Dee Dee Ramone into
contact with his wife Vera. (which is when
he commissioned her to write this book.) Let's
just say the last chapter gives me the damn
willies and makes this author look a little
bit insane.
All and all, for the casual Ramones fan,
this book isn't worth the paper it's printed
on, and for the fanatic, it's kind of an annoying
read. There is much better stuff out there
as far as Ramones literature goes, and I would
steer most people away from this particular
book.
