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Douglas Glenn Colvin (September 18, 1951 – June 5, 2002), better known by his stage name Dee Dee Ramone, was an American musician. He was the bassist and a founding member of the punk rock band the Ramones. Throughout the band's existence, he was the most prolific lyricist and composer, writing many of their best-known songs, such as "53rd & 3rd", "Chinese Rock", "Commando", "Wart Hog", "Rockaway Beach", "Poison Heart" and "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" (also known as "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down"). The latter won the New York Music Award for best independent single of the year in 1986, while Animal Boy, which the song is from, won for best album. Dee Dee was the band's lead vocalist until original drummer Joey Ramone took over lead vocalist duties. He was then the band's bassist and songwriter from 1974 until 1989, when he left to pursue a short-lived career in hip hop music under the name Dee Dee King. He soon returned to his punk roots and released three solo albums featuring brand-new songs, many of which were later recorded by the Ramones. He toured the world playing his new songs, Ramones songs and some old favorites in small clubs, and continued to write songs for the Ramones until 1996, when the band retired. Dee Dee was addicted to drugs, particularly heroin, for much of his life. He began using drugs as a teenager and continued to use for the majority of his adult life. He died from a heroin overdose on June 5, 2002, at the age of 50. Early life and family Douglas Glenn Colvin was born on September 18, 1951, in Fort Lee, Virginia. He was the son of an American soldier and a German woman. When he was an infant, his family relocated to West Berlin, West Germany, due to his father's military service. His father's military career also required the family to relocate frequently. As a result of these frequent moves, Douglas had a lonely childhood with few real friends. His parents separated during his early teens and he remained in Berlin until the age of 15 when he, along with his mother and sister Beverley, moved to Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in order to escape Dee Dee's alcoholic father. There, he met John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi (later dubbed Johnny and Tommy Ramone), then playing in a band called the Tangerine Puppets, named after a Donovan song. Bassist Monty Colvin from the progressive metal band Galactic Cowboys is one of Dee Dee's cousins. Career Ramones Colvin, later Dee Dee, and Cummings, later Johnny, quickly became friends, as they were both social outcasts in their middle-class neighborhood. After an unsuccessful guitar audition for Television, Johnny convinced Dee Dee to form their own band with then-drummer Jeffrey Hyman, later Joey Ramone, in 1974. Joey took over vocal duties after Dee Dee decided that he could not sing lead vocals for longer than a few songs as his voice shredded. Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!" It was Dee Dee who first suggested naming the band the Ramones, after reading that Paul McCartney often signed into hotels under the alias "Paul Ramon". He added an 'e' to the end of that surname and the band members all agreed to adopt the surname "Ramone" as a means of conveying their unity. In the early 1970s, Dee Dee worked at The Bureau of Advertising, located at 485 Lexington Ave., Manhattan, NYC. Later renamed The Newspaper Advertising Bureau, the agency promoted newspapers as the best media source for advertising. Dee Dee was a printer's helper for about one year in the company's small in-house print shop. Because of his creative abilities he would hang out, when he could, with the graphic designers in the company's art department. In 1973, Colvin became friends with Arturo Vega, a Mexican artist who had relocated to New York City and would become a close associate of the Ramones for the duration of their existence. Officially dubbed their artistic director, Vega designed their famous logo, oversaw stage lighting and had other duties as needed. The Ramones played before an audience for the first time on March 30, 1974, at Performance Studios. The band's debut album, Ramones, was greeted positively by rock critics. The album was not a commercial success, reaching only number 111 on the Billboard album chart. Their next two albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, were released in 1977. Rocket to Russia was the band's highest-charting album to date, reaching number 49 on the Billboard 200. In 1978, the band released their fourth studio album, Road to Ruin. It failed to reach the Billboard Top 100. However, "I Wanna Be Sedated", which appeared both on the album and as a single, would become one of the band's best-known songs. The artwork on the album's cover was done by Punk magazine cofounder John Holmstrom. Dee Dee wrote or co-wrote much of the Ramones' repertoire, such as "53rd and 3rd" (a song about male prostitution at 53rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, allegedly based on personal experience), "Glad to See You Go" (written about his then-girlfriend, a stripper and fellow drug user with a volatile personality), "It's a Long Way Back", "Chinese Rocks" (originally recorded by Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, as guitarist Johnny Ramone was not enthusiastic about the Ramones doing songs about drugs) and "Wart Hog" (a song Dee Dee wrote in rehab). After he quit the Ramones in 1989, Dee Dee continued to write songs for them, contributing at least three songs to each of their albums. According to Mondo Bizarro's liner notes, the Ramones once bailed Dee Dee out of jail in exchange for the rights to his songs "Main Man", "Strength to Endure" and "Poison Heart", which would become a minor hit for the band. The band's final studio album, 1995's ¡Adios Amigos!, features several of Dee Dee's solo songs, such as "I'm Makin' Monsters for My Friends" and "It's Not for Me to Know" from his album I Hate Freaks Like You, and "The Crusher" from Standing in the Spotlight. Dee Dee was a special guest at the final Ramones show at the Palace in Los Angeles on August 6, 1996. He performed lead vocals on "Love Kills". Recognition of the band's importance grew over the years. The Ramones ranked number 26 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 17 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin, trailing only The Beatles. Dee Dee was present when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the first year they were eligible, and not long after lead singer Joey had died. Dee Dee humorously congratulated himself at the induction. Later music projects In 1987, before leaving the Ramones, Dee Dee embarked on a brief hip hop career as rapper "Dee Dee King" with the album Standing in the Spotlight. Dee Dee had recorded "Funky Man" as Dee Dee King in 1987. Music critic Matt Carlson wrote that the album "will .... Discover the Dee Day popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Dee Day books.