The Story Behind The Song: The disputed origin of Dee Dee Ramone’s drugged-out classic ‘Chinese Rocks’
Arguably the most famous song concerning the struggles of opiate addiction is The Velvet Underground’s ‘Heroin’. However, in 1975, Dee Dee Ramone aimed to provide his own punk-orientated take on Lou Reed’s classic with a song entitled ‘Chinese Rocks’.
The song was first recorded by Richard Hell’s band The Heartbreakers, which has led to a dispute over who ought to have authorship over it. Most accepted that the tune is indeed Dee Dee Ramone’s, although Hell himself has made several claims over the years that should be considered amongst his works.
Ramone once said, “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’. I wrote it by myself, in Debbie Harry’s apartment on First Avenue and First Street.”
He had wanted to record the song with the rest of the Ramones, but Johnny Ramone had not been keen on using it. It was at that point that Dee Dee took it to Hell and The Heartbreakers, although, then, it was in an unfinished state.
Discussing his take on the ownership of the song, Hell said, “The song is by me and Dee Dee, but Dee Dee did 75 per cent of it. I mean, all I did was write two verses out of three. Dee Dee wrote the music; the concept was his. He’s basically responsible for it.”
Following the song being finished in partnership between the two punk icons, Hell took it to a Heartbreakers rehearsal. Eventually, it became one of the band’s most famous songs, especially after Hell left and was replaced by Jonny Thunders. The dispute of the song continued with pressings of the track claiming that Thunders had played a part in writing it.
Hell noted, “After I left the Heartbreakers, they kept playing ‘Chinese Rocks’ and then ended up recording it. 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.”
Even Ramone noted that Thunders had tried to worm his way into the writing credits. “The credits are false,” he said. “Johnny Thunders ranked on me for fourteen years, trying to make out like he wrote the song. What a low-life manoeuvre by those guys!” Eventually, though, following the death of Thunders, the writing credits now rightfully go to Ramone.
