Customer Reviews

Standing in the Spotlight

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album by punk superstar Dee-Dee Ramone has got to be one of the trippiest rap albums ever. The thing is Dee-Dee is rapping about mashed potatos and mermaids. The best song on this album Baby Doll is an awsome power balad though. I am a huge Ramones fan and Dee-Dee fan so i cut him some slack if you love The Ramones i sugest buying this just to here dee-dee rap n sound silly if u dont like um then i sugest not buying this.

Yes, this is a rap album by Dee Dee Ramone. Was he serious? It would seem so. Is he a good rapper? No, not at all. His rap doesn't have a good "flow" and a lot of his rhymes are forced. Despite all that, it's a fun album. The songs are pretty funny and they bring a smile to my face. Some highlights: "Mashed Potato Time" is a rap version of an old hit from the early '60s (I guess they chose to do this because it was originally by another Dee Dee, Dee Dee Sharpe). "Baby Doll" is not a rap song, it's a touching ballad about Dee Dee's first wife. "Poor Little Rich Girl" isn't a rap song either, it's straight ahead punk. "German Kid" is about Dee Dee's life as a German-American, and half of the rap is in German. "The Crusher" is the best song on the album, it's a fantasy about being a wrestler. "The Crusher" is so good, it was later covered by the Ramones after Dee Dee left the group. Dee Dee's version has an extra verse that the Ramones cut out. Most of Dee Dee's fans should enjoy this album.

Standing in the Spotlight was Dee Dee (Ramone) King's debut album as a rapper/rocker. Some of the tracks are rap songs whilst the others are just Ramones style pop songs.
It seems like Dee Dee stop rapping and made a few future Ramones tracks (The Crusher appears on Adios Amigos).
The songs are co-written with long time collaborator Daniel Rey and friends Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (Blondie) appear on a couple of tracks as well (Mash Potato Attack and German Kid). Cheesy fun from the clown prince of American Pop-Punk!

Recommended for Ramones fans.

This album sucks, but that's what makes it so funny. It's hard to believe that Dee Dee was serious when he made this thing. He really wanted to try out the rap thing. It's terribly hilarious. It's worth the money to have a piece of punk rock folk lore history, and for the laughs. Just do it!

I bought the album on vinyl when it came out, listened to the first cut once and then I couln't get past it to cut two. I immediately hid it away in my closet, embarassed, hoping no one would ever find it.

It is 2005 now, and I've found the album on mp3 and put it on my jukebox in my living room, and believe it or not, I have played it more than anything else for the past few months, yes, SERIOUSLY.

Now, years later and Dee Dee gone, I get it. It is completely different yet so familiar... Sure the rap part, mostly limited to the verses is pretty lame but isn't all rap? But, the melodies of the choruses are pure genius, even beautiful and prove why Dee Dee was THE genius of the Ramones, and of all Punk Rock.

It's a big mistake if you take the lyrics on Standing seriously, but then again, did you take "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" serious? I hope not.

God Bless Dee Dee King.

There are no sound samples on this page, so I'll attempt to summarize: It's as if Dee Dee Ramone listened to Blondie's "Rapture" and Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash" back to back and thought..."Hey, what if I combined those two sounds?"

Yes, it's that bad.

Keep in mind that this album came out in between Public Enemy's first and second albums, which means that Dee Dee's rap "style"--if you can call it that--was about ten years out of date before the album was even released. Even his Ramones bandmates thought it sucked.

My advice? If you're looking for Punk, Rap, and Comedy, buy a Ramones album, Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet", and the movie "Office Space" instead.