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").

He soon returned to his punk roots and released four more solo albums featuring brand-new songs, many of which were later recorded by the Ramones.

[1] Douglas Glenn Colvin was born on September 18, 1951, in Fort Lee, Virginia.

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.

[3] 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.

Dee Dee initially wanted to be the band's lead vocalist in addition to being a guitarist along with Johnny, but had to switch to bass when their friend Richie Stern, who they had hired to be the band's bassist, proved incapable of playing the instrument.

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.

[9] Rocket to Russia was the band's highest-charting album to date, reaching number 49 on the Billboard 200.

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.

[12] 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).

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.

Music critic Matt Carlson wrote that the album "will go down in the annals of pop culture as one of the worst recordings of all time".

[19] After the album failed, he returned to punk rock with various short-lived projects such as Sprocket (which also featured Richard 'The Atomic Elf' Bacchus of D Generation and the Spikey Tops).

In 1987 Dee Dee wrote and produced a song called "Baby Doll" for the Chesterfield Kings ("Baby Doll"/"I Cannot Find Her", acoustic version 1987, Mirror Records, later recorded by American rock and roll band the Connection, on their album New England's Newest Hit Makers).

After working with several drummers and playing several live shows in the New York City area, Dee Dee and Carco moved to Amsterdam to record a four-song EP and fourteen-track album for Rough Trade Records.

[23] In January 1995, the group had completed their 10-month tour and returned to their headquarters in Amsterdam to begin recording a second album.

With this development, bassist John Carco left the group and moved to Los Angeles where he formed and played with Frankie O. and Pete Stahl (singer of D.C.H.C.

They recorded an album, Live in NYC, released in Argentina and many other countries, and played a couple of times with C.J.

Guests included Joey Ramone singing lead on "I am seeing UFOs", and the Cramps' vocalist Lux Interior doing so on "Bad Horoscope".

Lockwood encouraged them to move to Hollywood, and together the two bands shared a successful tour of the U.S. in early 1999.

He was unsuccessful as an actor but landed a major role in the 2002 low-budget film Bikini Bandits.

[26] He contributed the song "In a Movie" to the film's soundtrack, featuring his wife Barbara on lead vocals.

In the late 1980s, he began using a variety of custom ESP basses which he would use for the rest of his tenure with the band.

His novel Chelsea Horror Hotel relates a story in which he and his wife move into New York City's famous/notorious Hotel Chelsea and believe they are staying in the same room where Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.

Ramone is visited by Vicious, as well as other dead punk rock friends such as Johnny Thunders, Stiv Bators, and Jerry Nolan.

[34] He had been booked to perform at the Majestic Ventura Theater, which ended up being a memorial show in his honor.