Lyrics for 53rd & 3rd as interpreted by rainbow_radness

53rd & 3rd Lyrics
If you think you can, well come on man
I was a Green Beret in Viet Nam
No more of your fairy stories
'Cause I got my other worries.
53rd and 3rd
Standing on the street
53rd and 3rd
I'm tryin' to turn a trick
53rd and 3rd
You're the one they never pick
53rd and 3rd
Don't make you feel sick ?
Then I took out my razor blade
Then I did what God forbade
Now the cops are after me
But I proved that I'm no sissy.

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thomasroberts
12-19-2005

Rated 0 
finally there is sum place were sum ppl understand were im coming from. i cant believe those gay wannabe punk bands actually call themselves punk its crap. oh ive seen end of the century to , its really awesome and sad, but mostly awesome anyway you should all see it if you really are punk fans. im a big punk fan and i like old bands like nirvana and guns n roses n led zeppelin n jimi hendrix n pearl jam n all that so yeh. im only 13 though.

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Thor the Almighty
12-27-2005

Rated 0 
Sounds like ya like mainly the big stars of metal and punk. But that's to be expected---you're 13. Delve into the early NY punk scene and listen to the Dead Boys, NY Dolls, Teenage Jesus + the Jerks, Suicide, Patti Smith, Television, Lou Reed. Some of it was this aggressive testosterone-fueled stuff you seem to like (and probably believe that that's what punk is all about), but most of it was not. In fact, you'd probably think much of the early stuff was "gay". And some of it actually was. But, just the fact that you like bands of the past tells me you have the right idea. Ya just have to look deeper than you are right now. But then, you're "only 13".

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feedyourhead
01-17-2006

Rated 0 
This is fucking hilarious and saddening at the same time.
"Try listening to some real punk bands like the clash, the ramones and the sex pistols"
Here it seems like when people recommend real punk rock, the only three bands they can think of are those three. Who also happen to be the most famous... coincidence? I think not.
Jesus Christ, branch out a bit from the stereotipicly well know punk bands.
Have you ever heard of the x-rayspex, the dead boys, or the subhumans? Come on.

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punkrockariotchik
01-23-2006

Rated 0 
who ever said dee dee was a hooker was wrong, this song caused alot of suspicion that dee dee was a hooker b4 he formed the ramones but it was never proved that he was
but who cares he rocks!!!

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punkrockariotchik
01-23-2006

Rated 0 
who said that dee dee was a hooker??? this song caused alot of suspicion and what dee dee did b4 he formed the ramones but it was never actually proved tat he was a hooker
but who cares ne wyz???
HE ROCKS!!!

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captain planet
01-24-2006

Rated 0 
its about a ugly male prostitute that never gets buisness and when he does he kills the client and now the cops are after him. metallica do a version but its no way near as good.

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TaytorTot
01-26-2006

Rated 0 
I have a lot of Ramones CDs, and some booklets that come with the CDs have information about the band, their songs, etc. Anyway, this song is about prostitutes that hung around their hometown of Queens. Apparently 53rd&3rd is the name of the street (or a made up name for an actual street) that was a hot spot to get a hooker.

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dxmkrew
02-14-2006

Rated 0 
simply put, this song is heterosexist rhetoric from an ass-hurt junkie's point of view. hey dee dee, if you didn't want to be identified as a "sissy" or "fairy" perhaps you should have kicked the habit. idiot.

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dxmkrew
02-14-2006

Rated 0 
"mickey leigh: i remember driving by fifty-third street and third ave and seeing dee dee ramone standing out there. he had a black leather motorcycle jacket on, the one he would later wear on the first album cover. he was just standing there, so i knew what he was doing, because i knew that was the gay boy hustler spot. still, i was kind of shocked to see somebody i knew standing there, like, "holy shit. that's doug standing there. he's really doing it" (please kill me 174).

"dee dee ramone: the song 53rd & 3rd speaks for itself. everything i write is autobiographical and very real. i can't write any other way" (please kill me 175).

this is proof enough for me, "punkrockariotchik."

also, lol@ feedyourhead thinking he referenced a bunch of super obscure punk bands.

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kolzig33189
02-19-2006

Rated 0 
not about dee dee directly. just a song about how 53rd street and 3rd avenue was a hotspot for male prostitution

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**CHILIS**
03-23-2006

Rated 0 
All that was BULL SHIT. 53rd and 3rd was a street corner where The Ramones used to buy their drugs. Think about the lyrics and it starts to make sense.

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Dressed2Depress
05-17-2006

Rated 0 
Don't get me wrong, I love the Ramones but why does Metallica suck? Is it because they use more than three chords and is that to much for your frail punk minds to handle? I like the cover and I think it was cool of them to cover a song so outside of their genre and to who they owe a lot of credit.

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Avram Fawcett
06-02-2006

Rated 0 
Tis about violence and underage prostitution, set at a real chicken haunt in New York.

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shenlong152
06-28-2006

Rated 0 
i wish that todays punk bands would keep making music like this, so simple, not hardcore, not screamo, just cool, fast, fun to sing to punk rock!cuz punk rock (especially at concerts, or when jamming) is fun to sing along to!

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shenlong152
06-28-2006

Rated 0 
like thor the almighty said, delve into early punk, so i wrote down all my favorites:Richard Hell & the voidoids, Dead Boys, dead kennedys, N Y dolls, The ramones, the sex pistols, the clash, iggy pop/ the stooges, the velvet undergroundd, blodie, patti smith, stiff little fingers, the damned(goth now), the buzzcocks, elvis costello(jazz now) ,Cockney rejects, Johnny thunders& the heartbreakers, joy division, MC5, The Minutemen, The Misfits, The pogues, Sham 69, Teenage Head, The undertones, and alphabetically last, the vibrators.

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AudiDriver
12-04-2006

Rated 0 
CHILIS is right, this song is about drugs, not manwhores, retards. The razor blade is a reference to cutting up cocaine, not injuring a "client" ...wtf?

This is one of my favorite Ramones songs, it captures the essence of early punk rock, the guitar sounds great, the drumming is awesome, the vocals as well, this isn't one of those "beach fun" tracks, this is punk, served '76 style, razor blades included.

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AudiDriver
12-07-2006

Rated 0 
Scratch that. Apparently, it is about both.

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Violentpacifist
08-08-2007

Rated 0 
Yeah c'mon turning a trick only has one meaning. Doing what God forbade with a razorblade, God did not forbid doing cocaine, he did forbid killing. So yeah I get the male prositue theory plus if the stuff in Please Kill Me wasn't true they would have been sued for libel and it clearly has Dee Dee Ramone saying how he was a male prostitue but it only got 'into it if the guy had poppers'.

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Shocktreatment77
11-15-2007

Rated 0 
"53rd & 3rd" was written by Dee Dee as an account of a gay hooker he'd met, not about himself. In the Ramones book, Jim Bessman says that in "Interview" magazine, the band explained that the song "dealt with a destitute 'Nam vet they'd met who'd been reduced to hustling sex, who was crying in his beer and saying how he'd murdered someone."

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havana4sale
12-07-2007

Rated 0 
I think this is about Dee Dee's experiences as a hooker...I also think that people should check out really underground bands like Hirax (sweet crossover thrash)... also think that metallica's first four albums are godly. The Pixies are a really good punk band too. :) oh, and just because I mentioned Metallica doesn't mean that I think that they're a punk band...it was only because of the thrash reference...just so people don't think I'm mentally challenged or anything...

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MissNeurotic
01-11-2008

Rated 0 
Really like this song. Reminds me of that movie My Own Privete Idaho. It's about male hustlers too. Anyone seen it? One of the best movies ever, in my opinion. It's so beautiful in a very melancholy way. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it! This is a command. Do as I say. You'll thank me later :)

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MoreCowbell77
01-03-2009

Rated 0 
ok. this song is about him begging for food money when times were tough. "I wore a green berey in veitnam" he is talking about some stratigies he used to get money. and second: dont bother going there today.. its all high rises and skysrapers.

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idontwanttodiebeforeivelived
01-10-2009

Rated +1 
it is about dee dee's prostitution. mickey confirms this, so does dee dee, but its up to you whether you'll believe it or not. during a recent trip to new york to research the ramones, i visited 53rd and 3rd, which is not too far from 5th avenue. it is now a street like any other, and no longer a spot for male prostitution.

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jtothed1031
04-10-2009

Rated 0 
Yes, this song is about Dee Dee's experience as a male hooker and its prominence during the early years of punk. 53rd and 3rd was a prominent male hooker corner in NYC during the 70s. Read the book "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk" by Legs McNeil. There's a chapter entitled "53rd and 3rd"

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SouthernPunk777
06-10-2009

Rated 0 
well i have to disagree w/ a few of you and say that yes, sum 41 is what i consider new age punk and rancid too. tell me this: why AREN'T they punk? btw the Ramones are legends.

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