Bonzo Goes to Bitburg

"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg"
Single by the Ramones
B-side	"Go Home Ann" (12" only) "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)"
Released	June 1985[1]
Format	7", 12"
Recorded	Intergalactic Studios, New York City[2]
Genre	Punk rock
Length	3:57
Label	Beggars Banquet
Writer(s)	Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, Jean Beauvoir
Producer	Jean Beauvoir
Music sample
"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg"

"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" is a song by American punk rock band the Ramones. Initially issued as a single in Great Britain by Beggars Banquet Records in 1985, it did not receive an American single release. An emotionally charged protest of the visit by U.S. president Ronald Reagan to a German cemetery where SS combatants were buried, it was a major critical success. Though it was available in the United States only as an import, it became a hit on college radio. The following year, retitled "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", it appeared on the band's album Animal Boy. The second version of the title is the one used on subsequent live and compilation albums.

Background and inspiration

The song was written in reaction to the visit paid by U.S. president Ronald Reagan to a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany, on May 5, 1985. Reagan laid a wreath at the cemetery and then gave a public address at a nearby air base. The visit was part of a trip paying tribute to the victims of Nazism and celebrating West Germany's revival as a powerful, democratic U.S. ally.^[3]

Reagan's plan to visit the Bitburg cemetery had been widely criticized in the United States, Europe, and Israel because among the approximately 2,000 German soldiers buried there were 49 members of the Waffen-SS. This was the combat arm of the SS, the paramilitary organization that helped run the Nazi extermination camps and committed many other atrocities, including the murder of American POWs. Among those vehemently opposed to the trip were Jewish and veterans' groups and both houses of the U.S. Congress.^[3] The phrase "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was coined by protesters in the weeks leading up to Reagan's trip.^[4] Employed as an epithet for Reagan, Bonzo is actually the name of the chimpanzee title character in Bedtime for Bonzo; Reagan was the top-billed actor in the 1951 film comedy.^[5] The phrase also echoes the title of the film's sequel, Bonzo Goes to College (1952), though Reagan did not appear in that picture.^[6]

Before departing for Germany, Reagan ignited more controversy when he expressed his belief that the soldiers buried at Bitburg "were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps."^[7] In his remarks immediately after the cemetery visit, Reagan said that "the crimes of the SS must rank among the most heinous in human history", but noted that many of those interred at Bitburg were "simply soldiers in the German army.... There were thousands of such soldiers for whom Nazism meant no more than a brutal end to a short life."^[8]

Discussing the inspiration for the song, Ramones lead singer Joey Ramone, a Jew, explained that the president "sort of shit on everybody."^[9] Interviewed in 1986, he said,

We had watched Reagan going to visit the SS cemetery on TV and were disgusted. We're all good Americans, but Reagan's thing was like forgive and forget. How can you forget six million people being gassed and roasted?^[10]

Joey shares writing credit with Ramones bassist Dee Dee Ramone and Ramones producer and former Plasmatics bassist/keyboardist Jean Beauvoir.^[11] Commentators on the song tend to suggest that Joey was its primary author.^[9][12] Mickey Leigh, Joey's brother, who was particularly close with Dee Dee, claims that while "everyone believed Joey had been the impetus to write the song ... it was actually Dee Dee."^[11]

Tone and style

The song's lyrics, with their explicitly serious content, are a departure from the Ramones' usual style.^[11] Spin's Jon Young calls it "part exorcism and part slapstick comedy".^[13] David Corn describes the beginning of the refrain—"Bonzo goes to Bitburg/then goes out for a cup of tea/As I watched it on TV/somehow it really bothered me"—as "snarled" by Joey over a "power-pop beat and melodic hooks galore".^[12] Salon.com arts editor Bill Wyman writes of Johnny Ramone "lob[bing] guitar bombs" amid the song's "Spectorian, rushing production" and of "Joey's pained, pleading voice".^[14] Douglas Wolk fits the song into his general view of Joey Ramone as different from his many musical imitators in that "he never, ever sneered": "the tone of 'Bonzo Goes to Bitburg'", writes Wolk, "isn't contemptuous, just confused and angry."^[15]

Release and reception

"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was issued in Great Britain as a 45 rpm 12" by Beggars Banquet Records. The single's first B-side, "Go Home Ann", by Dee Dee and Mickey Leigh, was produced by Ed Stasium and mixed by Motörhead lead singer Lemmy.^[16][17] The second B-side, "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)", had previously appeared on the Ramones' 1984 album, Too Tough to Die. Sources at the Ramones' U.S. label, Sire Records, and its parent company, Warner Bros. Records, gave differing reasons for not releasing the single in America: The Sire products manager said the decision was "both financial and political"; an anonymous Warner Bros. source claimed, "It just wasn't considered a good enough record."^[9] The original jacket of the single included a photograph of Reagan speaking at the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp just hours before his trip to Bitburg; this image was removed in subsequent pressings.^[18] Melody Maker blamed its elimination on pressure from the "Moral Majority, the Patriotic League of the Alamo, and the SS."^[9]

The Ramones' Animal Boy LP, released by both Sire and Beggars Banquet in 1986, included "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg". According to Robert Christgau, the album version was remixed.^[19] The title was altered to "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)" to placate Johnny, a staunch conservative, fervent Reagan supporter, and devotee of Nazi paraphernalia.^[20] "Go Home Ann" has never been included on an official Ramones original or compilation album.

The "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" single did not chart in Great Britain.^[1] Though available only as an import in 1985, it was put into rotation by many American college radio stations, and record stores that handled imports reported robust sales.^[9] It inspired Steven Van Zandt to request Joey's participation in his Artists United Against Apartheid single "Sun City", released that October, in which Joey sang a line again protesting Reagan's policies.^[21] The single was also a major critical success.^[10] Reviewing it for Spin, John Leland wrote,

Just listen to Johnny's freight cars of guitar chords, Dee Dee's "ahh, naa naa naa" surf harmonies, and Joey's down-to-earth irritation at watching our commander in chief on TV. The Ramones are so brilliant because they perceive the world the way regular people do—through television. "Go Home Ann" is ... powerful but lacks that patented Ramones bubblegum melody. "Daytime Dilemma," on the other hand, is the 1910 Fruitgum Company with giant blocks of Gibson guitar.^[17]

In the annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll conducted by The Village Voice, "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was ranked the fifth best single of 1985.^[22] In his review of Animal Boy, Rolling Stone's David Fricke called the song "brilliant". He wrote that it "vividly captures the sense of helplessness and confusion felt by rock youth in the Age of Reagan".^[23] Salon's Wyman retrospectively describes it as "the group's greatest song and [Joey's] greatest vocal performance".^[14]

Other versions

A concert recording of "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" appears on the band's 1991 album Loco Live. The studio version was used in the soundtrack of the film School of Rock (2003). Several bands have recorded cover versions: The Agnews on the anthology album Gabba Gabba Hey: A Tribute to the Ramones (1991); The Huntingtons on their album File Under Ramones (1999); Blanks 77 on the Ramones Maniacs tribute album (2001); Wednesday Night Heroes on their Move to Press EP (2005); Trashlight Vision on their album Alibis and Ammunition (2006); and MxPx on their album On the Cover II (2009). In 2004, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' Dicky Barrett and Lawrence Katz were joined by ex-Ramones Marky and C.J. for a live performance of the song available on the DVD Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone.^[24]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Strong, Martin Charles (2003). The Great Indie Discography (rev. ed.). Canongate. n.p. ISBN 1841953350. 
2. ^ Weird Tales of the Ramones CD booklet (2005). Rhino/WEA. p. 50.
3. ^ ^{a b} Weinraub, Bernard (May 6, 1985). "Reagan Joins Kohl in Brief Memorial at Bitburg Graves". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/international/europe/06REAG.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
4. ^ Franklin, Ben A. (April 23, 1985). "250 Are Arrested Near White House". New York Times: p. A20. 
5. ^ Bunch, William (2009). Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future. Free Press. p. 33. ISBN 141659762X. 
6. ^ Sikov, Ed (1996). Laughing Hysterically: American Screen Comedy of the 1950s. Columbia University Press. p. 40. ISBN 0231079834. 
7. ^ Jensen, Richard J. (2007). Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg. Texas A&M University Press. p. 62. ISBN 1585446254. 
8. ^ Jensen, Richard J. (2007). Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg. Texas A&M University Press. p. 134. ISBN 1585446254. 
9. ^ ^{a b c d e} Jaffee, Larry (November/December 1985). "Disc Spells Hit Time for Bonzo". Mother Jones: p. 10. http://books.google.com/books?id=n-cDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=%22sort+of+shit+on+everybody.%22&source=bl&ots=4xFERSkOn_&sig=XL04Zap0JwG-kplPY0pgtQcYu40&hl=pt-BR&ei=SLMsTeavI4GBlAfb0MSbCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22sort%20of%20shit%20on%20everybody.%22&f=false. 
10. ^ ^{a b} McNeil, Legs, and John Holmstrom (August 1986). "We're a Happy Family". Spin: p. 78. http://books.google.com/books?id=6_7o2bblz_cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:spin&hl=pt-BR&ei=ww0tTeTrBYa0lQe57J2hCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=ramone&f=false. 
11. ^ ^{a b c} Leigh, Mickey, with Legs McNeil (2009). I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir. Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. p. 249. ISBN 9780743252164. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Corn, David (April 23, 2001). "R.I.P. Joey Ramone, Singing Protester". Albion Monitor. http://www.albionmonitor.com/0105a/dc-joeyramone.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
13. ^ Young, Jon (June 1992). "Ramones: Loco Live". Spin: p. 70. 
14. ^ ^{a b} Wyman, Bill (April 15, 2001). "Joey Ramone, R.I.P.". Salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2001/04/15/joey/. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
15. ^ Wolk, Douglas (April 18, 2001). "I Wanna Be Joey". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/104580/. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
16. ^ Leigh, Mickey, with Legs McNeil (2009). I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir. Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. pp. 237, 249. ISBN 9780743252164. 
17. ^ ^{a b} Leland, John (October 1985). "Singles". Spin: p. 39. 
18. ^ Jaffee, Larry (November/December 1985). "Disc Spells Hit Time for Bonzo". Mother Jones: p. 10.  The name "Belsen" in concrete Cyrillic letters is clearly visible on the structure behind Reagan (compare image C28849-9 from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library); Jaffee misidentifies the image as having been taken at Bitburg. For the timing of the Bergen-Belsen trip, see Weinraub, Bernard (May 6, 1985). "Reagan Joins Kohl in Brief Memorial at Bitburg Graves". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/international/europe/06REAG.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
19. ^ Christgau, Robert (July 1, 1986). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". Village Voice. RobertChristgau.com. http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv7-86.php. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
20. ^ Gillespie, Nick, and Brian Doherty (August/September 2001). "I Dreamed I Saw Joey Ramone Last Night". Reason. http://www.reason.com/news/show/28135.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22.  Beeber, Steven Lee (2006). The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk. Chicago Review Press. p. 121. ISBN 155652613X.  Beta, Andy, et al. (October 20085). "Strange Bedfellows". Spin: p. 99. 
21. ^ Schinder, Scott, and Andy Schwartz (2008). Icons of Rock: An Encyclopedia of the Legends Who Changed Music Forever. 2. Greenwood. p. 555. ISBN 0313338469. 
22. ^ "The 1985 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". Village Voice. RobertChristgau.com. February 18, 1986. http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres85.php. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
23. ^ Fricke, David (July 17, 1986). "The Ramones: Animal Boy". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/theramones/albums/album/323069/review/5941801/animal_boy. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
24. ^ Bacharach, Phil (November 25, 2008). "Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone". DVDTalk.com. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/35548/too-tough-to-die-a-tribute-to-johnny-ramone/. Retrieved 2009-01-22.