My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)

Infobox Song
Name = My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)


Caption =
Artist = Ramones
Album = Animal Boy
Published =
Released = August 1986
track_no = 7
Recorded = December 1985
Genre = Punk rock
Length = 3:55

"My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)" is a song by the Ramones from their 1986 album "Animal Boy".

The song was written by Dee Dee Ramone, Jean Beauvoir, and Joey Ramone in reaction to Ronald Reagan's visit to a soldiers' cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany in May 1985. Although intended as a reference to Reagan, the name Bonzo is not actually that of a person but was the name of the chimpanzee title character in one of Reagan's movies, "Bedtime for Bonzo".

Reagan's visit to the Bitburg cemetery had been criticised in Europe as well as in the United States because 49 members of the SS, the Nazi paramilitary organization that helped run the extermination camps during World War II, were buried there. Some of SS members buried at Bitburg came from units that committed atrocities, including the murder of American POWs. According to White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, Reagan viewed the majority of the soldiers buried at the cemetery as "simply soldiers of the German army.... There were thousands of such soldiers for whom Nazism meant nothing but the brutal end of a short life."

The song's lyrics are a departure from the Ramones' usual style, with a more outwardly serious content. Joey and Dee Dee Ramone had written the song with producer and former Plasmatics bassist/keyboardist Jean Beauvoir. Joey, who was Jewish, has stated that he started on the song lyrics after being almost physically sickened by the Reagan visit, feeling that the President had shown disrespect for the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust by visiting Bitburg.

"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was originally meant to be the sole title of the song, but guitarist Johnny Ramone, a conservative Republican and Reagan supporter, insisted that the refrain of "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down" be the title on American releases of the song and that the reference to Reagan ("Bonzo") be in parentheses.

The song was used in the soundtrack of the film "School of Rock".

Trashlight Vision did a cover of this song on their 2006 album, "Alibis and Ammunition".

Canadian punk band the Wednesday Night Heroes also cover the song on their 7", "Move to Press".

The Huntingtons did a cover for this song on their album "File Under Ramones".