“Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” by The Ramones

Beggars Banquet put "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" out as a UK single in June 1985, and lyrically it was a left turn for the Ramones: a heated protest song aimed at Ronald Reagan, who earlier that year had made a state visit to a German war cemetery where Waffen-SS soldiers lay among the dead. Joey Ramone wrote the words, and he shares the writing credit with Douglas Glenn Colvin and producer Jean Beauvoir; Johnny plays guitar, Dee Dee bass and Richie drums.

America never got a release at all, but imports turned it into a hit on college radio, and the critics liked it a lot more than the sales charts did. A year later it resurfaced on Animal Boy under a longer title, "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", the name later live and compilation albums use.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.