Bonzo Goes to Bitburg
| "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by the Ramones | ||
| from the album Animal Boy | ||
| B-side | "Go Home Ann" (12" only) "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)" |
|
| Released | June 1985 | |
| Format | 7", 12" | |
| Recorded | Intergalactic Studios, New York City | |
| Genre | Punk rock, new wave | |
| Length | 3:57 | |
| Label | Beggars Banquet | |
| Writer(s) | Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, Jean Beauvoir | |
| Producer(s) |
Jean Beauvoir |
|
| Music sample | ||
|
|
||
Jean Beauvoir
"Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" is a song by American punk rock band the Ramones. It was issued as a single in the UK by Beggars Banquet Records in mid-1985. The song is an emotionally charged commentary on the Bitburg controversy from earlier that year, in which U.S. president Ronald Reagan had paid a state visit to a German World War II cemetery where numerous Waffen-SS soldiers were buried. Lyrically, the song was a departure from the usual Ramones topics, and it became a major critical success for the band.
The 1985 single did not receive an American release. As an import, however, the record became a hit on U.S. college radio. It was eventually retitled "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)", and appeared on the band's album Animal Boy, released in 1986. This second version of the title is the one used on subsequent live and compilation albums.
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 ally of the U.S.
Reagan's plan to visit the Bitburg cemetery had been 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, the combat arm of the SS, which committed many other atrocities. Among those vehemently opposed to the trip were Jewish and veterans' groups and both houses of the U.S. Congress. The phrase "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was coined by protesters in the weeks leading up to Reagan's trip. Employed as an epithet for Reagan, Bonzo is actually the name of the chimpanzee title character in Bedtime for Bonzo, a 1951 comedy starring Reagan. The phrase also echoes the title of the film's sequel, Bonzo Goes to College (1952), though Reagan did not appear in that picture.
...
Wikipedia