Though legendary American punk rock band the Ramones drew the majority of its acclaim based on its mid-'70s explosion onto the music scene, the band released more than half of its total studio albums during the '80s. Of course, mainstream music fans of the era were hard-pressed to find the Ramones on pop radio - which is a sad pop culture truth that surely would be worthy of inspiring a fuming rant from the late, great comic philosopher Bill Hicks - but the group's three long-term core members worked steadily nonetheless. Even better, more than a few classic nuggets of speedball guitar emerged on latter-day Ramones albums, which is an impressive feat of consistency.
1981's "The KKK Took My Baby Away" showcases Joey Ramone's trademark songwriting stamp of goofy, irreverent humor, and yet it also works well as a compelling story song of genuine heartbreak: "But she never got there, she never got there, she never got there, they say-yay." For listeners searching for an antidote to MTV-promoted new wave and even the soon-to-be-dominant hair metal craze, the Ramones could always be relied upon to deliver punchy sonic relief.
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Album Cover Image Courtesy of Rhino/WEA
Comments
I have read that the lyrics for “KKK” were a “tribute” to Johnny Ramone. He, if you didn’t know, was a raging conservative awash in a scene of left-leaning folk. It seems that Johnny actually fell in love with, then took Joey’s girlfriend of the time, thus “The KKK took my baby away.” Joey never really recovered psychologically from the loss of this love, and his OCD went haywire.