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This article is about the song by American punk rock group The Ramones. For the English punk band, see
Blitzkrieg Bop (band).
"Blitzkrieg Bop" is a song by punk rock band The Ramones. The band's inaugural single, it was released in April 1976 in the United States. It was recorded for and appeared as the lead track on the band's first album, Ramones, also released that month.
The song, whose composition was credited to the band as a whole, was written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone (lyrics) and drummer Tommy Ramone (music and lyrics).[1] Based on a simple three-chord pattern, "Blitzkrieg Bop" opens with the chant "Hey! Ho! Let's go!". The song is popular at sporting events, especially baseball games, where "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" is sometimes shouted as a rallying cry.
"Blitzkrieg Bop" is number 92 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 31 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, and in 2008 Rolling Stone Placed it number 18 on top 100 of Best Guitar Songs of All Time. In 2009 it was named the 25th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.[2]
[edit] Origin and meaning
"Blitzkrieg Bop" was named after the German World War II tactic blitzkrieg, which literally means "lightning war". The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title (the song was originally called "Animal Hop"). Dee Dee also changed one line: The original third verse had the line "shouting in the back now", but Dee Dee changed it to "shoot 'em in the back now". The precise meaning and subject matter of the song are, unlike many of The Ramones' other early compositions, somewhat vague and obscure. It may be a reference to attacking the exposed flank of tanks during a blitzkrieg operation, while some fans contend, based on lines such as "Shoot 'em in the back now", that the song tells of gang violence, which would seem to be more in line with the bands' other songs of that era. But it is more likely that the song is simply about having a good time at a concert, perhaps an ode to early punk fans. If the third-verse line had not been changed the song meaning would be the latter.
[edit] Composition
"Blitzkrieg Bop" keeps a 4/4 timing drum beat, with a 8th note down stroke guitar and bass, that has a three chord riff A D E, until the breakdown of the song occurs with the chant, "Hey! Ho! Let's go!". The chorus contains a slight variation on the chord pattern with a B three bars before the end of the chorus (D,A,D,A,D,B,D,E).
[edit] Dedications
- The punk rock band Blitzkrieg Bop took their name after the song title.
- A monthly club night at the Arches in Glasgow is named after the song.
- Pennywise has done a cover version dedicated to Joey Ramone. At Warped Tour July 26, 2008 @ Nassau Colosseum, C. J. Ramone came on stage during Pennywise's set and played Blitzkrieg Bop with the band.
- This song is arguably one of the most popular punk rock songs, and is considered by many to be the "punk rock anthem."
[edit] Notable covers
- The song has been covered by various artists including studio versions by Rob Zombie, The Beautiful South, Screeching Weasel, The Hanson Brothers, The Offspring.
- Die Toten Hosen covered the song for the 1991 cover album Learning English, Lesson One. It features Joey Ramone as a guest musician.
- Green Day covered this song along with "Teenage Lobotomy" at the 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for the remaining member of the Ramones, and regularly play the song live, sometimes getting kids out of the audience to play the song on their instruments, though more usually the song "Knowledge". Furthermore, their track "St. Jimmy" from the album American Idiot uses the same chord progression, but in a different tempo. In addition, their song "Welcome to Paradise" features this chord progression backwards in the same tempo, but with the guitar half a step down. It is easy to notice this by listening to "Welcome to Paradise" backwards.
- Skid Row covered the song on their 1990 video Oh Say Can You Scream.
- The Mescaleros put the song into their live set during 2001 as Joe Strummer wanted to pay tribute to Joey Ramone who died in that year.
- The punk band The Casualties covers the song when on tour.
- Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks covered the song in almost every gig in the middle 80's.
- Christian punk band The Huntingtons covered this song on their album Rocket to Ramonia.
- This song has been covered by The Misfits in 2004 at a live performance. Only bootleg recordings of this performance exist under the name Buried in a Pet Semetary: A Live Tribute to the Ramones. This recording features Marky Ramone on drums, as per the band's line-up at the time.
- Kaori Shimizu covered this song in 2009[3].
- Short Stack covered the song in their 2009 Princess Ball tour.
[edit] Use in media
This song has been featured in numerous venues across the spectrum of popular culture, including:
- As playable tracks in music video games Rock Band, Rock Revolution and Battle of the Bands.
- As background music in the video games Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 , MLB 08: The Show and NHL 2K9.
- In television ads for the "Cingular"/AT&T Go-Phone.
- In the films Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Detroit Rock City (1999), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), Shattered Glass (2003), Accepted (2006) and New World Disorder (Freeride Mountain Biking Movie Series) (2007).
- In The TV Series "Space: Above and Beyond" ("Space: 2063" Outside the US) [1995].
- In The King of Queens episode "Icky Shuffle".
- In The Bronx is Burning episode "Team in Turmoil" and several episodes after that.
- In the 100th Episode of Family Guy.
- In The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XVIII.
- In the Entourage episode " I Wanna Be Sedated?".
- In Stephen king's novel Pet Sematary the phrase "hey, ho, let's go" is quoted several times.
- In 90210 episode Hollywood Forever.
- In WarioWare, Inc. episode "Mommy's Little Fearest", Fronk plays the song that 9-Volt and 18-Volt dislike.
- In WarioWare Tooned episode "A Space Reunion" and "Wario the Honeymoon".
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] Bibliography
- Bessman, Jim (1993). Ramones: An American Band (New York: St. Martin's). ISBN 0-312-09369-1
