Ramones City Gardens Trenton NJ 29th August 1987

 

Following on from the Johnny Ramone post, here is a Ramones recording of note for two reasons. The main reason for which this one stands out is by virtue of the fact that this was one of two only gigs that Clem Burke played with the band as Elvis Ramone. Clem deputised in the vacant drum stool upon the swift departute of Richie and before Marky made his return. This was also one of the relatively infrequent occasions on which the band played 'Bonzo Goes To Bitburg', renamed as 'My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down'. The song for which the writing was credited to Joey and Dee Dee incensed staunch Repulican Johnny, as in his view to openly critisize the US President (especially his favourite politication) was both unpatriotic and un-American... and this was 40 years before Trump! 

Ronald Reagan had created something of an international diplomatic incident when on 5th May 1985 he paid a visit to a military cemetery in Bitburg, in then West Germany. he was there to lay a wreath before giving a public address at a nearby airbase that was intended to commemorate the victims of Nazism and acknowledge West Germany's position as a significant ally to the US.

Before departing for Germany and with his schedule in the public domain, including the Bitburg Cemetery visit, he commented that the German soldiers buried there "were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps." This was a gaff of huge proportions as his adviser's must surely have been aware that amongst 2,000 German soldiers interred there were 49 members of the Waffen-SS, the part of the Nazi military organisation responsible for many of the atrocities commited in the name of the Third Reich. Back on US soil Bonzo (a popular disparaging nickname for Reagan originating from his chimpanzee co-star in the film 'Bedtime for Bonzo') attempted to backtrack but with little effect and the incident continued to be viewed as damaging at a sensitive time in the Cold War period.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-xqkIyVC4zA

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-gqb5w45e42