Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones

Album: Ramones (1976)

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Songfacts®:

The Ramones wrote this as a salute to their fans - it's about having a good time at a show.

Some fans interpret the song differently, however, as "Blitzkrieg" is a German term meaning "Lighting War." The Blitzkrieg was Hitler's army and in this interpretation, the Bop in the song is the march that the soldiers do. Here's a look at this interpretation:

"Hey ho, let's go" - The soldiers marching.

"They're forming in a straight line" - The soldiers are standing in a line.

"They're going through a tight wind" - Cars going down the autobahn.

"The kids are losing their minds" - Boys being turned into soldiers by Hitler.

"The Blitzkrieg Bop" - The soldiers march.

"They're piling in the back seat" - People piling into vehicles to get on the autobahn and soldiers piling into vehicles.

"They're generating steam heat" - The engines were so hot they started to steam.

"Pulsating to the back beat" - Germans getting pumped for war.

"Shoot'em in the back now" - Hitler being shot.

"What they want, I don't know" - Why Hitler was in the war.

"They're all revved up and ready to go" - The soldiers getting ready to fight. >>
Suggestion credit:
Josh - Hibbing, MN
The Ramones' famous chant, "Hey, Ho, Let's Go!" is a big part of this song. They wanted their own chant after hearing "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers, which had the chant "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, Night."

Joey Ramone explained: "I hate to blow the mystique, but at the time we really liked bubblegum music, and we really liked the Bay City Rollers. Their song 'Saturday Night' had a great chant in it, so we wanted a song with a chant in it: 'Hey! Ho! Let's Go!'. 'Blitzkrieg Bop' was our 'Saturday Night'."
The songwriting credits on this one go to drummer Tommy Ramone and bass player Dee Dee Ramone. Tommy explained: "I wrote 'Blitzkrieg Bop,' but Dee Dee contributed the title and he changed one line. There was a line that went, 'They're shouting in the back now.' He changed it to 'Shoot 'em in the back now,' which is a non sequitur. But to him it made sense." >>
Suggestion credit:
Katie - Gasoline Alley, Australia, for above 2
This was the Ramones' first single, and also the first song on their first album. It was never a hit, but it became a punk anthem and a defining song of the genre, which was just about to enter its late '70s heyday.
The Ramones made liberal use of the stereo spectrum on this one. Johnny Ramone's guitar, which was highly distorted, is panned mostly to the right, while Dee Dee's bass is mostly on the left.
The Ramones had a very sparse budget at the time: The entire album cost just $6,400 to make.
This song has been used in a number of movies and TV series, including The Simpsons (the 2007 "Treehouse of Horror" episode), and the 2006 Entourage episode "I Wanna Be Sedated," revolving around a Ramones documentary.

In the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, it was used in a scene where Jimmy and his friends go on a rampage of fun. Some other uses:

Fear No Evil (1981)
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
Sugar & Spice (2001)
Shattered Glass (2003)
The King of Queens (2004)
Date Night (2010)
The Crazy Ones (2013)
Parenthood (2014)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
The New York Yankees baseball team often plays this when one of their big hitters is coming to the plate. Johnny Ramone was a huge fan of the Yankees.
Green Day performed this at the 2002 ceremonies when The Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1991, this song piqued the interest of Budweiser, which used it in a commercial for their beer (without the "Shoot 'em in the back" line). There was no debate in the Ramones camp over whether to authorize it: they were all happy to get the money and exposure. In 2003, the song found its way into another commercial, this time for AT&T Wireless. It was later used in commercials for Diet Pepsi, Coppertone and Taco Bell.
Rob Zombie covered this song on the album A Tribute To Ramones (We're A Happy Family). >>
Suggestion credit:
Brian - Halton, Canada
Fellow first-wave punk band The Clash covered this song live on tour in 1978, often as a medley with their own song "Police and Thieves."

Comments: 52

George Pope from Vancouver BcI hear this as a big "**** you" to the horrors of a blitzkrieg type war attack, as the Germans used in WW2. Instead of crying & hiding, the band is dancing ("bop") during the onslaught of warplanes and tanks, & calling others to ignore the horror & just DANCE ("Hey ho, let's go!"); a good life's lesson -- when everything gets you down, get up and dance like nothing terrible is happening. (aka "fake it til you make it"); done with a catchy beat and lyrics. . . this is punk at its best -- turning the angst of youth into personal triumphs.
Luna Loud from Royal Woods, MichiganThe guitar is actually on the RIGHT channel while the bass in on the LEFT. BTW, the punk rock movement invented moshing. LET'S GO!
Thomas from Mt Gileadover all it is a good song
Dan from Marquette, Mi UsaI am 60 years old. I mention this because I heard the Ramones when they first came out. Over the years, the lyrics of Blitzkrieg Bop have changed to make it more marketable. Early Ramones like to extoll the virtues of huffing a.k.a., sniffing glue. However, after Punk completed its evolution from punk to New Wave to mainstream, the lyrics were officially changed lest the "wrong message be given to the kiddies." Here are the real lyrics from two lines of the song: The generator's in the backseat, which generates the steam heat... Anyway, the "generator" was a brown paper bag filled with model airplane glue, the fumes from which were called "the steam heat." I could not stand to be around the stuff, but my girlfriend at the time did convince me to smoke the occasional joint. (D)ACB: I never stopped loving you. I your life after you kicked me to the curb was everything that you wanted.
Chad from Redmond,waI remember this became popular in 2006.
Dennis from Riverside, CaOk blitzkrieg fast right or quick maybe a quickie or "fast intercourse? maybe forming a straight line is getting a boner. They are in the back seat of a car which turned pushing them on to each other. Then they have a "quickie" in the back. On top of each other they get hotter. pulsating can be the dudes thing or just the grinding. Shouting or moaning of the girl but was changed to the guy "shooting" and what they want was a condem? then they go again
Anna from Houston, TxObviously here no one has learned to read.the dee dee ramone autobiography. Labotomy Surviving The Ramones will dispell and displace all these stupid rumors and stories i see here.for all the illiteratate and lazy i will make it simple.im an american living in philippines we call lazy here tumad.stupid or illiterate gago. dee de clearly states in his posthumous autobiography blitzkreig bop has nothing to do with nazism or socialism hence the nationiolist socialist party aka nazi.just his time spent as a child of an american soldier who spent time in germany during and after ww2 who married a german bride.later the marriage ended in divorce after many years of dee dee suffering abuse from his father then continued by his mother.so later he wrote a song about this and somehow included the early ramones fans going apes--t at cbgb's and other clubs like max's kansas city to the german blitzkreig.no way was it meant to be a racist song.a nazi song.yes 2 of the ramones were jewish joey openly and tommy hid it.yes tommy's family did survive the holocaust by hidind and traveling but some did not escape and died.why joey and tommy agreed to such lyrics as im a natzi scatzi and joey agreed to sing it on today your love tommorow the world i dont know all i can say is check the documentary ramone the end of the century where joey says they all had a dark sick twisted sense of humor and johnny says by not singinging it they were comprimising themselves.but read it watch it it bwill give you an insight on how really disfunctunal the ramones really were but a real insight from the people who were really ther
Bmn from Hisuan, ArgentinaThat the late lead singer Joey Ramone was Jewish is widely known. But Beeber reveals that the mysterious Tommy Ramone, the mastermind behind the leather-clad foursome that bashed out such classics as "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Beat on the Brat" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," not only is a Jew but the child of Holocaust survivors. Erdélyi kept his Jewish identity so well concealed that not even Danny Fields, the Ramone's first manager (himself a Jew), knew of Tommy Ramone's religious background until now.

That Tommy Ramone would want to keep his Judaism hidden makes sense. He was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1949, and his parents, both professional photographers, barely escaped from the clutches of the Nazis by hiding out with friends during the war. Most of Erdélyi's family perished in the Holocaust.

Yes this is true, and yes, Tommy Ramone wrote Blitzkrieg Bop to spit in the face of the two Ramones that weren't Jewish, by masking the song to look like a good ol' punk party bop. Kill all Nazis forever, and Tommy and Joey will live on forever, spit on those German bastards.
Meg from Dallas, GaThis song is not about nazis. It's just bubble-gum fun- very simple, very catchy. Tah-duh.
Oh, and James, from OK- you're not German. You can tell, because you say Blitzkrieg is spelled wrong. I lived in Germany for two years- and it's not. Blitzkrieg is spelled as it is pronounced in German- with a long e sound. If you switched the i and the e, it would be more like Frankenstein. Leave the German spelling to those of us who have lied there.
Ken from Keller, TxLOL. I hear you on the conventional/mainstream intrepreation of this high energy classic. However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to acknowledge that the Wehrmacht and the Schutzstaffel ran their Blitzkrieg(Lightning War) fierce and formidable war machinery under the influence of Crystal Meth, specifically in pillform generated as Pervertin.

The 'Blitzkrieg Bop' imho, is a reference to the amphetamine ridden raw strength and energy that fueled the dynamics of the Ramones and other punk rock bands of that era. Speed may kill but it sure made for one hell of a performance generated by the hands of those rebel/punk types that ruled that era.

The 'Blitzkrieg Rock', imho, was a masterpiece of simplicity that resonated within the inner depths of the denizens of punk rock fandom in that not so long ago era, just as it does to this day, mirroring the zeitgeist of those chaotic yet fun times. Punk music was alarmingly fast and so were the pseudo musicians who played it's simplistic chords.

Ken in Keller
Abigail from Not Allowed To Say, Pai absolutly love the ramones they rock and i love johnny you are my favorite hands down so sad that he died but his spirite still rocks on
Kit from Uniontown, Pawell harrison from Dallas i hate to burst ur bubble here but Johnny picked the people that would cover the songs on the We're A Happy Family album... so he probably wasn't disgusted judging by the fact that he was good friends with Rob Zombie.
Harrison from Dallas, Txno the cover rob zombie did was horrible and i think the ramones would be discusted if they heard it
Cj from West Haven, Ctpunk anthem! the ramones rock!
Malicious Matt from SquatneyI just think this is a great song. And its been in a ton of films, I dont think I could name them all. Even people who dont know/care at all about the Ramones or punk or rock n' roll in general know this song, so I guess its The Ramones anthem in a way!
Dave from San Antonio, TxIt still makes me feel like driving at 120 mph! GOD BLESS the RAMONES! PURE ROCKnROLL!!
Joe from Chicago, ArBut to him it made sense.......lol..........sorry i thought that was really funny...........i miss the ramones so much and i love their music..... this is defintly a classic song......they truly are legends.....and there not all angry like those other bands there all about having fun even if some of them were a little bit messed up in the head i guess but every song by the ramones is catchy and well worth listening to........they should have been up their with the beatles but they weren't........oh well.......it's still alright to stay underground........i don't know what else to say about the ramones there one of the best bands ever made and they are defintly the best band of the 70s and 80s when alot of the music was disco and pop.......i love you ramones and i always will........ if you have not heard the ramones yet or any other songs by them besides this one download some or something and listen to some real music.
Lizz from Tampa, FlDee Dee was raised in Germany, that might have some importance to the song(though I think it was ust a fun song). Blitzkrieg is an odd/funny word, they might have just liked it.
cool song great band
Spencer from Mcbride, Canadanot all the ramones were jewish....only joey.and I really do hope you know that they are not all related and none of thier names are actually ramone (jeffry hymen "joey" and john cummings "johnny") are 2 examples
Jeff from Sothington, Ctit doesnt have to do with nazis..but the ramones were all jewish so its pretty ironic that they sing about Blitzkrieg which means "lightening war"..they chose the name cause the song was fast..i mean really...jews singing about nazis?
Bob from Rio Vista, CaWell, actually (sorry for saying this late) all the people that were confused about "Shoot them in the back now, it was originally "They're shouting in the back now" which made no sense.

In sports to intimidate opposing teams, people would "shoot them in the back".
Robbi from Small Town, InThis song was covered by Rob Zombie on his Past, Present, & Future CD. And it was done well by both the Ramones and Zombie! Great tune overall!
Jon from Oakridge, OrThe Ramones are great. One of the original punk bands. (as well as one of the last punk bands)
Bob from Rio Vista, CaIf you played the music to Blitzkrieg Bop backwards, it would end up sounding like "Welcome to Paradise" by Green Day.
Dylan from Perth, AustraliaThe Ramones are so cool!
Tom from Auckland, New ZealandIt has nothing to do with the Nazi party or hitler, It's about having a good time going wild..
It is called blitzkreig bop because it is a fast song.
Christina from Arnold, MdThese guys are pretty much my favorite band and this is one of their best loved songs. What more is there to say? Besides, all you other people have said just about everything else.
Johnny from Los Angeles, CaI think this is a song to get you energized for the event you are about to do. Bomb the sh*t out of Poland, play Tony Hawk 3, Go to a Kiss concert or any concert for that matter, gang fighting, playing sports, or whatever. And Zach from Charlotte: lay off the Clash
Stephen from Chateauguay, CanadaIn refereance to the lyrics of Blitzkreig Bop in Pet semetary, Stephen King is a huge Ramones fan. He wrote the forward in the Ramones tribute album, and was friends with the Ramones. Also, the very title (Pet semetary) is a Ramones song.
Rose from Pittsboro, Ncthe ramones actually were kinda politically active, "bonzo goes to bitburg" is about what a screwed up president reagan was. but no matter what "blitzkreig" means, can we all just agree thats its an awesome song and quit arguing?
Nathan from Defiance, OhMany punk bands used Nazi references, such as the Sex Pistols song Belsen Was a Gas. But it used clearly for shock value and that's it. The Ramones always were the most mainstream of the big punk bands because of their ablity to make bubblegum-ish punk that was palatible for most music fans.
Zachary from Charlotte, NcYou guys are retarded. Its about having fun at a punk rock concert. Thats all it ever has or ever will be it has nothing to do with anything about Germany or Hitler or WW2 at all. If you think it does you have no idea what it is you are talking about, the Ramones were never that politically influential they left that up to bands like The Clash who faded away way earlier even though they came way after the Ramones, being a political punk band can only last so long because accepting society as it is is all a part of growing up so the way the Ramones did what they could to stay away from becoming a political punk band was quite frankly genius
Kendall from Thomasville, GaBlitzkrieg is the famous German "Lightning War" tactic (not really a tactic, more like a massive overwhelming bum rush) Lines and lines of bombers would fly over and scare the crap out of everyone, hopefully destroying fortifications, AA guns, blah blah blah. Squad of tanks drive down the streets to intimitade the enemy , major positions taken, Soldats flood the streets, harrass the people break into houses and kill inocent but important people. Then they set up camp and search all of the houses, stock up n stuff
Marvin from Trenton, NjI honestly could care less if its about Nazis, "lightnigng battles" or whatever, I love this song, and in my Dictionary the definiton of "Blitzgrieg" is Hey Ho Lets Go!
James from Enid, Okno. this song is about nazis ("forming up a strait line,""shoot them in the back now,""blitzkrieg"). the picture painted by the lyrics is the modernist version of fascist Germany painted in history books and contemporary art. it isnt about some rock show. check the lyrics and your definition (and spelling) of Blitzkrieg.
Michael Jones from Berlin, MdI might as well tell you all the definition of blitzkreig, since you all seem to misunderstand. I learned this while studying about WWII in school. Yes, blitzkreig translated is lightning (or lightning war) but the definition is basicly, to win a battle in a very short time, and move on to the next battle.

Anyway, I believe what this song is about, is about the band itself. Like it said before, the Ramones wanted their chant in the song, so they had it. It also is about how quickly they travel from one consert to another. Hence the name "blitzkeeig bop." Blitzkrieg for the speed of their travel from one city to another, and Bop, for music. As for the line "Shoot 'em in the back now," I can't realy say. Like it says in the fact list, it only made sence to Dee Dee.

I'll leave it at that.
Craig from Dunedin, New ZealandMy guess is that the Ramones probably didn't really know what "blitzkrieg" really meant! But knew it was German circa WW2,it fitted and could be offensive. To me its about dancing about in a fast car,loud music...
Laura from White Plains, Nyit's "hey-ho, let's go!" not hi-ho.
Spalding from Belle Mead, Njthis is possibly one of the most awesome songs, ever
Sebastian from Copenhagen, DenmarkI could sing the whole song before i knew it was ramones who had made it.. haha, its because it was in the playstation 2 game "Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3" and i heard it like 10 times a day for 3 weeks
Eddy from Sf, Ca"lightning attacks" wasnt where hitler bombed a nation non-stop, lightning attacks meant that he would line up thousand of squadrons and tank divisions and infantry and just overwhelm the enemy,he would just attack very fast and focus on one place, in this case poland
Katie from New South Wales, AustraliaJoey didn't die from drugs. He had lymphatic cancer.
Peter from Fort Worth, TxI was reading a book that had explanations of songs and it explained that this was about gangs, and gang fights, not any other reasons. lines like "shoot him in the back now.." support that.
Phillip from Louisville, KyMarky Ramone is still alive and in pretty good health. He's been touring alot lately with his band the SPEEDKINGS, and he's been doing alot of spoken word shows about his life with the RAMONES.
Also, Tommy, their original drummer is still alive and doing well.
LONG LIVE THE RAMONES!
Mariah from Miami, FlIs Marky still alive? Oh, all the Ramones are dead now, this is so terrible, it makes me want to donate a bunch of money to a Prostate Cancer charity. At least Johnny didn't die from drugs...
Daniel from Cape Breton, CanadaROCK ON JOHNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We Miss You
Brian from Portland, OrActually, "Blitzkrieg" means "lightning war," not "lightning." And it wasn't continuous bombing, it was more of a hit & run strategy, strike an area then leave before anyone can respond. And it's not even what the song's really about anyway. It's about going to a punk show and having fun.
Michael from Oceanport, NjLyrics from the song, most prominently the "Hi-ho, let's go!", are in the thoughts of protagonist Louis Creed in Stephen King's 1983 novel Pet Sematary. The song and its lyrics are absent from the movie.
Katie from Goulburn, AustraliaAlso features in the movie "Detroit Rock City"
Josh from Bel Air, Mdno its not they just use that word symbollicly---
Gimpy from Cloquet, MnThis song is included in part of the soundtrack for the playstation 2 game, tony hawk's pro skater 3.
? from Nyc, NyThis is about the German "blitzkreig" or "lightning" attacks in WWII where Hitler just bombed a nation nonstop, such as in Poland.

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