The KKK Took My Baby Away

"The KKK Took My Baby Away" is a song by American punk rock band Ramones, released in 1981 through Sire Records. It was written by front man and lead vocalist Joey Ramone and appears on the band's sixth studio album Pleasant Dreams (1981).^[1][2]

"The KKK Took My Baby Away"
Benelux 7" single cover
Single by Ramones
from the album Pleasant Dreams
A-side	"We Want the Airwaves"
Released	1981
Genre	Punk rock
Length	2:32
Label	Sire
Songwriter(s)	Joey Ramone
Producer(s)	Graham Gouldman
Ramones singles chronology
"Rockaway Beach" (1977) "The KKK Took My Baby Away" (1981) "Pet Sematary" (1989)
Music video
"The KKK Took My Baby Away" (Live) on YouTube

The protagonist sings that his girlfriend has been kidnapped by the Ku Klux Klan on her way to Los Angeles for the holidays and pleads with the listener to call federal authorities to find out where she is and whether she is still alive.

In End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, a documentary film about the Ramones, Ramones tour manager Monte Melenick stated that it seemed clear to him that Joey must have been obliquely referring to Johnny Ramone (who used to tease Joey for being Jewish) "stealing" away his girlfriend, Linda.^[3][4]

Joey's brother Mickey Leigh backed up this claim, Leigh explained that the song was in response to Joey's girlfriend, Linda being in a relationship with his bandmate Johnny Ramone. It is said that Joey and Johnny never spoke again after the events. ^[5][6]

Former Ramones drummer Marky Ramone claimed in a 2015 interview, that the song was inspired by Joey's experience at a mental institution, in which he befriended a black woman there. Wilna and Joey began to date in the early 1970s until her parents’ objections to Wilna dating a Jewish man tore them apart.^[7]

Despite the controversy surrounding the song, Johnny Ramone wrote in his autobiography that "The KKK Took My Baby Away" was his favorite song in the Pleasant Dreams album.^[8] He also denied Joey being racist or that it was about him, saying Joey wrote the song much earlier.^[9]

Music

Like almost all Ramones songs, the time signature is 4/4. The song is in the key of G Major. It alternates two verses with a chorus; the second chorus is followed by a bridge, after which the first verse and the chorus are repeated with a change of key to A Major.

In the documentary End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, Johnny Ramone states that the guitar riff of "The KKK Took My Baby Away" was inspired by the riff of Cheap Trick's "He's a Whore".

References

1. Ramones – The KKK Took My Baby Away, retrieved 2021-12-03
2. Fricke, David (1981-10-29). "Pleasant Dreams". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
3. Spitz, Marc (November 2004). "The Last Testament of Johnny Ramone", Spin (magazine)
4. "'End Of The Century': The Ramones' Long, Sad Trip, By Kurt Loder". MTV. 9 September 2004. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
5. Leigh, Mickey. I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir, p. 216 (2009)
6. Greene, Andy (3 November 2015). "Flashback: Ramones Play 'The KKK Took My Baby Away' in 1981". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
7. Greene, Andy (2015-11-03). "Flashback: Ramones Play 'The KKK Took My Baby Away' in 1981". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
8. Ramone, Johnny (2012). Commando: The Autobiography of Johnny Ramone. Abrams Books. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-8109-9660-1.
9. Melnick, Monte A.; Meyer, Frank (2019). On The Road with The Ramones (Second ed.). Bobcat Books. p. 165. ISBN 978-1847721037.