Beat on the Brat
"Beat on the Brat" is a song by American punk rock band Ramones, from their eponymous debut album. The song was featured in the 1995 film Billy Madison.
| "Beat on the Brat" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Ramones | |
| from the album Ramones | |
| Released | February 1976 |
| Recorded | January 1976 |
| Genre | Punk rock |
| Length | 2:30 |
| Label | Sire/ABC |
| Songwriter(s) | Joey Ramone |
| Producer(s) | Craig Leon |
Story
"Beat on the Brat" was said by Joey to have origins relating to the lower classes of New York City.
When I lived in Birchwood Towers in Forest Hills with my mom and brother. It was a lower-class neighborhood, with a lot of trashy lower class women who had horrible brat kids who were obnoxious. There was a playground with women sitting around and a kid screaming, a horrible kid just running around rampant with no discipline whatsoever. The kind of kid you just want to kill. You know, 'beat on the brat with a baseball bat' just came out. I just wanted to kill him.
Dee Dee, however, explained that the song was about how "Joey saw some mother going after a kid with a bat in his lobby and wrote a song about it."[2]
In 2018, a cover of the song was performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic as part of a Dr. Demento tribute album.[3] It was later released on the rarities album "Medium Rarities" from the career-spanning boxset Squeeze Box.
References
- Rombes 2005 p. 73
- McNeil and McCain 2009 p. 183
- Lewis, Randy (Jan 11, 2018). "Dr. Demento, comedic song hero and unsung punk rock legend, gets his due on new album". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved Jan 17, 2018.