SS must rank among the most heinous in human history", but noted that many of those interred at Bitburg were "simply soldiers in the German army... There were thousands of such soldiers for whom Nazism meant no more than a brutal end to a short life." Discussing the inspiration for the song, Ramones lead singer Joey Ramone, a Jewish man, explained that the president "sort of shit on everybody." Interviewed in 1986, he said, We had watched Reagan going to visit the SS cemetery on TV and were disgusted. We're all good Americans, but Reagan's thing was like forgive and forget. How can you forget six million people being gassed and roasted? Joey Ramone shared writing credit with Ramones bassist Dee Dee Ramone and Ramones producer and former Plasmatics bassist/keyboardist Jean Beauvoir. Commentators on the song tended to suggest that Joey was its primary author. Mickey Leigh, Joey's brother, who was particularly close with Dee Dee, claimed that while "everyone believed Joey had been the impetus to write the song ... it was actually Dee Dee." Beauvoir's camp states that he was equally involved in the lyrics in addition to his music and melody contributions. Tone and style The song's lyrics, with their explicitly serious content, were a departure from the Ramones' usual style. Spins Jon Young called it "part exorcism and part slapstick comedy." David Corn described the beginning of the refrain—"Bonzo goes to Bitburg/then goes out for a cup of tea/As I watched it on TV/somehow it really bothered me"—as "snarled" by Joey over a "power-pop beat and melodic hooks galore." Salon arts editor Bill Wyman wrote of Johnny Ramone "lob[bing] guitar bombs" amid the song's "Spectorian, rushing production" and of "Joey's pained, pleading voice." Douglas Wolk fit the song into his general view of Joey Ramone as different from his many musical imitators in that "he never, ever sneered," adding that the song's tone "isn't contemptuous, just confused and angry." Scott Miller concurred, noting that the song "doesn't attempt an airtight indictment of Reagan," but perhaps more importantly excels at just "putting across the honest feeling of being impotently rankled." Release "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was issued in Great Britain as a 45 rpm 12" by Beggars Banquet Records. The single's first B-side, "Go Home Ann", by Dee Dee and Mickey Leigh, was produced by Ed Stasium and mixed by Motörhead lead singer Lemmy. The second B-side,