The Ramones weren’t known as much for their horror movie themes as much as their punk peers The Misfits, but they did include them on occasion. Their songs also appeared in both Pet Sematary films, and the group even made an appearance on USA Up All Night once upon a time.
In remembrance of this legendary band, here’s a look back on some of The Ramones’ horror-related songs.
1. Chain Saw
This song appeared on the band’s debut album. Lyrics include: “Texas chainsaw massacre, they took my baby away from me.” And leave it to Joey to make “massacre” rhyme with “me”.
2. Beat on the Brat
This may not come off as a horror-related song immediately, but if you stop and think about the song being about beating on a child with a baseball bat, it’s pretty horrific. This is also from the debut self-titled album.
3. Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
From the same album, this song gets its horror cred courtesy of Rob Zombie, who included it in a chilling scene in House of 1,000 Corpses.
4. I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement
“Hey daddy-o, I don’t wanna go down to the basement. There’s something down there.”
Enough said.
And that’s all just the first album.
5. Pinhead
This has absolutely nothing to do with Hellraiser. In fact, this song appeared on The Ramones’ second album, which pre-dates that film by a decade. However, the lyrics include: “Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you one of us!”
Does that sound a bit like this famous scene from Freaks, which features a character commonly referred to as a pinhead?
6. You’re Gonna Kill That Girl
Our former writer, John Squires, showed us a cover of this the other day as performed by The Jasons, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to the original Ramones version (also from the second album):
7. You Should Have Never Opened That Door
Lyrics: “Mama, where’s your little daughter? She’s here, right here on the altar. You should never have opened that door. Now you’re never gonna see her no more. You don’t know what I can do with this axe – chop off your head so you better relax.”
8. Cretin Hop
This may not be a direct link, but I can’t be the only one who thinks about Class of Nuke’em High every time I hear the word “cretin”.
9. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
Like Cretin Hop, this track is from Rocket To Russia, the band’s third studio album. For fans of Pet Sematary, however, this song will eternally be associated with the death of Gage.
10. Teenage Lobotomy
If lobotomies themselves aren’t horror enough, there’s also a line about slugs and snails being “after me. Also from the Rocket to Russia LP.
That about does it for the Tommy Ramone era, but there are a few more from the rest of the band’s discography.
11. Rock N’ Roll High School
Perhaps this one is a bit of a stretch. It’s not horror at all, but the movie, which featured the band, has roughly the same quality as that of an old school Troma movie, and it includes Halloween’s P.J. Soles, the Ice Cream Man himself Clint Howard, and Dick Miller from Night of the Creeps, Terminator, Gremlins, and Demon Knight. It also has a guy in a giant rat suit and a chainsaw scene for what that’s worth.
12. Psycho Therapy
In this song, Joey is a psycho who may potentially kill someone, and invade somebody’s home.
13. Pet Sematary
This song not only shares the name with Stephen King’s story and movie but appears during the end credits. It even name-drops Victor Pascow in the lyrics.
14. Poison Heart
Pet Semetary Two may not be as good as Pet Sematary One, but it’s still a pretty fun and worthy sequel in my opinion. It doesn’t hurt that it also features this early nineties Ramones song.
