Pinhead - Live at Rainbow Theatre, London, 12/31/77; 2019 Remaster

Part of this song was inspired by a 1932 horror movie the band saw when they were on tour in Ohio in 1976. The movie was called Freaks, and the band saw it in an art house theater. At the end of the movie, there's a scene where the sideshow freaks rise up and take over, shouting, "We accept you, one of us, Gooble Gooble." This gave The Ramones the idea for their "Gabba Gabba Hey!" chant, which became their trademark phrase and a rallying cry for their fans.

Studio engineer Ed Stasium (from Hey! Ho! Let's Go! The Ramones Anthology by David Fricke): "We had fun with 'Pinhead.' They had this 'Gabba gabba hey' chant and I started messing with the vari-speed control on the tape machine, just as a joke. I'd speed it up and slow it down, and Dee Dee's going 'This is cool!' It ended up being on the record. You can hear a little chipmunk voice going 'Gabba gabba.'"

A track from the second Ramones album, this song is about a dimwit who sees a nurse he fancies. The group didn't spend much time developing stories in their songs, and often sung about various mental disorders. Not everyone was in on the joke, but they were not out to offend: they just thought this stuff was funny.