Joey Ramone: "I wrote 'Beat On The Brat' about the spoiled brats in Queens. That chord change at the top of the song comes directly from bubblegum songs 'Chewy Chewy', 'Yummy Yummy Yummy' - all those good songs, those fun songs."
According to Joey Ramone, there was one specific brat that inspired this song. He grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in the Forest Hills section of Queens where some "rich snooty" women would raise obnoxious children. There was a playground with women sitting around and a kid screaming, a horrible kid just running around rampant with no discipline whatsoever," he said in Rolling Stone. "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."
This is a track from the Ramones first album. They had been performing this song for over a year before it was released; in early versions, the only lyrics were: Beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat The album version runs a hearty 2:30, but in early live shows, it was even shorter. The Ramones could play a full 12-song set in about 26 minutes around this time.
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