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The protagonist sings that his girlfriend has been kidnapped by the Ku Klux Klan on her way to Los Angeles for the holidays and pleads with the listener to call federal authorities to find out where she is and whether she is still alive.
In End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, a documentary film about the Ramones, Ramones tour manager Monte Melenick stated that it seemed clear to him that Joey must have been obliquely referring to Johnny Ramone (who used to tease Joey for being Jewish) "stealing" away his girlfriend, Linda.
Joey's brother Mickey Leigh backed up this claim, Leigh explained that the song was in response to Joey's girlfriend, Linda being in a relationship with his bandmate Johnny Ramone. It is said that Joey and Johnny never spoke again after the events.
Former Ramones drummer Marky Ramone claimed in a 2015 interview, that the song was inspired by Joey's experience at a mental institution, in which he befriended a black woman there. Wilna and Joey began to date in the early 1970s until her parents’ objections to Wilna dating a Jewish man tore them apart.
Despite the controversy surrounding the song, Johnny Ramone wrote in his autobiography that "The KKK Took My Baby Away" was his favorite song in the Pleasant Dreams album. He also denied being racist or that it was about him, saying Joey wrote the song much earlier.
Lyrics:
She went away for the holidays
Said she's going to L.A.
But she never got there
She never got there
She never got there, they say
The KKK took my baby away
They took her away
Away from me
The KKK took my baby away
They took her away
Away from me
Now I don't know
Where my baby can be
They took her from me
They took her from me
I don't know
Where my baby can be
They took her from me
They took her from me
Ring me, ring me ring me
Up the President
And find out
Where my baby went
Ring me, ring me, ring me
Up the FBI
And find out if
My baby's alive
Yeah, yeah, yeah
o o o o o o
o o o o o o
She went away for the holidays
The KKK took my baby away
They took my girl
They took my baby away