I_Wanna_Be_Sedated

I Wanna Be Sedated

"I Wanna Be Sedated" is one of the best known singles by the punk rock group the Ramones. It was released in 1978 and appeared on their fourth album, Road to Ruin.

History

"I Wanna Be Sedated" was written by Joey Ramone in 1978.

In an interview about the song, Joey explains the chorus, "It's a road song. I wrote it in 1977, through the 78. Well, Danny Fields was our first manager and he would work us to death. We would be on the road 360 days a year, and we went over to England, and we were there at Christmas time, and in Christmas time London shuts down. There's nothing to do, nowhere to go. Here we were in London for the first time in our lives, and me and Dee Dee Ramone were sharing a room in the hotel, and we were watching The Guns of Navarone. So there was nothing to do, I mean, here we are in London finally, and this is what we are doing, watching American movies in the hotel room".

Music video

The music video for the song, directed by Bill Fishman, was released in September, 1988 (ten years after the song was originally released).

The iconic video features the Ramones sitting at a table, nonchalantly reading and eating Corn Flakes. Meanwhile, the background room erupts into a meeting place for nuns, acrobats, ballerinas, monsters, cheerleaders, clowns, doctors and nurses, and smoking schoolgirls. The film is intentionally sped up to show the excitement of the background and the soporific nature of the band. One of the video's characters is a young Courtney Love

Reception

Rolling Stone Magazine recognized it as "The greatest God-does-the-road-ever-suck song". It is also number 144 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

This song was voted #75 on VH1's 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years.

Cover versions

The Offspring covered the song for the Ramones tribute album We're a Happy Family.
The band Sugarcult covered this song at every performance for a lengthy period of time, including a notable televised performance.
Shonen Knife has recorded a version of the song.
moe. covered the song on their live album Warts and All.
The Sisters of Mercy has covered the song in some live performances.
Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins Started singing the song, oddly enough, in a performance of their song "Narcolepsy".
The heavy metal band Viper covered the song on the album Maniacs in Japan.
The Bones covered the song on their album "Partners in Crime vol. 1" with Lou Koller of Sick Of It All and Roger Miret of Agnostic Front.
Social Distortion also covered this song
Brazilian rock singer Rita Lee covered this song in her 2004 album MTV ao vivo (MTV Live)
Donut Kings covered this song in her 1999 album FAPLUNK but changed the lyrics to make it a Christmas song
The instrumental version by Belgian electroband Neven features in the movie "I could never be your woman" by Amy Heckerling.
On an episode of But Can They Sing?, Bai Ling sang a cover of this song in week four.
The Adicts also covered the song for their 1982 album Sound of Music.
Texas rockabilly band Two Tons of Steel performs a cover version that is popular among swing dancers.
The barbershop quartet group FRED performed this song on the variety show Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular.

In popular culture

In 1999, National Public Radio included the song in the "NPR 100", in which NPR's music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century.
The song appears on the soundtrack to the 1980 movie Times Square.
The song is referenced in the 1996 movie Carpool.
Jordan Catalano and his band cover the song in an episode of My So Called Life.
In an episode entitled "Crush", the character Spike sings a portion of the song in the fifth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, afterwards asking Buffy "Do you like Ramones?.
The song appears on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Detroit Rock City.
The Offspring perform the song in the 1999 comedy/horror movie Idle Hands.
The song appears on an episode of the sitcom Titus. During the episode entitled "Insanity Genetic: Part 2", a flashback showcasing just some of the many injuries that lead actor/character Christopher Titus has sustained during the course of the show is shown . And the song accompanies the montage.
The song is on the soundtrack to the 2004 PlayStation 2 and Xbox racing video game Burnout 3: Takedown.
A playable cover version of the song is featured in the 2005 PlayStation 2 video game Guitar Hero and as a downloadable track for the Xbox 360 release of Guitar Hero II.
The song is referenced in the third season of the HBO television series Entourage, in which there is a fictional script about the Ramones entitled I Wanna Be Sedated.
The song is referenced in Bowling for Soup's 2002 hit, Girl All the Bad Guys Want.
In Gilmore Girls, Lane Kim listens to this song while holding auditions for a new guitarist.
Scottish band Idlewild have also covered this song at a couple of gigs on the Warnings/Promises 2005 tour, And on the last night of the tour, they played it as the last song, with support band Sons & Daughters
In their song "Fado," the Portuguese punk rock band SK6 uses the rhythm of this song.
When Beavis and Butt-head reviewed the video for the song, they headbanged for the video's entirety, and did not say anything about it.
This song appears in South Park episode Guitar Queer-o when Stan plays this song on Guitar Hero.
This song is featured on DANCE! Online, a multiplayer online casual rhythm game.
This song was covered by Young@Heart.