With the Ramones’ classic song featured prominently in the new Spider-Man movie, ILYOS looks at some "I Wanna Be Sedated” covers by the likes of the Go-Go’s and the Offspring, and delves into the history of a hit that never was, by a band whose influence has grown exponentially since its demise.
The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” has all the hallmarks of a smash hit. It’s super catchy, attention-grabbing, and the kind of record that you want to hear again the moment it finishes. It’s not unlike a handful of other Ramones tunes in that regard really, but this one is not nearly as jarringly simple or punky as earlier singles like “Blitzkrieg Bop” or “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker.” It has everything – and more – that the Ramones’ lone hit single in Australia, “Rock’n’Roll High School” has, in fact. And it’s remembered much more fondly, appearing as it does at number 145 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and amongst NPR’s (National Public Radio in the US) choice of the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century.
And yet - it never was a hit.
Of course, as irresistible as it was, the songs lyrical content meant it was never going to get any commercial airplay. Which was emblematic of something both bewitching and befuddling of what was at the heart of the Ramones, four guys from the New York borough of Queens who started off thinking they could compete as possible rivals to the Bay City Rollers, despite fusing their tunes with the primal power of the Stooges and writing songs that related to their life on the streets.
The record company knew it – “I Wanna Be Sedated” was never released as a single in any English-speaking country in the world, and they teed up iconic producer Phil Spector to make the Ramones next album, in the hope that the involvement of such a towering figure would open doors, which it did, to a degree. “Rock’n’Roll High School” was from the Spector produced album (End of the Century) as was the bands biggest UK hit, “Baby, I Love You,” and the album itself was the biggest of the Ramones career, but it still wasn’t a real breakthrough. The Ramones were too weird for too many people.
But of course that weirdness appealed to certain people, and some of those weird kids grew up and started bands. Including The Offspring, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Green Day, who sometimes sounded much like the Ramones, and did a great job playing their tunes at the Ramones’ induction into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. And the Ramones’ presence in popular music is thusly far greater now than in it ever was when the band was around. Which is wonderful vindication, even though the four original Ramones are now dead, and the only living member of the line-up that recorded “I Wanna Be Sedated” is drummer Marky, who replaced original drummer Tommy just before the song was recorded.
“I Wanna Be Sedated” appeared on the Ramones’ fourth album, Road to Ruin, in late 1978. As mentioned, it was the first album to feature Marky Ramone; the first to not feature Tommy, who is now seen as the architect of the band. Tommy stayed onto co-produce the album with Ed Stasium, who later went onto produce hits for Living Colour and our own Hoodoo Gurus. It was also the first Ramones album to not feature a load of songs from the vast cache of material that the band wrote before they ever started making records, and it was the first to feature stylistic departments from the 2-minute punk-pop song, veering, as it did from slower and heavier hard rock songs to folk-rock influenced ballads.
In an interview about the song, Joey explained the origins of the song: “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.”
Not long after they recorded Road To Ruin, the Ramones starred in their own movie, Rock’n’Roll High School, which was produced by legendary B-grade movie maker of the 50s, 60s and beyond, Roger Corman. The film was a brilliantly dumb teen movie, and no doubt had a huge influence on the subsequent films like Wayne’s World and School of Rock as well as rock videos (Twisted Sister’s classic clip for “I Wanna Rock” is a kindred spirit) and MTV’s Bevis & Butthead.
Ten years after it was first released, the (above) video for “I Wanna Be Sedated” was made to promote the first-ever Ramones compilation, Ramones Mania, after which the song seemed to be an increasingly significant part of the band’s canon. It would soon start appearing in films – including classics like Daddy Day Care, Scary Movie, and Terminator Genisys - and then TV shows, including Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, Cold Case, ER, and, inevitably, South Park.
While not as popular a song to cover as “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “I Wanna Be Sedated” has also been the subject of some key cover versions. Let’s hear a few more of them.
Vince Neil
The Offspring
The Go-Go's
Green Day
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Of course “I Wanna Be Sedated” is the not the first use of a Ramones track in a Spider-Man film – 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming featured ‘Blitzkrieg Bop”. And the inclusion of Ramones music is more than fitting, given the band cut their own tribute to Spidey in the form of a cover of the theme song to the 60s Spiderman cartoon (and eventually made two videos for it!) back in the 90s. Sadly however it’s a bittersweet thing to see the relationship between the Ramones and Marvel made apparent to the world and formalized only after the passing of the band’s original members.
