“I Wanna Be Sedated” is a song about being bored on tour. The Ramones were in London at Christmas and had nothing to do, so had to sit in their hotel room watching U.S. movies.
It’s Joey Ramone saying he’s so bored he’d rather just be knocked out with drugs.
Strangely enough, for a song about being incredibly bored, it lacks none of the energy expected of a Ramones tune!
It’s simple enough, with Punk rock power chords, repetitive lyrics, and a sing-song melody. It’s not a long song, coming in at 2 and a half minutes, but it fits in a lot of raw punk energy into that time. Long punk songs aren’t really such a big thing anyway…
Taken away from its original context, the song has great potential to speak to legions of bored teenagers the world over. Perhaps today’s kids might not like it, but it was a big hit at the time, and is now song number 175 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song was released in 1978 on Road To Ruin.