"I Wanna Be Sedated" is a song by the American punk rock band the Ramones. It is one of the band's best known songs. It was originally released on their fourth album, Road to Ruin, in September 1978 and was the B-side of the UK single "She's the One" released on January 10, 1979. The song was later released as a single in the Netherlands in 1979, then in the U.S. in 1980 by RSO Records from the Times Square soundtrack album.
"I Wanna Be Sedated" was written by Joey Ramone. 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."
The music video for the song, directed by Bill Fishman, was released in September, 1988 (nine years after the song was originally released) to promote the compilation album Ramones Mania. The iconic video features the Ramones sitting at a table (left to right: Johnny, Joey, Marky and Dee Dee), nonchalantly reading and eating corn flakes. Meanwhile, the background room erupts into a meeting place for nuns, acrobats, ballerinas, monsters, cheerleaders, clowns, doctors, fetish nurses, and smoking schoolgirls. The film is intentionally sped up to show the excitement of the background, while the band's actions are in regular motion. This was achieved by having the band members move very slowly, while the crowd moved normally, and then speeding up the film. One of the video's characters is a young Courtney Love.
"I Wanna Be Sedated" was number 145 on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Marky Ramone is the drummer on this track.
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 Adicts covered the song for their 1982 album Sound of Music (album).
Operation Ivy covered the song in their Ramones EP.
Mötley Crue singer Vince Neil recorded a version of the song as bonus track for his first solo album Exposed in 1992.
Shonen Knife has recorded a version of the song for the 1995 Japanese re-release of Burning Farm.
Tiltwheel recorded the song for the tribute album Ramones Maniacs in 2001.
Juliana Hatfield's band Blake Babies recorded a cover for their 2002 EP Epilogue.
Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn performed the song live with his side project Bambi and the Deerhunters in 2002.
The Offspring covered the song for the 2003 Ramones tribute album We're a Happy Family. The band also performed the song in the film Idle Hands.
Tyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects covered the song for the UK series Rock School.
moe. covered the song on their live album Warts and All.
The heavy metal band Viper covered the song on the album Maniacs in Japan.
Brazilian rock singer Rita Lee covered this song in her 2004 album MTV Ao Vivo (MTV Live).
The instrumental version by Belgian electroband Neven features in the movie I Could Never Be Your Woman by Amy Heckerling.
The Go-Go's covered this song in their DVD Live Go-Go's in Central Park.
Superhumanoids recorded the song as a single in 2012.
New Found Glory covered the song on their 2013 Ramones tribute EP Mania.
Kirsty MacColl covered the song in Titanic Days.
The Sun King covered the song in his 3.12.21 EP.
The song appears on the soundtrack to the 1980 movie Times Square.
The song is performed by a cover-band at a High School Halloween Ball in the 1999 comedy-horror movie Idle Hands.
On the show My So-Called Life, Rayanne makes a disastrous debut as the singer of a band while covering this song. Just before she is to come in, she panics and races off the stage, leaving Jordan to take over.
The song briefly plays in the season 3 Gilmore Girls episode, "Application Anxiety."
The song is featured on the trailer and the soundtrack for the comedy Scary Movie.
The song makes an appearance on the soundtrack featured in Burnout 3: Takedown.
The song is featured in the 2005 music video game Guitar Hero (as a cover), as well as in the second installment of the Jam Sessions series and Rock Band 3 (as a master recording), five years later.
The character Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a big fan of the Ramones. This song is featured in the episode Crush. Spike manipulates Buffy into a date, hums a few bars of it and partly sings the chorus, afterwards he proceeds to ask Buffy if she likes the Ramones.
The video has appeared on Beavis & Butt-head. It is extremely well received by the two and they say hardly anything the whole video out of enjoyment of the song so much.
An episode from the third season of Entourage is named after the song; in it, an old-school Hollywood producer pitches a script about the Ramones to E.
In the song 'Overstayer' by Every Time I Die, front man Keith Buckley sings "'I want to be sedated' / Just like Joey said".
The song is featured in the 2015 film Terminator Genisys, where Sarah Connor listens to it in one scene in 1984, and later listens to it on a headset while she, Kyle Reese and the T-800 are arming themselves in an underground bunker. It was also mentioned in the novelization of Terminator 2: Judgment Day as one of the songs that John Connor listens to.
