‘I Wanna Be Sedated’: The bands the Ramones attempted to mimic for a masterpiece
‘Destroy’ was a word splashed across the chests of many punk rockers during the 1970s; it was a movement built upon a rejection of nostalgia and a desire to carve out modern, new, and inventive sounds. While mainstream rock seemed stuck in the hippie age of the 1960s, punk reflected the realities of society in decline, particularly in the decaying concrete jungle of New York City. However, the NYC punk scene also produced its fair share of outliers, including The Ramones.
Upon initial glance, The Ramones are the archetypal punk rock band. With a dark, moody stage presence, buzzsaw guitars, and only a handful of songs above two-and-a-half minutes in length, the group epiomised the no-frills approach of punk. After all, the band’s 1976 debut album is often considered the first-ever punk release, ushering in an abrasive and defiant age which revolutionised the landscape of rock and roll music.
If you dig a little deeper into the sound of The Ramones, however, you might find that their sonic manifesto was much more complex than an attitude of ‘destroy’. While they did land upon an original and distinctive sound which separated them from the rest of the American rock scene at the time, they also took a colossal amount of influence from the pop and rock music of the 1960s. In fact, the name ‘The Ramones’ was originally derived from Paul Ramon, a pseudonym used by Paul McCartney during the height of Beatlemania.
They might have cut their teeth on the ramshackle stage of the CBGB club, but The Ramones gathered much of their sensibilities from the sounds of pop days gone by. Their live performances were often littered with covers of old-school pop and rock tracks, ranging from the iconic ‘Wall of Sound’ atmosphere of The Ronettes’ ‘Baby I Love You’, to the surf rock mastery of Joe Jones’ ‘California Sun’.
Inertiably, these influence bled over into The Ramones’ original material, much of which followed the tight pop structure favoured by those groups from back in the 1960s. The band’s defining 1978 single ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ is a prime example of this fact.
A masterclass in creating a short, sharp pop single, albeit with a palpable punk edge, the song quickly became one of the band’s most beloved efforts. ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ was also the first Ramones single to feature Marky Ramone, who replaced original drummer Tommy Ramone, who moved into music production.
The drummer has since revealed just how instrumental the music of the 1960s was in the creation of the track. “We always loved the ’60s groups: The Kinks, The Who, The Beatles, The Stones, Dave Clark Five, etcetera. And we loved what was done by The Searchers, a band from the ’60s from part of that British Invasion,” he shared in an interview with Songfacts.
“So we attempted to do our way of doing it, our style, which came out great,” the drummer added. Upon listening to ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, you can certainly hear the influence of those early British Invasion outfits, both in the song’s musical structure and the repetitive nature of the lyrics. Still, it is difficult to imagine The Searchers gleefully singing about being sedated, which is where The Ramones’ unique punk twang comes into proceedings.
