Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ Reworked As Vaccine Anthem By Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass
Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass has reworked the Ramones’ Road To Ruin classic I Wanna Be Sedated into a COVID vaccination anthem.
Changing the words of the punk classic to encourage people to get their vaccination jab, Gass sings: “Twenty, twenty, twenty-four hours from now/ I’m getting vaccinated/ Waited so long that I wrote down this song/ I’m getting vaccinated.”
The comedic musician has accompanied the spoof with a video that features cameos from Evanescence singer Amy Lee, Danko Jones, Toto’s Steve Lukather and many others. Gass’ Tenacious D bandmate Jack Black also makes an appearance dressed in doctor’s scrubs and holding a pair of giant needles. You can watch the video here.
One of many classic tracks from Ramones’ fourth studio album, Road To Ruin, I Wanna Be Sedated derived from a gruesome backstage incident at a New Jersey Ramones concert where a humidifier exploded in Joey Ramone’s face, leaving the singer with shocking burns which he only had treated after the show.
Joey’s trauma did at least sire one of the best Ramones songs, which really should have been a hit, had it not been for the title. “We spent a little time making I Wanna Be Sedated more produced,” Tommy Ramone later revealed. “We were trying to get a single, which was bittersweet, because we knew that it wasn’t going to get played widely [on the radio] with the word ‘sedated’ in it.”
Elsewhere, a Florida gig promoter has come up with a way of making sure that as many fans as possible attending an upcoming punk show have been vaccinated.
Paul Williams of Leadfoot Productions is putting on a gig at VFW Post #39 in St. Petersburg, Florida on June 26, featuring performances from Teenage Bottlerocket, MakeWar and Rutterkin. In a bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Williams has instituted a price of $18 per ticket for those who have been fully vaccinated, and $999.99 for those who haven’t.
“We’re just trying to do a show safely,” Williams told WFTS. “And they should go out and get vaccinated to protect themselves and their families and their community.”