Steve Reynolds Program - I Just Want To Have Something To Do
Zzitcrack!
Last week, a thunderstorm rolled through my town in the wee hours and lightning struck my house. It was LOUD. I screamed in surprise, emitting a high-pitched squeal that is hard to comprehend how it originated from the same facehole as the one where my velvet baritone emerges. It fried our cable box and some kitchen lights, but that’s about it.
I need to write these more frequently because what I talk about in these introductions are great time markers, reminders of events and reactions to said events. I looked back at one newsletter and Past Me obliquely referenced the Chinese spy balloon hysteria that was dominating the public discourse at the moment. How far away does that seem now? It now feels like a subplot in a nineteenth English novel people you know have read and loved, but you haven’t gotten around to yet.
Finished Winning Time, the HBO series on the LA Lakers organization, last night. I give it the 7.5/10 - pretty good! I give most things I watch, but I have one question. Is the executive producer of this RJ Reynolds? There are more cigarettes smoked in this than in a Keith Richards documentary. And the footage of the smoking is done so lovingly, closeups of smoke burning off the cigs. John C. Reilly’s Jerry Buss smokes the most, followed by Gaby Hoffman’s Claire Rothman. Third place is Adrien Brody’s Pat Riley— in fact, a source of dramatic tension is “will Pat be so stressed this scene that he pulls out a pack?” I was about to make a joke on the new hot social media site Threads wondering how disappointed were the creators during basketball scenes when the players wouldn’t be smoking, when I saw a scene where Larry Bird is walking out of the locker room, grabs a cigarette from someone along the way and takes a puff! I suspect if this hadn’t been cancelled, they’d imply Magic got sick because he didn’t smoke. Weird, wild stuff.
Song #37
I Just Want To Have Something To Do
by The Ramones
It’s hard to focus on an individual Ramones song instead of writing about the whole history and concept of The Ramones, one of the most singular achievements of rock and roll. For their full story, watch End of The Century: The Story of The Ramones, one of the best rock documentaries ever. The Ramones were both timeless in their style (matching but kinda ironic outfits! Gimmicky stage names! A mascot!) and specifically 1975 at the same time. God bless them.
Their first three albums set the template for their whole career: fast and short three chord songs that have to be blasted or you aren’t listening right. Subject matter? Sniffing glue, Nazis, crushes on girls, corporal punishment, what-have-you. Just have Joey, an underrated singer, sing out the lyrics in a catchy way.
On their fourth album, Road To Ruin, the Ramones branched out with ballads, guitar solos, and even a twelve-string guitar at one point. Also, it’s Marky Ramone’s debut as drummer and he brings a heavier beat to match up with the other guys. The quintessential Ramones song, “I Wanna Be Sedated” leads off Side B. It’s one of three songs on the album where Joey sings what he wants at the moment: to be sedated, everything, and, on the song I love the mostest, something to do.
“I Just Want To Have Something To Do” is a long, cumbersome title for a song with such a simple riff and single thought. That riff, though. Johnny’s guitar, Marky’s kick drum and Dee Dee’s bass play it together in a way that makes commands attention. It starts with the riff that will double for half the chorus later and then Joey sings the ultracharming lines “Hanging out on Second Avenue / eating chicken vindaloo.”
I can picture Joey sitting at either a very early or very late hour at an Indian restaurant in the East Village and realizing that “Second Avenue” and “chicken vindaloo” have the same syllable counts and rhyme. Still, when he sings it, it’s a little off. No matter, he continues expressing his wish to be with some sweetie and having plans for the night.
This proactive sentiment is so different from the one shrieked fourteen years later in Nirvana’s omnipresent “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” “Here we are now / entertain us.” The Ramones treat rock and roll as an energy, an activity. Later, rock is seen as a drug, a pabulum. Both have points, though I step more in the former camp.
The Ramones song always brings to mind their first scene in the glorious goofball 1979 classic “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.” The Ramones drive up in a convertible (Joey eating a chicken drumstick at first) in front of a bunch of punks and low budget extras ostensibly in line to buy tickets to the Ramones concert in a few days. Johnny gallantly plays along to the track with his unplugged guitar and still looks great. Marky awkwardly clicks his drumsticks along to the beat of the full drums—I’ll never write this again, but his kick drum work is aces. Joey ends up singing “tonight!” to Riff Randall, Ramones #1 fan, at the front of the line.
How “I Just Want To Have Something To Do” never became a rock radio mainstay confounds me. It just feels perfect in production and songwriting. Do me a favor and if you are ever in front of a jukebox or control the music in a public place, play this one. It’ll be your something to do.
Booooom
This issue’s Song I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List is “My Family” by Jay Reatard. Such an unfortunate choice of a stage name for a dude that could write blasts of the catchiest punk songs ever. He died before he could change it back to Mellencamp.
I'm sorry to hear about the lightning strike, but relieved it wasn't worse!