Ramones – Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue

This song was released in 1976 on the Ramones debut album. I first heard this album in the early 80’s…and was struck by the economical way they produced their songs. Rapid fire songs one after the other…

I would NOT recommend what the Ramones are stating here. Bass player Dee Dee Ramone wrote this song, which is about sniffing glue, a cheap and easy way to… well to kill some brain cells. This is a pastime of bored teenagers with very bad judgment.

Running just 1:34, no one will accuse the Ramones of ripping off Bob Dylan. The song consists of these lyrics repeated, rinsed and washed.

Now I wanna sniff some glue
Now I wanna have somethin’ to do
All the kids wanna sniff some glue
All the kids want somethin’ to do

The Ramones didn’t really want folks to sniff glue. Tommy Ramone said: “I have a feeling Dee Dee was talking about his childhood, how he actually thought it was some kind of release when he was a kid. I thought of it as a parody. He might have been a little more serious.”

Johnny Ramone: “We couldn’t write about love or cars, so we sang about this stuff, like glue sniffing. We thought it was funny. We thought we could get away with anything.” 

This is one of the tracks on the Ramones debut album. On their follow-up, they included a song called “Carbona Not Glue,” which is about graduating to cleaning solvent for a cheap high.

Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue

Now I want to sniff some glue
Now I want to have somethin’ to do
All the kids want to sniff some glue
All the kids want somethin’ to do

1-2-3-4 Now I want to sniff some glue
Now I want to sniff some glue
Now I want to have somethin’ to do
All the kids want to sniff some glue
All the kids want somethin’ to do
One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight

Now I want to sniff some glue
Now I want to have somethin’ to do
All the kids want to sniff some glue
All the kids want somethin’ to do
Now I want to sniff some glue
Now I want to have somethin’ to do
All the kids want to sniff some glue
All the kids want somethin’ to do

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all. View all posts by Badfinger (Max)