"I Just Want to Have Something to Do" is a song credited to the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United St ...

but was written by

Joey Ramone Jeffrey Ross Hyman (May 19, 1951 – April 15, 2001), known professionally as Joey Ramone, was an American musician, best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the punk rock band Ramones. His image, voice, and his tenure with the R ...

and was released as the opening song of the band's 1978 album '' Road to Ruin''. It was also released on several of the band's

compilation album A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for rel ...

s. It was also used in the film ''

Rock 'n' Roll High School ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'' is a 1979 American musical comedy film directed by Allan Arkush, produced by Michael Finnell, and starring P. J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, Clint Howard, and Dey Young. The film featured the punk rock group Ram ...

''.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

critic Donald A. Guarisco described "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" as "one of the best expressions of frustrated desire to ever grace the world of

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

." The song is taken at

midtempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

, slower than the typical Ramones song. The lyrics describe the singer's need to connect with the listener, and themes include ambivalence and anomie. Authors Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz comment on the surprising

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

of Second Avenue with chicken vindaloo. Ramones biographer Everett True calls this rhyme "evocative." Music professor Robert Pattison suggests that this lyric was too much "fun," as opposed to "joyous," to be respectable enough to be included in a freshman anthology, but he nonetheless considers it a "rock classic." Guarisco considers the music to effectively evoke the frustration described in the lyrics by using "twisted, ascending note patterns" in the verses to create a "yearning feel." He also states that the music in the

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the v ...

enhances the yearning effect with its "sense of

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing ri ...

." True states that the song evokes a sense of "pent-up energy" through "shards of guitar and

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

" which "riccochet past your ear." Guarisco also praises

's lead vocal for the way his snarling and pleading build to an angry peak in the refrain. "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" was included on several Ramones compilation albums, including '' Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology'' in 1999 and ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

'' in 2006.

References

{{authority control 1978 songs Ramones songs Songs written by Joey Ramone Song recordings produced by Ed Stasium Song recordings produced by Tommy Ramone