114. Naked Pictures (Of Your Mother)

Electric Six: Fire (XL Recordings, 2003);
composed by Tyler Spencer

There may be another recording act that got dropped by their label after their debut started selling too well, but this is the only one I know about and, in retrospect, it sort of figures. Masterminded by Detroit weirdo Tyler Spencer, Electric Six specialized (and still does today) in perhaps the only genuinely funny non-parody rock, insofar as it actually rocks in an appealingly disco-metal sort of way. And whereas Dylan or Lou Reed would stick embarrassingly mundane phrases in their songs just for texture, this particular number successively rhymes “dropped a bomb on Japan,” “hostage in Iran,” “ugly Ameri-can,” and “government man,” as though that last was a major money gig the singer had gladly sold his soul for, just so he could go to Taco Bell in a limo and set it on fire. The naked pictures in the title (and the chorus) do not appear to connect to anything else in the song. And Spencer cues the guitar solo by bellowing, “Solo!” Not everything on the album peaks so high in ridiculousness, and XL probably knew that Spencer would never quite get there again. But they have their audience, and they will take it to their graves.

Note: Secular essays about individual songs, each one exactly 200 words long, appearing one per day (or at least regularly) until Donald goes away.