Album: One Fierce Beer Coaster, 1996
Justification: I’ve got no legitimate justification for this one. Honestly. The Bloodhound Gang’s repertoire of puerile sex jokes and weak songs has no place in this list of legitimate artists. There are few songs I hate more than ‘The Bad Touch’ or ‘Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo’ (oh, how delicious! They spelled a bad word in callsigns! Take that, accepted norms regarding use of language in popular music!). Their mindless frat-boy humour sickens me.
Except for this song.
It’s not even clever. The “I’m not black like Barry White / No, I’m white like Frank Black is” bit is cute, as is the Pixies joke that follows (“This honky’s gone to heaven”), and while I can forgive the reference to “planet Pluto” on the basis that a) Pluto wasn’t demoted from planet status until 2006, and also that b) “Trans-Neptunian object Pluto” doesn’t really scan as well, in any case the verse is astronomically weak in that you can’t possibly see Pluto with the naked eye under any circumstances – and the subsequent Uranus pun would make grade three listeners groan.
So why the hell does this song have a place in this list?
I think it comes down to this: 1. Those chunky guitars sound really, really good – almost Weezer-esque, in fact – and 2. hearing a drawling white boy deadpan the classic 80s hype man chant “the roof / the roof / the roof is on fire” never gets old.
In fact, according to my iTunes play count, since being reacquainted with this song via their recent, awful best-of Show Us Your Hits (complete with topless dame on the inner sleeve) it’s become one of my most played songs.
Dear god, help me.
Oh, the aforementioned chorus is from Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three’s ‘The Roof Is On Fire’, incidentally, which is why they’re credited as co-writers along with the ‘Gang’s musical visionary Jimmy Pop.
I’d actually be interested to see your 25 most played playlist here, to learn what the Real Andrew (as opposed to you, the Fake Andrew) actually listens to when he takes his Very Serious Music Critic hat off.
Challenge accepted, Casey.
Acording to my iTunes at work, my top ten are as follows:
1. ‘I Might Need You To Kill’ by The Thermals
2. ‘Slapped Actress’ by the Hold Steady
3. ‘We Should Never Have Children’ by Absentee
4. ‘Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961)’ by The Weakerthans
5. ‘Real Men Hunt In Packs’ by Future Of The Left
6. ‘Sequestered In Memphis’ by the Hold Steady
7. ‘I Don’t Want To Get Over You’ by the Magnetic Fields
8. ‘Benediction’ by the the Weakerthans
9. ‘Something Fierce’ by Ripe
10. ‘Destroy Everything You Touch’ by Ladytron
I’ll add that part of the reason for the Weakerthan/Hold Steady double up is that I listen to their respective albums (Reconstruction Site and Stay Positive) relatively often, while the other songs tend to just be single tracks of choice.
And also that, according to Last FM which takes everything I listen to at home into account, I think my most played song ever is ‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder.
So there you go. My at-home tastes are EVEN MORE COOL.
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