Thread: Song: Here Comes the Hezbollah / Hizbolla

I've been humming a song all day that came from a band that is one of my all time favorites. Yes, I have obscure musical tastes.

This group, called the Sisters of Mercy, were not fond of Bush Sr at all. This song called 'Dr. Jeep' came out on the last album they ever released.

Here are the lyrics and here is a link to the video and audio for you to give a spin.


'Dr. Jeep'
Sisters of Mercy
Album: Vision Thing (1990)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYyv-gER ... rcy%20jeep

Lyrics

Everybody shouts on I Love Lucy
Pee Wee reads the evening news
A pre-owned song or a second-hand Uzi
Everybody got a job to lose
Here come the golden oldies
Here come the Hizbollah
Businessmen from South Miami
Humming AOR

Meanwhile...

I like Cal and his dog Napalm
I like Ike and his itty-bitty A-bomb
Everybody got one, I want mine
You can order it up on Channel Nine
Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on
There was a time but it's long gone
Janie got a crush on the Viet Cong
Burning through downtown Saigon
Me, I'm sold - down the Mekong

Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on
Guns and cars and accidents
The threatened witness my defence
You can sell one another for fifteen cents
Well bye-bye mother, it's common sense
Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on

Everybody shouts on I Love Lucy
Pee Wee reads the evening news
A pre-owned song or a second-hand Uzi
Everybody got a job to lose
Here come the golden oldies
Here come the Hizbollah
Businessmen from South Miami
Humming AOR
Meanwhile, in the Sheraton,
Doctor Jeep plays on and on and on

Lyric Analysis (Since Andrew Aldricht is the king of metaphore and allusions)

A little more mad in the methedrome
A pun on Polonius' aside in `Hamlet': "Though this be madness yet there is method in't" (Act 2, Scene 2)

"There is a reference to a line from Hamlet about madness and method. (Why Hamlet? Go figure.)" [C14]

The spelling of methedrome harks back to previous references to methedrine, of course.

Blizzard king
Presumably excess (via allusion to Jim Morrison) and cocaine, and therefore Manuel Noriega. A blizzard refers to a vast amount of cocaine, and the king would be the overseer of the drugs operation. The next line could refer either to Noriega, or to the drugs (or, of course, to both) as both were `brought home'.

"...I am the lizard king / I can do anything..." - Morrison, `Celebration of the lizard'


------------------------------------

I Love Lucy
A television show, which Americans apparently find funny.

Pee Wee
Disgraced children's TV star Pee Wee Herman.

Hizbollah
Literally `Army of God', the Hizbollah are a revolutionary Shiite Muslim faction, which rose to prominence during the war in Lebanon in the 1980s, and have since been involved in numerous terrorist actions aimed at Israel and America.

businessmen from South Miami
? Cocaine smugglers

AOR
Album Oriented Rock (or Album Oriented Radio, the stations that play it) - ghastly mainstream classic rock predominates.

Cal ... napalm
Strictly speaking, napalm is a thickening agent. The name is a contraction of naphthenate palmitate, both(?) aluminium based compounds. This can be processed into a reddish brown powder, (dust and gasolene / rust and gasolene, you might say) which is then mixed into gasoline (or a similar active ingredient) to form a thick, sticky gel, i.e. the substance more generally described as `napalm'.

Cal is almost certainly Cal Worthington, the dodgy used-car salesman's dodgy used-car saleman. Worthington is well known in the US for his commercials, which always feature the cheery proclaimation "It's Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!". 'Spot' is featured as some sort of animal, although rarely, if ever, a dog. Cheap Americana through and through. A somewhat contrived alternative explanation would be that 'Cal' is a back formation referring to the Viet Cong, who were indubitably dogged by napalm (i.e. Viet Cong = VC = Victor Charlie = Charlie = Cal).

I like Ike
`Ike' is Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the USA; `I like Ike' was his campaign slogan in 1953. As a man who had an exemplary military career and was president as the Cold War developed, he can probably be seen as emblematic of atomic weapons. However, his rôle here is perhaps ironic. Eisenhower warned about the power and lack of morality of the 'military-industrial complex', showing considerable foresight. Stranger still: he was a Republican, but offers an odd contrast with his fellow Republicans Reagan and Bush, who respectively overshadow Floodland and Vision Thing.

Janie ... Viet Cong
The Viet Cong were communist revolutionaries in South Vietnam, who sprang out of the remnants of the Viet Minh.

`Janie' is Jane Fonda, who had a prominent rôle in the anti-Vietnam war movement. Fonda was photographed posing with bemused Viet Cong civilians, much to the fury of conservatives across the States, and organised fund raising to assist Vietnamese victims of the war. Interestingly enough, she later married Ted Turner, owner of CNN and a significant partner in Time Warner (now AOL Time Warner); Time Warner own both the Warners record label and East West, the Sisters' nemesis.

Saigon
The capital of South Vietnam during the war; now Ho Chi Minh City.

sold down the Mekong
The Mekong is one of the main rivers in Vietnam. Being sold down the river was a phrase which arose from the slave trade. If the Mekong, which flows from Cambodia in to South Vietnam is taken as representative of the conflicting philosophies of the Vietnam war, then being sold down the Mekong could be interpreted as being enslaved by capitalism, or US cultural imperialism, or simply the thoughts of someone who whole heartedly supports the war. The line would therefore be in contrast to the (presumed) reference to Jane Fonda a couple of lines previously.

guns and cars and accidents
Whilst one is loath to put much creedence in videos, it may be worth noting that two of the more interesting interpretations in the Doctor Jeep video are for this line, which is illustrated with the Zapruder footage of Kennedy's assassination, as is the line `bye-bye mother', whilst George Bush is used to illustrate the line `Pee Wee reads the evening news'.

Liked the song. Good beat and thanks for the lyrics, couldn't tell what he was saying.
Thanks for the entertainment and info W!

Thanks! It's just odd to have to have your life explained as a history lesson! You mean there's people out there that don't know "I love Lucy" or "pee-wee herman"? Gee then I guess they missed the "Delrubio Triplets" in Pee-wee's Christmas Special.

I'm getting old But not so old I don't still appreciate diverse music.

I think the website I found explained Pee Wee and I Love Lucy since the Sisters of Mercy had a large European following. They rarely played the states.

W

This song is the first song I was exposed to by the Sisters of Mercy and I fell in love with it the first time I heard it. The keyboard player in my band when I was 18 gave me a tape with this on it. I never got to see the video untill last week thanks to YouTube.

Sisters Of Mercy - This Corrosion (TOTP 1987)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuC2pBnV ... rcy%20jeep

I got nothing to say I ain't said before
I bled all I can, i won't bleed no more
I don't need no one to understand
Why the blood run cold
The higher hand
On heart
hand of God
Floodland and Driven Apart
Run cold
Turn
Cold
Burn
Like a healing hand

Good one too. This thread rocks!

Originally Posted by jean

Good one too. This thread rocks!

Glad you like it Jean. This type of music is only known by a very small market of people in the US. Not for your mainstream pop music types.

W

Just listened to their song Dominion but not sure of the words. Like the sounds of it too.
Interesting.

Dominion was filmed in the nation of Jordan. The King even loaned them a helicopter for the video shoot.

I could tell the video was shot somewhere in the middle east. Looks like it probably cost a penny or two. Very cool! Listened to the songs again tonight. They rock!