On a more light-hearted note: Cannibalism
By 
I made a quarter-hearted resolution at the beginning of this year to write more about non-politics-related stuff, so in that vein, here’s something to chew on that I ran into a couple of days ago (not a bear or a whale much to RFK’s disappointment. What a total freak show. Whoops I did it again).
I was listening to a show I like called Music 101 on a local public radio station, where the host does thematic educational programming on some music-related topic. This past week was songs with dark twists, which included such day-brighteners as Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat,” which I had never heard before (yikes!).
But the highlight for me was a song I hadn’t heard in forever, The Buoys’ “Timothy,” which is probably the best top 40 hit about cannibalism, or at least “allegedly.”
Because of the wonders of the internet I did my own research and discovered the following:
The song was written by Rupert Holmes, the same guy who wrote and performed “Escape” (The Pina Colada Song), which also has a twist ending, in that case — spoiler alert — two people cheating on each other via the personal ads, who end up on a very blind date as a result. The best and most realistic part of that song is that they just both get a good laugh at finding out that both of them are cheating on each other in exactly the same way.
As for “Timothy,” Holmes very cleverly figured out how to write a song that would be just outrageous enough that it would be banned by some — but not all — top 40 stations, thereby creating a controversy and a viral hit in those pre-virality days. He did this because The Buoys’ record label was providing no support for their records, and this was a DIY publicity workaround. My favorite detail is that when the scheme worked beautifully and it became a big hit, the record company jumped on board immediately, and tried to get the stations that were banning the song to play it on the basis of their (the company’s) claim that Timothy was a mule! How awesome is that?
Unfortunately Holmes, who wasn’t officially in the group but played piano on the recording, wouldn’t play along with this sanitizing of his wholesome tale.
I have a bunch of other things to say about the popular history of cannibalism but I have to go pick up some takeout for the kids now (true story) so that stuff will be in another post.