East Village, Detached
Posted: January 27, 2009 at 10:19 am
It’s been awhile since the “heated” battle royale between EV Grieve and Flaming Pablum over NYC-centric music videos. In a terribly belated response, I thought it quite appropriate to revisit the song and video for the quirky “Detachable Penis” by King Missile. Indeed, the tongue-in-cheek track is rooted in the East Village of the early nineties.
We follow the deadpan delivery of the narrator who is desperately looking for his lost penis. He frantically phones party people from the night before, searches his apartment, the city streets, everywhere. To no avail. But then he eventually finds it, as explained in this most fitting place-specific verse,
“so I went to the Kiev, and ate breakfast.
Then, as I walked down Second Avenue
towards St. Mark’s Place,
where all those people sell used books
and other junk on the street,
I saw my penis lying on a blanket
next to a broken toaster oven.
Some guy was selling it.
I had to buy it off him.
He wanted twenty-two bucks, but I
talked him down to seventeen.”
After well over a decade, the video is still relevant in the midst of all the recent iconic closings. Both the Kiev (at 1:31) and Love Saves the Day (at 1:35) make brief cameos. Additional street scenes are scattered, but aren’t easily identifiable, especially since the quality is rather poor.
Related Reading:
Oh, Don’t Mind Us: More Music Videos…[EV Grieve]
Video City Music Haul [Flaming Pablum]
Love Saves the Day [Vanishing NY]
Tags: detachable penis, east village, king missile, LES, love saves the day, Music, Vintage Video
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