Line #23 Music/NapoleonXIV


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/napoleon_xiv.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Thoughts that need thinking like spring has been sprung''
4	->''Fantasy helps all of us to think young''
5	->''Everyone knows that penguins go formal''
6	->''So who's there among us to say who is normal?"''
7	-->-- '''"Bats In My Belfry"'''
8
9	Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of the American singer and songwriter Jerry Samuels (May 3, 1938- March 10, 2023).
10
11	Samuels started out writing and performing normal love songs; he released a few pop records in TheFifties, and Creator/SammyDavisJr's version of his song "The Shelter of Your Arms" became a Top 20 hit in 1963. However, the material he recorded as Napoleon XIV is ''very'' different. It consists of aggressively weird novelty songs focusing on mental illness[[note]]and in a few later numbers, marijuana[[/note]], often featuring unhinged vocals, atonal "melodies", and minimalistic accompaniment. These songs are about as entertaining as they are creepy -- and they can be pretty creepy. One of them, his SignatureSong "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", was actually a Top 3 hit in 1966 for two weeks. It dropped not due to lack of interest, but due to mental health experts stating the song was ''too real'' and that Samuels was being ''exploited'' somehow, and got it ''banned'' on radio.
12
13	However, Napoleon XIV met his Waterloo when a follow-up single ("I'm in Love With My Little Red Tricycle") and an album (titled after "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!") both flopped, and a second album intended for 1968 release (which would have been titled ''For God's Sake, Stop the Feces!'') was canceled. Afterwards, Samuels found work as a booking agent, although Napoleon XIV briefly resurfaced in TheNineties with ''The Second Coming'', a compilation that combined the 1966 album with tracks intended for ''Feces'' and a few new recordings.
14
15	Samuels eventually passed away in March 2023, due to complications of Parkinson's disease dementia at the age of 84.
16	----
17	!!"They're Coming to Trope Me Away, Ha-Haaa!":
18
19	* AnswerSong: Josephine XV [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m138-Fn5Tw replied]], "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Ha!". Meanwhile, the dog got his own [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3VCx4VSAwU response]] with "They Took You Away, I'm Glad, I'm Glad."[[note]]It's possible that Josephine XV ''is'' the dog, too.[[/note]]
20	* BedlamHouse: The chorus of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha":
21	-->They're coming to take me away, ha ha,\
22	They're coming to take me away, [[LaughingMad ha haa, hee hee, ho ho]]\
23	To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time,\
24	And I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean, white coats\
25	And they're coming to take me away...\
26	To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds,\
27	And basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes\
28	And they're coming to take me away ha haaa!
29	* BeenThereShapedHistory: "The Nuts On My Family Tree".
30	* BestialityIsDepraved: "Let's Cuddle Up In My Security Blanket" is a love song to a ''cow''.
31	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The accusation of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!"
32	* DominoMask: He's shown wearing one in the publicity photo above.
33	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: "Goofin' On the Job"]]... ''maybe''.
34	* GratuitousPanning: "I Live in a Split-Level Head", where the first round of lyrics are in both channels -- and then each channel simultaneously plays ''different'' lyrics.[[note]] Specifically, the song has eight four-line verses; after they are recited once, the left channel starts over from the first verse while the right channel picks up at the fifth verse, and both proceed to go through all eight verses a second time.[[/note]]
35	* LastNoteNightmare: "Goofin' On the Job".
36	* LaughingMad: Many of his songs.
37	* LyricalDissonance: Every single thing he's ever done, with the possible exceptions of "Iowa Pot" and "The Explorer," and the definite exception of "Goofin' On The Job." The latter is sufficiently disturbing to him that he buried it in the middle of the CD release of his complete collection.
38	%% * MadnessMantra: ...Yes.
39	* ManChild: "I'm In Love With My Little Red Tricycle". From the narrator's simple speaking patterns, silly rhymes, and obsession with riding around on his tricycle, it at first can be inferred that he is supposed to be a young child. But then this line comes in near the end of the song:
40	-->When I am riding my little red tricycle, why do people always stop and ask me: "Why must you ride on that little red tricycle? Act your age! You know you're forty-three?"
41	* NapoleonDelusion: Implied. After all, a man who calls himself Napoleon XIV writing novelty songs about insanity? Two songs, "Do the Napoleon" and "The Nuts In My Family Tree", explicitly reference this.
42	* ObfuscatingInsanity: Inverted in "They're Coming to Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!"
43	* OhNoNotAgain: Invoked in a 1988 follow-up song, "They're Coming To Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!", the fade-out lyrics [[CallBack reverting to "They're Coming To Take..."]].
44	* PerspectiveFlip: "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haa!" by Josephine XV.
45	* PsychoPsychologist: "Dr. Psyche, the Cut-Rate Head-shrinker."
46	* PsychopathicManchild: [[spoiler: The narrator]] of "I'm In Love With My Little Red Tricycle". Music/WeirdAlYankovic called it an amazing song due to the PlotTwist.
47	* {{Ramping}}: An auditory variant: his voice gets higher and higher-pitched on the chorus to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" thanks to a variable-frequency oscillator, allowing him to gain a chipmunk voice without changing the tempo.
48	* SanitySlippageSong: Probably all of them, but "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" takes the cake.
49	* SdrawkcabName: The original b-side to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" was called "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" and credited to VIX Noelopan. It was in fact "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" played backwards.
50	* SecurityBlanket: {{Invoked}} by "Let's Cuddle Up In My Security Blanket".
51	* SequelSong: "They're Coming to Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!"
52	* SplitPersonality: "I Live in a Split Level Head"
53	* TheStoner: "I Owe a Lot To Iowa Pot"
54	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: ... [[LaughingMad Hee hee hah hah]].
55	* UnreliableNarrator: Since all of the songs are ThroughTheEyesOfMadness, this is a given.
56	* WhosLaughingNow: "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Ha!"
57	* WordSaladLyrics: "Bats in my Belfry". That quote up there is probably the most sensible lyrics in the whole song.
58	* {{Yandere}}: "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!"

Context Music / NapoleonXIV