Line #18 Music/KingMissile


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jsh.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:280:John S. Hall.]]
3	King Missile is an American [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] band created by John S. Hall in 1986.
4
5	John Hall used to be a street performer / poet, but he eventually decided, to quote, "20 minutes of me reading {{poetry}} are boring", thus King Missile was born.
6
7	Their style can be described as several minutes of Hall reading his free verse poetry, accompanied by various music.
8
9	Notable for being extremely quotable.
10
11	!!Their songs provide examples of following tropes:
12	* AbhorrentAdmirer: The narrator of "Martin Scorsese", were he ever to meet Scorsese
13	* AssShove: "Up My Ass" from ''King Missile III'', as one can tell from the title.
14	* BarbieDollAnatomy: "Detachable Penis" is about a man who, well, has a detachable penis, which, despite the difficulties he sometime faces, rather enjoys having.
15	-->''This comes in handy a lot of the time.\
16	I can leave it home, when I think it's gonna get me in trouble,\
17	Or I can rent it out, when I don't need it.''\
18	[...]\
19	''People sometimes tell me I should get it permanently attached,\
20	But I don't know.\
21	Even though sometimes it's a pain in the ass,\
22	I like having a detachable penis.''
23	* CoverVersion: Versions of Richard Hell's "Betrayal Takes Two" and {{Music/Buzzcocks}}' "Love You More" have appeared on King Missile albums. A few other times, they've done covers as part of [[CoverAlbum tribute albums]]: Music/TheRutles' "Doubleback Alley", {{Music/REM}}'s "Get Up", Music/TheBeatles' "We Can Work It Out", and Orleans' "Still The One" [[note]]The last example may have been done as an elaborate joke - the lead singer of Orleans is also named John Hall[[/note]].
24	* ClusterFBomb: ''The Psychopathology Of Everyday Life'' is one of their most profanity-filled albums, mainly due to two songs: "The President" is a 3 minute rant against UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush that borders on {{Angrish}} and contains 61 uses of the word "fuck", while "The Pain Series" is a set of equally profanity-filled reactions to physical pain, the causes ranging from hitting one's thumb with a hammer to getting a paper cut. The album cover lampshades this with a mock parental advisory label, reading "WARNING: CONTAINS LOTS OF CURSES: DO NOT BUY!"
25	** "Martin Scorsese" definitely qualifies as well.
26	* EarlyBirdCameo: "Wind-Up Toys" first appeared on John Hall's solo album, ''Real Men'', but in name only. Though the lyrics and title were the same, the music was completely different.
27	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Many, many songs.
28	* IAmTheBand: John S. Hall is the only constant member.
29	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: "Detachable Penis". That is all.
30	* JesusWasWayCool: TropeNamer, page quote.
31	* InteractiveNarrator:
32	** "Domestic Life": At one part of the song, the wife character calls the narrator out for repeating what she had just said, and eventually threatens the narrator for saying "he said" and "she said" after everything they say. This causes the narrator to go on an insulting rant to both characters in his story, upon which they feel bad and apologize to the narrator and ask if there's any problems he has. He tells them his problems[[spoiler:, but not before killing and raping them]].
33	* ListSong: "Up My Ass" is a list of things that go [[AssShove you would never ever guess where]].
34	** "Equivalencies" counts as well, drawing comparisons between such as Shovels and Jesus, and Yellow meaning War
35	** "Gay Not Gay" divides its list items into those which are gay or not gay (or neutral, "like eating a sandwich")
36	* LoonyFan: "Martin Scorsese"
37	* {{Narm}}: Quite a few songs, but "Detachable Penis" takes the cake; between deadpan delivery, the absurd lyrics and the female backing vocalists singing "Detachable Penis" over and over again.
38	* ObligatoryBondageSong
39	** ''Margaret's Eyes'', in which the singer tries to describe the color of Margaret's eyes while she keeps him on a leash and puts out cigarettes on him.
40	** ''Leather Clown'', in which a fictional relationship with a non-existing leather-clad, female clown is described.
41	** ''My Lover'', in which the singer describes how he enjoys his lover pouring candle wax on his nipples.
42	* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: They were originally known as King Missile (Dog Fly Religion) - when guitarist and co-founding member Dogbowl left the group to pursue solo work, the next lineup of the band became simply King Missile out of respect, since the parenthetical part of the name had been his idea.
43	* RefugeInAudacity: A number of their songs, the least of which being 'Miracle of Childbirth', [[spoiler:which goes over in detail about the night your parents had sex to conceive you]].
44	* StealingFromTheTill: "Take Stuff From Work", page quote.
45	* TransparentCloset: "Gay/Not Gay", see Quotes.
46	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Where "Detachable Penis" starts. It gets a lot weirder from there.
47	* WordSaladTitle: The band's name in general, but especially the somewhat longer version they used for early releases: King Missile (Dog Fly Religion) does not have anything in common with missiles, kings, crowned missiles, dogs, dog flies, religion practiced by, or involving dogs or dog flies.

Context Music / KingMissile