"Detachable Penis" is a song by avant-garde band

King Missile King Missile is an American avant-garde art rock band best known for its 1992 humorous single " Detachable Penis". Vocalist John S. Hall has fronted several disparate incarnations of the group since founding it in 1986. History King Missile ...

. It was the first single from the band's 1992 album''

Happy Hour Happy hour is a marketing term for a time when a venue such as a restaurant or bar offers reduced prices on alcoholic drinks. Discounted menu items like appetizers are often served during happy hour. This is a way for bars and restaurants to ...

,'' and became a modest hit, reaching number 25 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

chart.

Lyrical content

In "Detachable Penis", frontman

John S. Hall John S. Hall (born John Charles Hall, September 2, 1960) is an American poet, author, singer and lawyer perhaps best known for his work with King Missile, an avant-garde band that he co-founded in 1986 and has since led in various incarnations. ...

recites a deadpan monologue in which he portrays the owner of the titular penis. After a night of heavy drinking, the narrator awakens to find his

penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...

is missing, which has happened on similar occasions. He looks for it in his apartment, calls the place where the party was to see if they had found it, and asks some people that were also at the party. Despite his best efforts, he is unable to recover his penis. Depressed, he goes to Kiev Restaurant for breakfast. He then encounters a street vendor who is in possession of the missing penis. He negotiates the price and buys his penis back for $17 . He cleans and reattaches it at home.

Musical content

The music of "Detachable Penis" consists largely of a distorted electric guitar

riff A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs are most often found in rock music, punk, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, although classical music is also sometimes based ...

fed through a

noise gate A noise gate or simply gate is an electronic device or software that is used to control the amplitude, volume of an audio signal. Comparable to a limiter, which attenuates signals ''above'' a threshold, such as loud attacks from the start of mu ...

and a

delay Delay or DeLay may refer to: People * B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and movie stunt pilot * Dorothy DeLay (1917–2002), American violin instructor * Florence Delay (born 1941), French academician and actor * Jan Delay, stage name ...

, backed by organ and drum

grooves Groove or Grooves may refer to: Music * Groove (music) * Groove (drumming) * The Groove (band), an Australian rock/pop band of the 1960s * The Groove (Sirius XM), a US radio station * Groove 101.7FM, a former Perth, Australia, radio station * ...

with brief

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

improvisation. For most of the track, the titular

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

is sung with an interval of approximately four seconds, or more accurately two 4/4 bars, the length of the guitar riff. The riff provides a harmonic ground of

C♯ minor C-sharp minor is a minor scale based on C, with the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature consists of four sharps. The C-sharp natural minor scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are ...

G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

, which remains unchanged throughout the song.

Music video

The video for "Detachable Penis" was directed by

Richard Kern Richard Kern (born 1954) is an American underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to prominence as part of the cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films like ' ...

at the suggestion of drummer Roger Murdock. Hall called Kern "the perfect choice." The video consists of a literal visual depiction of the song's narrative, interspersed with shots of the band performing and an anonymous woman simulating attaching and detaching the organ of the title (represented by a dildo complete with artificial scrotum and testicles).

Commercial performance and effect on band

In a 2003 interview, Hall stated that the commercial success of "Detachable Penis" led to a commercial backlash: " ter that CD 'Happy Hour'' we didn't really get a lot of airplay. A few stations continued to be supportive, but I think that the success of 'Detachable' resulted in a lot of people getting pretty tired of what we were doing. That is one of the bad things about having a 'hit.'" Moreover, said Hall, the band realized that the song had drawn in many casual fans who did not care about the rest of the group's material; thus, the band began to play the song "early in the set, so that the people who didn't like us could leave, and we could play for the people who cared. That worked out well. People did leave."

Interpretations

"Detachable Penis" has been subject to a wide array of interpretations. Some people take the lyrics at face value, while others see the story as an elaborate metaphor. In his review of ''Happy Hour,'' Michael C. Harris of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' wrote of the song: "A parable of self-emasculation? Who knows? And Hall's not telling." In a 1998 interview, Hall remarked,

Charts

References

{{authority control 1992 singles 1992 songs Comedy songs King Missile songs Manhattan in fiction Music videos directed by Richard Kern Novelty songs Spoken word Songs written by Chris Xefos Songs written by Dave Rick Songs written by John S. Hall Atlantic Records singles Human penis