M.A.S.H.E.R
Mostly, the Gynecologists mined pop culture – “Aunt Bee” (a character on The Andy Griffith Show), “M.A.S.H.E.R” (based on the long-running sitcom, M*A*S*H), “Love and Haight” (a reference to the center of hippiedom in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco) – news stories – “McMartin Preschool”, “Kent State” – and bodily functions – “Bloody Kotex”, “Gotta Piss”, “Peanut Butter Prophylactic” – as the subjects of their songs. The “Psychopaths” side of their first release, an EP called Feces and Psychopaths (1981) includes songs about Rev. Jim Jones (who was also from Indiana) called “Jimmy Jones” and the child-killing mass murderer John Wayne Gacy, “John Wayne Gacy”. Another song, “Dahmer’s Diner” refers to the cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
The vinyl album by the Gynecologists that I have, Bukkake Hit Parade (2002) – “bukkake” is a term used in Japanese pornography that is appropriate, but I will let you look it up if you wish – has a different name for the drummer, Pippy Longstocking. (Pippi Longstocking is a popular character in children’s literature having unusual pigtails who was created by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren). Despite the apparently comprehensive Hoosier Psychopaths, and unless some of their songs have multiple titles, the 13 cuts on Bukkake Hit Parade include more than a few songs that aren’t on the CD: “Nancy Reagan on Crack”, “M.A.S.H.E.R”, “Dahmer’s Diner”, “Across 110th Street”, and “Sally Struthers’ Tears”.
(June 2016)
