“Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child” is a song by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. Known for their cultural parodies, Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper released two EPs and four full-length albums in the 1980s; their 1989 LP, Root Hog or Die!, considered by many fans to be their best, contained “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child” as its lead single. In the song, Nixon also manages to insult Rick Astley (“a pantywaist”), Spuds McKenzie (“hate that dog”) and Tiffany (“wrestling in Jello”) along the way, all in just two minutes and three seconds. The song is not, however, a direct attack on any one artist, but rather a parody of tabloid gossip (hence the title) and pop culture in a similar vein to Weird Al Yankovic’s “Headline News” of several years later. It did give Mojo his first Billboard chart appearance, as the tune peaked at #16 on the Modern Rock listings in the summer of 1989. (More from Wikipedia)
With his fractured vision and his frantic singing and playing style, Mojo Nixon perhaps best personifies what is meant by “psychobilly”; he is a native of Chapel Hill (real name: Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr.). Steve Huey provides a cogent synopsis of his mystique in his biography for Allmusic: “One of the most out-sized personalities on college radio in the ’80s, Mojo Nixon won a fervent cult following with his motor-mouthed redneck persona and a gonzo brand of satire with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Nixon had a particular knack for celebrity-themed novelty hits (‘Elvis Is Everywhere’, ‘Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child’, ‘Don Henley Must Die’), but he was prone to gleefully crass rants on a variety of social ills (‘I Hate Banks’, ‘Destroy All Lawyers’, ‘I Ain’t Gonna Piss In No Jar’), while celebrating lowbrow, blue-collar America in all its trashy, beer-soaked glory. All of it was performed in maximum overdrive on a bed of rockabilly, blues, and R&B.”
(January 2015/2)
