One of the stranger novelty songs from the ’80s has to be the Bollock Brothers’ “Harley David (Son Of A Bitch)” (download) — I say “stranger” because my friends and I had no idea it was supposed to be a novelty song. We thought it was just another dirty industrial ditty from our friends at Wax Trax Records.
“Harley David” is actually a cover song, originally written by French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, huge in Europe but basically a non-entity here. You may know him as the drunken skeevy perv who, while sharing a talk show panel on French TV with Whitney Houston in the ’80s, pointed at her and slurred, “I want to fuck her” (read that in a really sleazy drunk French accent for full effect).
Released in the States on Wax Trax partner label Play It Again Sam Records, the Bollock Brothers’ version of “Harley” caught the fancy of alternative and underground dance clubs in 1987, becoming a famous chant-along song in the tradition of Billy Idol’s version of “Mony, Mony” (“Hey! Hey, what? Get laid, get fucked!”). I’d never seen it until scouring on YouTube, but there was even a super budget video:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vwDRBZ3yhFc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
You have to wonder if the Bollock Brothers expected this song to get any airplay anywhere with its “bitch,” “shit” and “tits” and all. Then again, this was coming from a group who previously remade the entire Never Mind The Bollocks album track for track, only with synths a la New Order.
Son of a bitch.
“Harley David” did not chart.
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