I love wikipedia… It’s like “insert subject here” for dummies. Wikipedia is without a doubt one of my favorite time wasters and today I’m creating a new category on d00dj00sux0r.com called “Wikipedia Gems”. This is the first entry in that category and the subject matter is El Duce and The Mentors.
The Mentors is a rape rock band, who formed in 1976 in Seattle, then moved to Los Angeles in 1979. They billed themselves as the inventors of Rape Rock: early 1970s style heavy metal with extremely sexist lyrics.
Hoke and the Mentors worked to gain attention through farcical demonstrations of political incorrectness. Their guitarist renamed himself “Sickie Wifebeater,” and the group often appeared in public wearing black executioner hoods.[1] One reviewer suggested that “their lyrics, which consisted mostly of songs about hitting women, stealing from women, and having anal sex with women, made their anonymity necessary.”[2]
Hoke and the Mentors gained international notoriety in 1985 as a result of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s hearings led by the Parents Music Resource Center’s Tipper Gore, the wife of then-Senator Albert Gore, Jr. (D-Tennessee) into the proliferation of “obscene” lyrics in popular music. During the hearings, the Rev. Jeff Ling recited the lyrics to the Mentors song, “Golden Shower” to musician Frank Zappa, who opposed the hearings. The lyrics, which included the line, “Bend up and smell my anal vapor/Your face will be my toilet paper” elicited howls of laughter at the Congressional hearing and prompted Zappa and others to denounce the hearings as a farce. The hearings, however, ultimately led the music industry to adopt voluntary labeling of records containing objectionable lyrics – the widely recognized “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” label (jokingly referred to as a “Tipper sticker”).
His most regular entertainment gig was on the proto-Jerry Springer talk show Hot Seat, where he and his band called their music “rape rock,” stated that he could tell women want to be raped “by the look in their eyes”, and in general played a wrestling-style villain for the audience.[3] Hoke’s many appearances often culminated in being “forcibly” removed from host Wally George’s soundstage by security personnel.
WALLY GEORGE: How do you describe your music?
EL DUCE: Well, it’s “rape rock”.
WALLY GEORGE: Are you trying to tell me, you little pervert, that you go along with and encourage rape?
EL DUCE: Only peaceful rape.
WALLY GEORGE: What do you mean “peaceful rape”?
EL DUCE: Well, when she’s passed out on drugs……
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I wanna know what you are trying to contribute to society.
EL DUCE: Well, I’ll tell ya. A bunch of illiterate children. Children without a father.
On April 19, 1997, El Duce was hit by a train (some say under mysterious circumstances) and thus ended the classic Mentors line-up.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldon_Hoke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentors