Napoleon XIV
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Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of record producer Jerry Samuels (b 1938 New York City) who had moderate success with the song "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" The song deals with mental illness brought about by the lover of the vocalist leaving him and was controversial at the time for its willingness to confront the subject directly—albeit humorously:
- Remember when you ran away and I got on my knees and begged you not to leave because I'd go berserk? Well, you left me anyhow, and then the days got worse and worse, and now you see I've gone completely out of my mind!...
Musically, the track is significant in that it does not actually feature any musical notes being played. The backing is provided by a combination of drums and tambourines overlaid with a siren—presumably that of the authorities' vehicle "coming to take me away". The vocals also speed up and slow down throughout the performance to signify the increasing insanity of the vocalist.
Some listeners believe the performance—or at least its percussion line and meter—might have been inspired by a Scottish marching song.
The single of "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" featured, as its B-Side, the almost unlistenable "!Aaah-aH yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" which, as the title suggests, is the A-Side played in reverse.
Napoleon XIV continued to release music after "They're Coming To Take Me Away", most of which continued with the mental illness theme (for example, the single "Bats In My Belfry"). However he did not achieve any further success.
In the early 1990s, musical parodist Paul Shanklin created a parody of "They're Coming to Take Me Away" for the "Ross Perot Update" frequently used by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show to introduce Perot-related news items during Perot's political heyday.sv:Napoleon XIV