Raiders of The Lost Record Crate: FISH HEADS by Barnes and Barnes (1980)

Roly-poly fish heads are never seen drinking cappuccino
In Italian restaurants with Oriental women

The problem MTV had in its earliest days was that it needed content.  As I mentioned last week, a lot of American bands didn’t want to make these newfangled ‘music video’ things because they felt it diluted the music.  Luckily, the tradition of making film clips tied in to new singles was common in Europe, but there were still...spaces on the nascent network’s schedule that needed to be filled.

...which meant that Bill Mumy’s novelty act ended up on the television screen in the Hunter College Student Lounge.

Formed as a joke, named after a Bill Cosby routine, and intended to be a way for Mumy and childhood friend Richard Haimer to amuse themselves, Barnes and Barnes became something of a sensation on The Dr. Demento Show in the late 70‘s.  ‘Fish Heads’ was one of two songs they submitted to the legendary musicologist’s program in 1978 and rapidly became the most requested in the show’s history.  In 1980, producer Jean Doumanian asked the duo to submit a comedy short for an episode of her singular season of Saturday Night Live.  Mumy and Haimer teamed up with filmmaker and actor Bill Paxton (who would later go on to form his own band, Martini Ranch) to adapt the song for the television show.  It was shown on one of SNL’ December episodes.

It’s not surprising that the video was picked up by MTV when the station launched eight months later.  I remember seeing this in the morning hours between classes.  I was a listener to the Dr. Demento Show, so I was familiar with the song.  At that time, I didn’t like it much--and truth be told, I still don’t like it.  But that something this primitive, this...well, transgressive...was shown in the morning hours when everyone was awake and alert is pretty amazing.  But then, simultaneously MTV had experimental music collective The Residents--known for their eyeball helmets and decidedly non-pop pop music--were on All The Time.  The presence of a former TV child star dressed in a garbage bag fondling a fish head is just indicative of the network’s initial Wild West Nature.