Steven claims he wrote the song in his parent's basement on or around his 20th birthday, which was June 22, The first known recording of the song was made later that year for the aborted cassette release Barenaked Recess , which didn't surface until March when a bootleg was leaked on the internet. It was then re-recorded in for the band's debut album Gordon. This is the version that peaked at 18 on the Canadian Singles Chart and for which a music video was made in by Toronto-based filmmaker Stephen Scott. The song regained popularity in the United States between and , when the live recording from the album Rock Spectacle became popular on American radio stations; this version peaked at 23 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts and at 68 on the Billboard Hot Another music video was released for this version on February 12, [1] and was also directed by Stephen Scott.

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing. Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards. Four years later, Oklahoma's governor Mary Fallin pulled the tune as the state's official rock song in a move her office said had more to do with priorities than musical taste. The B's picked chose the location of their song "Private Idaho" because the state had a reputation for being wacky and mysterious.

Skip to main content. You have exceeded the maximum number of MP3 items in your MP3 cart. Please click here to manage your MP3 cart content. Brian Wilson. Barenaked Ladies.

It was released as a single from the band's debut studio album, Gordon , and peaked at number 18 on the Canadian Singles Chart. In , the song peaked at number 68 on the US Billboard Hot In , Wilson responded with a cover version that was released on his live album Live at the Roxy Theatre. The song generally tells the story of a man whose life parallels that of the Beach Boys ' Brian Wilson , particularly during his time spent with psychologist Eugene Landy after Wilson was diagnosed with mental illness , and, more broadly, with lyrics about suffering from comorbid mental illness and obesity. Steven Page stated in the liner notes for Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits that the song has more "official" recordings than any other song in their repertoire, saying that there are at least five.