The Residents - Exhausted from the Act of Being Polite
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
By Der Williekopf
A curious melody, hypnotic it haunts the start of the tune. The woman, obviously the mans wife, is agitated about something. What did her husband do? And why?
Third Reich and Roll
I've have given this tune long thought. I am reminded of an obscene publication I read as an adolescent. It told the story of a rather strange English gentleman of the 19th century. He had a curious perversion, or should I say, weakness. He could win the ladies, that was true. Indeed the publication loved to detail the rogering these fine women of England received down to the minutest detail. But always he would climax before the fair maidens had reached their own summit. I distinctly remember one tale where the woman ended up relieving herself on top of the stairway balustrade. The poor gentleman cried out in shame:
"I'm too exhausted by the act of being polite!"
I am certain The Residents make an appearance in this video.
So perhaps from this we can divine the inspiration of this song. Something happened the evening before. He fell asleep too soon. Perhaps before he had finished his husbandly duties.
Is there a man among us who has not felt this at one time in his life? Whether it is endlessly lapping away at her labia, or tickling her clitoris for what seems an eternity while suffering from agonising finger cramp; the effort to bring your partner to sexual ecstasy can be a torment. It can break the endurance of even the strongest man.
And so The Residents with this song have penetrated one of those unspoken taboos. A golden rule of modern relationships has been questioned. Is it possible that rather than the man being the source of the problem it is the woman, and her often drawn out and tedious sexual journey to excitement, that is at issue?
Oh those Third Reich and Rollers have really set the cat among the pigeons.
Der Williekopf
