The Oblivians have been influential -- even inspirational -- to so many, we figured we’d see what people had to say about them. Here’s what some of our
favorite musicians told us about their favorite Oblivians songs.
“Nigger Rich” from Soul Food. I like “Nigger Rich” because it makes me feel good inside and want to destroy a party. - John Wesley Coleman III
On cops:
I stopped calling the cops! ‘Cause one time I was asleep in my bed in my home, sleeping, and I heard a woman screaming, being murdered horribly.
Screaming, just like being murdered very badly. So I called the police and I said “Uh, hello, there is a woman being murdered next to my home, and
it’s horrible.” She was screaming -- it sounded like somebody was ripping the sheets off her back. Just like, “reaaaghh!” So the police came and the
screaming had stopped, ‘cause she was probably dead at that point. They came around and shone a flashlight and saw that my car was parked on the
street and gave me a parking ticket and left. That was the last time I ever called the cops. The woman’s probably eight feet underground, I don’t know,
maybe ten, maybe somebody evaporated her in a bathtub, somebody probably burned her up in a bathtub fulla acid or some shit, or maybe chopped her
up into pieces and put them in different suitcases and threw all the suitcases off the overpasses on the highway or into the river or the ocean, that’s what
they like to do around where I live.
On boiling water:
I was a kid and my family owned a restaurant. Still do. It’s called Moustache, it’s in New York City, America. I was a little kid and my father used to take
me to weird places I didn’t know about, because, you know, when you’re a kid you don’t know what’s going on. Your father just tells you “We’re going here,”
and you go there. Sometimes we’d go to somebody’s house, we’d have to fix the plumbing, and I’d have to sit there while they fixed the plumbing. Other
times, you know, the car would catch on fire. Things happen when you’re a kid, you don’t know what’s going on. So my family had a restaurant and this guy
came in one night, he was real quapped up and he was disrespecting a waitress, and the dude cooking, he didn’t like that, so he went in the back and he
told the guy to stop. He told the guy “Hey, stop, you’re disrespecting the waitress,” and the guy was like “Fuck you,” so he went in the back and got a big
pot of boiling water and just dumped it all over the guy. And the dude was probably burned real bad, like in Indiana Jones when the guy’s like “Ahhh.”
So I didn’t realize that was the connection. So the next day I wake up and my father’s like “We gotta go, we gotta go,” and I’m like “Where do
we gotta go?” and he’s like “Downtown.” He never told me the details, I’m a child, you know? I was like five. So we get there and we go to the jail and I’m
like “Oh, this is pretty cool, I’m in jail!” And he was at this window, giving the guy a bunch of money, and I’m like “Whoa, this is pretty cool.” And they
finally brought the dude down, and I didn’t know what was going on. Then way later I was like “Hey, what ever happened on that day when we had to go
to jail?” and he was like “Oh yeah, he threw a pot of boiling water all over this guy and we had to bail him out.” It was weird, because I was older, and I
remembered that guy being a nice guy when I was a kid. I liked that guy a lot. And then as I got older, I was like “Oh man, he threw a pot of boiling water
all over somebody. I thought he was a nice guy, but...” And then I thought about it even further and I was like, “You know, that’s a pretty good idea.” Like,
if a motherfucker is fucking with you, and you wanna put an end to the conversation very immediately...I would prefer, if I wanted to fuck a motherfucker
up, I would say, giant pot of boiling water poured over his head, would teach him more of a lesson than a bullet. But that’s weird. I’m not gonna do it.
But if you’re a real bad motherfucker, forget about a fuckin’ gun. Melt that motherfucker! Melt his fuckin’ flesh off his fuckin’ face! You don’t
even gotta shoot him, you don’t gotta risk illegal status with a fuckin’ unregistered weapon, or any kinda weapon at all! All you need is a little bit of
water. Heat the motherfucker up, throw it on a motherfucker, motherfucker will be beyond gone. Forget it! Motherfucker will be a fuckin’ Halloween
skeleton in a puddle of his own former flesh, on the fuckin’ dirty floor. If you get lucky, all of his flesh and eyeballs will just roll down the gutter into the
sewer and you’ll be left with a Halloween skeleton on the curb. Then you can throw it in the bag and take it down to the glue factory. Vanished without a
trace! Never to be seen again! Peace! Hang him from a hanger in the basement! Put him on the front door so the little child won’t take the Tootsie Roll.
“Eeeeeeeoooooohhhhhh! Eeeeeeeoooooohhhhhh! Don’t step on the doormat! It might light up. Happy Halloweeeeeen!” Remember that? “Please take one
piece only!” Then your uncle gets dressed up in a costume and pretends to be a rubber dummy in a rocking chair and the little kids come to take the
candy out the bowl and he’s like “Bahhhh!” and all the kids run away, your uncle gets arrested ‘cause he, you know, is a bad guy.
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“Live The Life” (live on WFMU) from Best of the Worst. It’s a little rougher and more ferocious than the version on Play 9 Songs With Mr. Quintron, which
sounds like it could have been made by legit Christian dudes. I like how the vocals on the live version kind of oscillate between righteous indignation and
furious anger. They’re doing these ridiculous over-the-top Southern accents when they’re talking before the songs starts. Greg is like “I need a little bit of
moment of silence here, I gotta get myself straig