Why Didn't DNA Hear This Before?

DNA has liked the artist Toni Basil for a long time. If you listened to music in the 1980's, then you couldn't help but be beaten over the head by the song "Mickey," by her.


She was made annoying by radio and MTV overplay, but "Mickey," a cover of an earlier British song by the group Racer, called "Kitty," was more subversive than we could have guessed, since we were so young and innocent back then. Toni Basil was cool to DNA because of her street and film cred, (since the 1960's) and her relationship artistically and personally with DEVO. There weren't many women who were spudboys, ever, but she was. DEVO personnel played on her first album and penned three of the songs she sang, including "You Gotta Problem," "Be Stiff," and "Space Girls." She was in a B-movie slasher called "Slaughterhouse Rock" which featured several songs by DEVO.

No, don't thank DNA yet for this trip down memory lane. She gets so much cooler. The other day, DNA was listening to the song, "Mickey" again in an 80's playlist, and discovered what he always, subconsciously, knew was there. So, you have just heard the song, if you played the youtube link, and DNA presents the lyrics below:

Mickey, by Mike Chapmann and Nicky Chinn, adapted by Toni Basil

Oh Mickey, you're so fine
You're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey
Oh Mickey, you're so fine
You're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey
Oh Mickey, you're so fine
You're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey...

Hey Mickey
You've been around all night and that's a little long
You think you've got the right but I think you've got it wrong
Why can't we say goodnight? So you can take me home, Mickey

Cause when you say you will, it always means you won't
You're givin' me the chills, baby, please baby don't
Every night you still leave me all alone, Mickey

Oh Mickey, what a pity, you don't understand
You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand
Oh Mickey, you're so pretty, can't you understand
It's guys like you, Mickey
Ooh what you do Mickey, do Mickey
Don't break my heart, Mickey

Hey Mickey
Now when you take me by the... who's... ever gonna know
Every time you move I let a little more show
There's something you can use, so don't say no, Mickey

So come on and give it to me anyway you can
Anyway you want to do it, I'll take it like a man
Oh please baby, please don't leave me in this jam Mickey

Refrain1:
Oh Mickey, what a pity, you don't understand
You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand
Oh Mickey, you're so pretty, can't you understand
It's guys like you, Mickey
Ooh what you do Mickey, do Mickey
Don't break my heart, Mickey

The song doesn't get interesting until the last verse. Remember, this song was originally about "Kitty," and if you just let your mind wander down double entendre lane where rock and roll lives, you understand what the song was about. So here is the last verse again, reading between the lines with DNA.

Hey Mickey
Now when you take me by the... who's... ever gonna know
DNA humbly submits that when she says take me, she means biblically.
Every time you move I let a little more show
There's something you can use, so don't say no, Mickey ......A rubber! She's telling the dork to use a rubber and he'll get laid! Notice in the video as she says this, she brings her hands together and prays that he will slip a jimmy hat on.

So come on and give it to me anyway you can Okay, are you ready?
Anyway you want to do it, I'll take it like a man If you were having sex, and she says she'll take it like a man, just what does that mean? Ass fucking. She's talking about weapons of ass destruction. How else do you take it like a man, sexually, if you are referring to getting fucked? Like a man? In the ass. Also, notice in the video, she does the one-person make out move here, in which her arms wrap around herself and go over her body.
Oh please baby, please don't leave me in this jam Mickey Or, Don't be a douchebag, ya litte bitch, it's my turn to ride the baloney pony.

The more DNA listens to it, the more he is convinced that Toni Basil converted the irony of a song about Kitty, and made it a song about the boy being hesitant to engage sexually, and then spelled out just how open she would be to anything he wanted to do. In other words, the cheerleaders in the video, and a generation of girls grew up singing and dancing to a song about getting F'd in the A.

This is why Toni Basil is cool. Subvert, subtlely. DNA's hat is off to you.