Roots, Rock, Ridicule: The Mojo Manifesto (***)

Created
Sun, 05/03/2023 - 12:30
Updated
Sun, 05/03/2023 - 12:30
How do I describe Mojo Nixon to the uninitiated? Psychobilly anarchist? Novelty act? Social satirist? Performance artist? Brain-damaged? Smarter than he looks? The correct answer is “all of the above.” “Mojo Nixon” is also, of course, a stage persona; an alter ego created by Neill Kirby McMillan Jr., as we learn in Matt Eskey’s The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon (available on digital platforms March 17th). My gateway to Nixon’s oeuvre was via “The Dr. Demento Show”, a weekly syndicated program we aired at the radio station I was working at back in the 1980s. The song was called “Elvis is Everywhere.” Elvis is everywhere, man!He’s in everything.He’s in everybody…Elvis is in your jeans.He’s in your cheeseburgersElvis is in Nutty Buddies!Elvis is in your mom! It wasn’t so much the hilariously absurd stream-of-consciousness lyrics, as it was the unbridled commitment to the vocal that hooked me right away. Who was this guy? Turns out I wasn’t the only person sitting up and paying attention. While Nixon and his partner-in-crime Skid Roper (aka Richard Banke) already had a modest cult following and several albums under their belts, it was the surprise popularity of that 1987 single (and its accompanying video) that brought him to the attention of MTV viewers and to the public at large. However, his follow-up “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child”  put him at odds with MTV execs, who flat-out refused to air the video without several proposed edits. In a…