"Television Addict" was the A-side of the debut
single by
The Victims, an early
punk rock band from
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
. The song is a mainstay of compilations of
Australian punk from the 1970s, and has been recorded by the
Hoodoo Gurus,
You Am I
You Am I are an Australian alternative rock band, fronted by its lead singer-songwriter and guitarist, Tim Rogers. They formed in December 1989 and are the first Australian band to have released three successive albums that have each debuted ...
,
The Hellacopters
The Hellacopters are a Swedish garage rock band that was formed in 1994 by Nicke Andersson (vocals and guitar), Andreas Tyrone "Dregen" Svensson (guitar), Kenny Håkansson (bass) and Robert Eriksson (drums). Andersson (sometimes known as Nick ...
and
Teengenerate
Teengenerate were a Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending fro ...
.
It was co-written
by singer-guitarist
Dave Faulkner (known at the time as Dave Flick) and drummer
James Baker
James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President ...
. The slow, menacing,
bass line, played by
Rudolph V (Dave Cardwell), is also a prominent feature of the recording. The Victims released the single independently in late 1977 or early 1978 (sources vary), with "I'm Flipped Out Over You" on the B-side.
Lyrically, "Television Addict" revolves around a youth "who went out and shot someone", and whose lawyer then attributes his actions to
violence on television: "blame the ratings for his crime." The song is, in large part, a
satirical comment on the tendency to blame popular culture for crime, rather than individuals, or broader social problems. The song ends by questioning why other social phenomena are not attributed to TV programs: "just because I watch
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, and television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during ...
, doesn't mean my brain has slipped, doesn't mean anything — at all."
The band broke up in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Baker and Faulkner were briefly reunited in the
Hoodoo Gurus, who sometimes performed "Television Addict" as an encore. The Hoodoo Gurus (without Baker) later recorded "Television Addict", and issued it as a bonus track on ''
Crank'' (2005 re-issue).
References
External links
*{{YouTube, Y1We-J4jzo8, "Victims Television Addict Australian Punk 1978"
The Victims (Australian band) songs
1977 songs
1977 debut singles