"(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River" is a song by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

TISM TISM ( ; an acronym of This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia on 30 December 1982 by vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese and keyboardist/vocalist ...

, released in June 1995 as the second single from their third studio album, '' Machiavelli and the Four Seasons''. The song peaked at number 23 on the ARIA Charts, becoming the band's highest charting single and polled at number 9 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 1995 The band performed the song on the

RMITV RMITV is a not-for-profit, community access television production facility based at RMIT University City Campus in Melbourne, Australia. It is a full member of the Melbourne Community Television Consortium, a not-for-profit consortium that o ...

show

Under Melbourne Tonight ''Under Melbourne Tonight'' is a weekly live variety hour television program produced by RMITV that broadcast on C31 Melbourne in 1993. Reaching a weekly viewership of 55,000 people each week, the show was reviewed in ''The Age''s Green Guide ...

in April 1995.

Meaning and controversy

The track is a criticism of celebrity worship, using the then-recent death of

River Phoenix River Jude Phoenix (; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor. He was known as a teen actor before taking on leading roles in critically acclaimed films and becoming one of the most preeminent talents of his generation. Pho ...

as its focus. It contains the opening line, "I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix". Controversy surrounded the release of this track.

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' Australian-born bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary (a close friend of Phoenix) reportedly left "wanting to kill" TISM. TISM addressed this controversy in 2004: "By the same token, Hitler-Barassi says, 'I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix', the line that famously enraged Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, 'wasn't about River Phoenix at all. That song was about fame, and the people listed in it weren't even real celebrities." Two cover art variants exist - the first one, a mockup of Phoenix' tombstone, was rushed to the market after the song's success on radio. A second variant, featuring an image of various drug pills and the hook, "I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix", was released shortly after.

Reception

Double J named it in the top fifty Australian songs of the 1990s, saying, "The song is a riotous techno-punk romp that namechecks a range of celebrity deaths, prodding those who obsess over these morbid events far more than the celebrities themselves. Like TISM's best work, you can take it on its provocative face value or, you know, read the lyrics."

Track list

CD single (G003) # "(He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River" – 2:25 # "Abscess Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" – 2:47 # "Dicktatorship" – 2:00

Personnel

* Damian Cowell – lead vocals (choruses) * Peter Minack – lead vocals (verses) * Jack Holt – bass * James Paull – electric guitar * Eugene Cester – keyboards

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River 1995 singles TISM songs Songs about death Songs about heroin 1995 songs Satirical songs Shock Records singles