Happy Idiot

Album: Seeds (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The Danny Jelinek-directed video for this song stars Paul Reubens as an insane race car driver. The American comic actor is best known for his character Pee-Wee Herman. TVOTR frontman Tunde Adebimpe told Billboard magazine that it was his idea for Reubens to be in the clip. "I went to the people at Funny Or Die and I had this idea of Paul Reubens as a race car driver, sort of in a 1950's-ish Russ Meyer sort of situation," he recalled. "Then it didn't seem like it was gonna go for a while. I got an email literally a week before we started from my manager and some other people at the label who just said, 'Paul wants to talk to you, call him at this number right now.'"

    "Someone had been texting me and I didn't recognize the number so I was like, 'I'm not gonna deal with that,'" Adebimpe continued. "So I got this email and it said he wants to talk to you, so I called, left a message, he wasn't there and I was like, Okay, I f---ed that up, I guess.' And then the phone rings, I pick up and he goes, 'Hey, Tunde, it's Paul Reubens.' He was just the coolest, most down to earth person ever."

    Ruebens also starred in Elton John's 2001 video for "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore" and The Raconteurs 2006 clip for "Steady, As She Goes."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.