Is this song quirky? Is it just plain weird? I’m not really sure exactly what to make of it, I just remember being amused by it when it came out in the early ‘90’s and I caught it on some late-night MTV show (back when MTV actually played music, of course), and after I listened to it again recently I still liked it. King Missile was an avant-garde, art rock band, and this was their biggest hit; it actually got to #25 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, for whatever that’s worth (it’s probably worth the conclusion that there were some strange damn songs on that chart).

The key to the song – other than the legitimately cool delay-treated guitar riff, the backing organ groove, and the repeated close-ups of a Robert Palmer girl mouthing the title phrase – is the Steven Wright-like deadpan vocal narration by frontman and songwriter John S. Hall. The lyrics have plenty of bizarre highlights, but personally I like it best when he eventually locates his missing “piece” for sale on a blanket in the street on 2nd Ave. near St. Marks Place, and he…talks the guy down from $22 to $17! As bargaining goes, that’s some shrewd, confident work. I might even say cocksure.