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What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" | |||||
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| Single by R.E.M. from the album Monster |
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| Released | September 21, 1994 (DE/US) | ||||
| Format | CD single, 7" single, 12" single, Cassette | ||||
| Recorded | 1994 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 4:00 | ||||
| Label | Warner Bros. Records | ||||
| Producer | Scott Litt & R.E.M. | ||||
| R.E.M. singles chronology | |||||
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"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" is a song by the rock group R.E.M. from their 1994 album Monster. It was the first single from the album, released three weeks later. It peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #9 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was placed on R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. Records compilation In Time - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 in 2003 and is notable for being the first in history to debut at #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
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The title refers to the question one of two unknown assailants (one later identified as William Tager) asked former CBS anchorman Dan Rather while assaulting him on Park Avenue in Manhattan in October 1986. The phrase Rather reported actually hearing was "Kenneth, what is the frequency?". According to lead singer Michael Stipe he refers this song as an attack on the media, who overanalyze things they don't understand.
The Magicians Penn and Teller used the phrase on a TV trick [1] with a Nobel Prize winner.
R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe said of the incident: "It remains the premier unsolved American surrealist act of the 20th century. It's a misunderstanding that was scarily random, media hyped and just plain bizarre." On June 22, 1995, at Madison Square Garden, Rather accompanied the band during soundcheck to perform the song. The clip was shown prior to R.E.M.'s performance of "Crush with Eyeliner" on Late Show with David Letterman the following night.
Tager later claimed that he had come from a parallel universe some 200 years in the future. He also claimed that because everyone in the future had a double in the past, he had mistaken Rather for his future double, Vice President Kenneth Burroughs, and that he attacked Rather in an attempt to recover the information needed to stop the television signals being sent to his brain and return to his own time. [2]
In 1997, the New York Daily News identified Tager as Rather's assailant based on a tip from a psychiatrist. Tager apparently was convinced that the news media was beaming signals into his head, and demanded that Rather tell him the frequency of the signals. He is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for killing NBC stagehand Campbell Montgomery outside the Today show studio in 1994. New York never indicted Mr. Tager for the assault on Rather, and many skeptics remain unconvinced, although Rather accepts the Tager theory. [3]
The incident also inspired a lesser-known song called "Kenneth, What's The Frequency?" by the band Game Theory in 1987, as well as appearing in the title track for the 1995 album Junior Citizen by Poster Children.
This phrase was also used by cartoonist Daniel Clowes in his graphic novel Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, which was originally serialized in his comic book Eightball. In Eightball #4 (October 1990) the character Billings says this to Clay Loudermilk, after Clay shows him the "Mister Jones" symbol that two corrupt cops carved into his heel after beating him.
The phrase appeared in Scott McCloud's first 24-hour comic, an art form he created.
The phrase also appears in the movie Land of the Blind - on a blackboard during the main characters re-education.
The phrase also appears in Jonathan Hickman's graphic novel The Nightly News. They are the last words of Brother John Guyton, the main character, right before he shoots and kills a major news anchorman who resembles Dan Rather.
This phrase also appears in the free online video game, www.kingdomofloathing.com, when you adventure in the Sleazy Back Alley, and have the option to beat a boy named Harold asking "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"
- "is your Benzedrine" - Benzedrine is an amphetamine, a derivative of ephedrine, used as an inhalant to relieve nasal congestion and as a stimulant of the central nervous system.
- "an idiot's dream" - Compare Macbeth, "life is like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
- "Richard said, 'Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy,'" refers to a quote from the film Slacker, directed by Richard Linklater, which was itself quoting Brian Eno's collection of Oblique Strategies.
- "tooth for a tooth" - This is from a Leviticus Biblical saying that wrongs must be retaliated with like reaction ("an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, a life for a life").
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- In the music video, Peter Buck uses Kurt Cobain's Jag-Stang that he received as a gift from Courtney Love after Cobain died.
- The song slows down at the end because of bassist Mike Mills. They noticed he was in pain, but everyone followed him and finished the track. After they were done, Mills was taken to the hospital and it was discovered he had appendicitis. They never got back to redoing the song.
All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe.
- "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (radio version) – 4:00
- "Monty Got a Raw Deal" (live)* – 4:22
- "Everybody Hurts" (live)* – 5:41
- "Man on the Moon" (live)* – 5:22
- "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (album version) – 4:00
- "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (instrumental version) – 4:00
*Recorded at the 40 Watt Club, Athens, Georgia on November 19, 1992. The performance, a benefit for Greenpeace, was recorded in a solar-powered mobile studio.
- Download sample of "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" from Monster.
| Preceded by "Basket Case" by Green Day |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single September 24, 1994 - October 22, 1994 |
Succeeded by "Zombie" by The Cranberries |