My Ass is on Fire

Mr. Bungle was the eponymous debut album released by the band in 1991, one year before FNM's Angel Dust, and two years after the release of The Real Thing.  It was produced by avant-garde jazz composer John Zorn, who to this day still shares the stage with Patton for various projects.  This album was considered "funk metal", but many other sounds are prominent (jazz, ska, metal, even carnival music).  The band was also a huge fan of David Lynch's 1986 thriller, Blue Velvet, and sampled quotes from the movie throughout the album.  "My Ass is on Fire" is no exception.

The schizophrenic and twisted style of this song represents the entire album's crazy mix of genres and overall against-the-grain sound.  As far as what this song is about, some have said betrayal, others point out the obvious nod to Dennis Hopper's character, Frank Booth, in the movie, and even more think it's all just nonsense (in typical Patton fashion), and means nothing at all.  Whatever it may be, it was well beyond it's time, and is still difficult to be listened to by those who prefer "traditional" music tempos.

The later live versions were done differently than the original, and even cut a few minutes short (the great "Redundant" part was absent from live performances in the latter years), so make sure you listen to the original first.  I'm a sucker for a quality pro-shot, so yet AGAIN we return to Bizarre Fest 2000 in Germany for this one.  If you've seen enough of Bizarre Fest, check out this version from Astoria in London, England, that same year, done in the same abridged, not-as-crazy, format (fan-shot, but still decent).  I would've been happy to hear either version live!