Currently enjoying “Five Minutes” by Bonzo Goes to Washington

This one’s interesting. Bonzo Goes to Washington was a one-time collaboration by Bootsy Collins, Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and producer Daniel Lazerus. Their only recording, a single called “Five Minutes,” was released just a few weeks prior to the 1984 presidential election.

“With the election long gone,” Greil Marcus later wrote, “all the rap records featuring all the Ronald Reagan soundalikes are just so many Mondale buttons. All but one – the one the man made himself.”

Strictly speaking, Reagan’s contribution was a sample of a controversial outtake from his weekly radio address. “My fellow Americans,” Reagan said, “I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

The general public knew about the joke prior to the record’s release, but very few people had actually heard the recording, which hadn’t been broadcast. Harrison himself had managed to get a copy of the speech from a college radio station, which he mixed throughout the track in a very eighties style indeed. The speech has since been featured in a number of other tracks by various artists.

“Everyone has the right to kid around,” Harrison later said about the joke, “but that was too public. I hated Reagan’s gutting of people’s civil rights… I thought everything he stood for was awful.”

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