Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of the American singer and songwriter Jerry Samuels (May 3, 1938- March 10, 2023).
Samuels started out writing and performing normal love songs; he released a few pop records in The '50s, and Sammy Davis Jr.'s version of his song "The Shelter of Your Arms" became a Top 20 hit in 1963. However, the material he recorded as Napoleon XIV is very different. It consists of aggressively weird novelty songs focusing on mental illnessnote , often featuring unhinged vocals, atonal "melodies", and minimalistic accompaniment. These songs are about as entertaining as they are creepy — and they can be pretty creepy. One of them, his Signature Song "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", was actually a Top 3 hit in 1966 for two weeks. It dropped not due to lack of interest, but due to mental health experts stating the song was too real and that Samuels was being exploited somehow, and got it banned on radio.
However, Napoleon XIV met his Waterloo when a follow-up single ("I'm in Love With My Little Red Tricycle") and an album (titled after "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!") both flopped, and a second album intended for 1968 release (which would have been titled For God's Sake, Stop the Feces!) was canceled. Afterwards, Samuels found work as a booking agent, although Napoleon XIV briefly resurfaced in The '90s with The Second Coming, a compilation that combined the 1966 album with tracks intended for Feces and a few new recordings.
Samuels eventually passed away in March 2023, due to complications of Parkinson's disease dementia at the age of 84.
"They're Coming to Trope Me Away, Ha-Haaa!":
- Answer Song: Josephine XV replied
, "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Ha!". Meanwhile, the dog got his own response with "They Took You Away, I'm Glad, I'm Glad."note - Bedlam House: The chorus of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha":They're coming to take me away, ha ha,
They're coming to take me away, ha haa, hee hee, ho ho
To the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time,
And I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean, white coats
And they're coming to take me away...
To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds,
And basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes
And they're coming to take me away ha haaa! - Been There, Shaped History: "The Nuts On My Family Tree".
- Bestiality Is Depraved: "Let's Cuddle Up In My Security Blanket" is a love song to a cow.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The accusation of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!"
- Domino Mask: He's shown wearing one in the publicity photo above.
- Driven to Suicide: "Goofin' On the Job"... maybe.
- Gratuitous Panning: "I Live in a Split-Level Head", where the first round of lyrics are in both channels — and then each channel simultaneously plays different lyrics.note
- Last Note Nightmare: "Goofin' On the Job".
- Laughing Mad: Many of his songs.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Every single thing he's ever done, with the possible exceptions of "Iowa Pot" and "The Explorer," and the definite exception of "Goofin' On The Job." The latter is sufficiently disturbing to him that he buried it in the middle of the CD release of his complete collection.
- Manchild: "I'm In Love With My Little Red Tricycle". From the narrator's simple speaking patterns, silly rhymes, and obsession with riding around on his tricycle, it at first can be inferred that he is supposed to be a young child. But then this line comes in near the end of the song:When I am riding my little red tricycle, why do people always stop and ask me: "Why must you ride on that little red tricycle? Act your age! You know you're forty-three?"
- Napoleon Delusion: Implied. After all, a man who calls himself Napoleon XIV writing novelty songs about insanity? Two songs, "Do the Napoleon" and "The Nuts In My Family Tree", explicitly reference this.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Inverted in "They're Coming to Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!"
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Invoked in a 1988 follow-up song, "They're Coming To Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!", the fade-out lyrics reverting to "They're Coming To Take...".
- Perspective Flip: "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haa!" by Josephine XV.
- Psycho Psychologist: "Dr. Psyche, the Cut-Rate Head-shrinker."
- Psychopathic Manchild: The narrator of "I'm In Love With My Little Red Tricycle". "Weird Al" Yankovic called it an amazing song due to the Plot Twist.
- Ramping: An auditory variant: his voice gets higher and higher-pitched on the chorus to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" thanks to a variable-frequency oscillator, allowing him to gain a chipmunk voice without changing the tempo.
- Sanity Slippage Song: Probably all of them, but "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" takes the cake.
- Sdrawkcab Name: The original b-side to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" was called "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" and credited to VIX Noelopan. It was in fact "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" played backwards.
- Security Blanket: Invoked by "Let's Cuddle Up In My Security Blanket".
- Sequel Song: "They're Coming to Get Me Again, Ha-Haaa!"
- Split Personality: "I Live in a Split Level Head"
- The Stoner: "I Owe a Lot To Iowa Pot"
- Through the Eyes of Madness: ... Hee hee hah hah.
- Unreliable Narrator: Since all of the songs are Through the Eyes of Madness, this is a given.
- Who's Laughing Now?: "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Ha!"
- Word Salad Lyrics: "Bats in my Belfry". That quote up there is probably the most sensible lyrics in the whole song.
- Yandere: "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!"
