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The song has a driving beat and infectious rhythmus but it’s the lyrics that have the press talking. Lyrics like “He’s such a timely hero, He’s the headline in the news” and “See him call the press men, as they stumble to his side” and “He’s the archangel of history, he’s a bit stiff on the rise, I’ll never know why you followed him, I guess you just fell for his lies.” And from the third verse “When you live in a troubled world where people don’t stop to wonder, there will always be a madman coming down on you like thunder” And lines in the chorus like “He’s the Dog King” and “He’s a bit mean but so are we all.” There is even talk of a cryptic recording of what is purported to be a Trump rally mixed in near the end of the song but how would that even be possible, to have a recording from an even that is over 30 years in the future?
When contacted by members of the press, regarding why the song has such a striking resemblance to the rise of Trump, former Decadent Band member, James Mc Cown, who currently resides in Riverside California, said “Spike and Florian (who wrote the song) were kind of like prophets in many ways and predicted other things before they came to pass so this doesn’t surprise me”
It’s not known exactly how the press got interested in this but it is rumored that someone on the staff of TMZ bought a copy of Subliminal Hokum (a very rare record which can go for upwards of $50 a copy), listened to it, heard Dog King and made the connection.
The Decadents released Subliminal Hokum in 1983. Although only 1000 copies were pressed they sold out almost immediately. It was recorded by all of the original members, Florian Gray, Lead Singer, Spike Karrigan, Lead Guitar, James Mc Cown, Bass Guitar and Jimmy Miller, Drums. McCown left the band in the mid 1980’s. He moved to Houston Texas where he became a founding member of the Rock-Danceabilly band The Footnotes. The Decadents continued on a few more years with Bruce Paller and a guy named Bugs replacing Mc Cown but they broke up before the decade was over. Karrigan and Miller played in other bands and Gray worked on a yet to be released project called “The Descent”.
The Subliminal Hokum LP had several standout tracks including Not This Time, No Justice At All and Pipe Dreams along with Heart of The City which was co-penned and by Mark Wilkins who had a minor hit with Havin’ A Love Attack which he co-penned with Soul-Jazz-Rock band Mandrill. Mandrill has the distinction of being the most sampled band in Hip Hop. Both songs have the distinction of being the only song on both albums that is co-published.
All of other the songs on the Mandrill LP New Worlds are published by Mandrill Music ASCAP exclusively and all other songs on the Subliminal Hokum are published by Decadents Music BMI exclusively. Both songs by Wilkins are published by his publisher, Loveforece International Publishing Company. Although The Decadents played in gigs with many bands they only recorded with one other artist Evan Lee Lovefire. They can be heard on about a dozen songs by Lovefire. Loveforce Publishing saved the original Decadent instrumental tracks on the Lovefire songs and have allowed re-recordings of the songs by other artists.
Some members of The Decadents are likely unaware of the controversy surrounding a song that they released four decades ago but wherever they are we hope they are well and happy. Prophecy or coincidence, it’s still intriguing to think that someone released a song that predicted the rise of someone who wasn’t even a blip on the radar at the time they created it.
