My Top 1000 Songs #937: (I'm Stuck In A Pagoda With) Tricia Toyota

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

L.A. punk band The Dickies were an early purveyor of punk-pop, songs that could be played furiously fast & loud but tended to be on the goofy side, paving the way for everyone from the Dead Milkmen to Green Day. They had a lot of great covers that were great to break up one of my college radio shows, everything from "Nights In White Satin" to "Sounds Of Silence" to the Banana Splits theme, all played rapid-fire and checking in at about 90 seconds.

But they also had plenty of fun originals. "(I'm Stuck In A Pagoda With) Tricia Toyota," off 1979's Dawn Of The Dickies, was a particular favorite, a dopey ode to L.A. newscaster Tritia Toyota (misspelled on the record). And, yeah, the cliched deployment of the "East Asian Riff" (see also The Vapors' "Turning Japanese"), not to mention some of the lyrics, are a bit problematic. But kudos on a well-rhymed Abe Vigoda name-check. Ultimately, that blissfully cheery sing-along chorus wins the day, one of those almost supernaturally catchy hooks that I'll still find myself singing in the shower 40 years after first hearing it.

Live 1995: