Don't Touch my Junk

Pre-Amethios Song (Health Ranger)

"Don't Touch My Junk" exposes the aggressive, obscene pat-down procedures now being used by the TSA on air travelers. The song is based on real dialog from traveler John Tyner who secretly recorded his conversation with TSA officials who tried to perform an "aggressive pat down" on him. He tells them, "Don't touch my junk, or I'll have you arrested."

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Song Commentary (by Amethios)

Two nights ago, I just couldn't sleep. The story of traveler John Tyner just stuck in my head. "Don't Touch My Junk" seemed to be a powerful statement from a regular guy standing up to Big Brother. It was the linguistic equivalent of that Chinese student standing in the path of a tank in Tiananmen Square in 1989. And the phrase "Don't Touch My Junk" kept rolling around inside my head.

So instead of trying (and failing) to go to sleep, I got up from my bed and started typing lyrics into my laptop computer. And then the music suddenly struck me -- I had recently licensed a song by an amazing composer (Dan Gautreau) that seemed to fit perfectly with this idea, so I began to put the lyrics together with the song. Almost instantly, the chorus line of "Don't Touch My Junk" was formed.

Recording the song in just 9 hours

The next day, I started recording this song at about 1 pm. Amazingly, I finished it by 10 pm. Yes -- this entire song took no more than nine hours to fully record, mix and produce. I could hardly believe it myself, actually, because usually these things take many days or even weeks to nail down. But this one was just unbelievably rapid because I did all the recording myself, on my laptop, using a high-end microphone and audio input device.

The song contains over 440 individual recordings of my voice, singing the lead lines, harmonies, rap lines, etc. The only voice in the song that isn't mine is the scream.

All the harmonies are 100% natural. I don't use automatic harmonizers. I just sing the harmonies myself and bang them out with eight to twelve layers. As I've been recording a lot of songs lately, this process is becoming very efficient, and I can nail the harmonies usually with the first take (practice makes perfect, huh?).

But I have to admit that after singing 440+ lines in nine hours, my voice was fairly stressed for the day. That's a stretch for any recording artist.

Where the lyrics came from

In terms of the lyrics, my goal was to make this song funny, edgy and even slightly graphic (but not gross). I wanted it to tell the truth about what's going on in the airports these days, but not to turn people off from getting too detailed about the TSA's sexual molestation of little girls, for example. That's just too graphic to put into a song.

It's a delicate balance. It's hard to make a topic this serious sound funny at the same time. After all, we're talking about our freedoms here. Frankly, this is no laughing matter, but the "don't touch my junk" line was just begging for a comedy treatment, so I went for it.

On projects like these, you never really know what the public will think. No doubt a few people will decide to be offended by the lyrics, but imagine how much more offended they must feel by the TSA agents who actually perform these acts!

I think singing as a form of public protest is an important expression that will hopefully raise the kind of awareness that can lead to real changes. After all, it is rather ridiculous that we Americans living here in the "Land of the Free" are being molested by our own government agents in the name of "security."

Origins of some of the lines

On another topic, you may notice in the song some lines borrowed from the song "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas. That's where the line "This ain't your lovely lady lump" comes from.

I also borrowed from MC Hammer with the "Don't Touch This" line that just fit perfectly in the song.

The "Lordy Lordy I declare..." line is from an old schoolyard rhyme that today's youth are probably not that familiar with, but anyone over the age of 40 will instantly recognize it. The rhyme really does mention "London" and "France" which just happens to rhyme with "underpants." This is not some sleight towards France, by the way. It's just the way the rhyme goes. If anything, France's airport security procedures make a lot more sense than America's right now...

The Scottish Kilt idea was borrowed from a journalist who actually wrote about this a few days ago as a form of public protest against the TSA's unreasonable searches. I don't recall the name of the journalist who first proposed that, but I'd be happy to credit him if he'll contact me. It was a brilliant idea and I wanted to reflect it in the song.

I originally recorded it as "Irish Kilt" but then I realized that kilts, even they were used by the Irish, are more frequently associated with Scots. A "true Scotsman" was a man who wore a kilt with no undergarments. So I went with the Scottish kilt for the song.

In all, this song is really a conglomeration of ideas, sentiments and concerns carried in the minds of millions of Americans right now. It merely reflects what they're thinking -- and perhaps what they want to say -- with the benefit of being wrapped inside a comedic musical presentation that's fully protected by Free Speech (the First Amendment, of course).

That's the thing about the Amendments in the Bill of Rights: Each one helps protect the other one. Without the First Amendment, I couldn't write this song. And frankly, without the Second Amendment, Big Brother wouldn't bother paying any attention to the People at all. Each of the first 10 Amendments in the Bill of Rights are hugely important to our freedoms. And the entire point of creating the Bill of Rights was to protect the People from government tyranny.

In other words, the Bill of Rights was created precisely to protect us from the kind of thing we're suffering under today with the TSA -- an unreasonable, even criminal invasion of our personal space by overzealous government thugs on some sort of runaway power trip.

I hope you enjoy this song and share it with your friends. Spread the word that Americans will not put up with TSA tyranny. Big Brother does not have any rights to the junk in your trunk.