One of the best things about the late-'70s explosion is that it changed the rules for musicians across the board, and while wasn't a for-real er (or even really ), there's no way he could have made an album as willfully strange and bitterly witty as without or first raising the stakes in the outrage department. And it's a good thing; (aka ) was actually a staunch Leftist moralist wearing the cloak of a raving lunatic, and on , his rampantly cynical trades about the abuse of wealth, the collapse of values, and the emotional abuse that passed for love near the end of the 20th century cut like a chainsaw while also managing to be pretty damn funny. is nearly as ambitious as its title (and even funnier), while and say a lot more about the failings of our culture than most "serious" songwriters were offering in 1979, and side two's meditations on romance (especially ) make sound like . And while one might wish that had had a band as tough and brittle as backing him, he and producer got an admirably hard-rocking, stripped-down sound from their band of studio professionals (including , , and ) -- and was way ahead of the hipster curve in giving a guest shot on a couple cuts. And who wouldn't love an album released by the same people responsible for 's career that featured the line "I wish I was as mellow/As for instance Jackson Browne/But 'Fountain of Sorrow' my ass, motherf--ker/I hope you wind up in the ground!"? A masterpiece. ~ Mark Deming