Electric Six – "Danger! High Voltage" (2002)

Fire in the disco!

Fire in the disco!

Fire in the Taco Bell!

[NOTE: You may find today’s post boring – you may even hate it.  But I’m very pleased with it because it doesn’t simply recount some incident from my life, or analyze the lyrics or musical structure of a song – which is what many of my 2 or 3 lines posts do.  For better or for worse, today’s post is much more a creation of my imagination.  I started with nothing more than a photo of a bumper sticker, and ended up with something that I never saw coming until it was too late.]

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While I was riding my bike near the University of Maryland today, I came across this bumper sticker on a parked Chevy Trax:

I caught a glimpse of the guy who was driving the car, and I can say with a high degree of confidence that at least one of the statements on that bumper sticker is a lie.  (Maybe both, but at least one.)

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“Danger! High Voltage” was released by the Electric Six in 2002, and made it all the way to #2 on the UK pop singles charts early the next year.  It didn’t sell at all in the U.S.  (What is wrong with you Americans???)  

The critics mostly loved the record.  One British publication called it “insanely catchy,” which is true enough.

It’s a great record, but its music video makes “Danger! High Voltage” exponentially greater.  (If the record is “insanely catchy,” the music video is “insanely insane.”)

I was unfamiliar with “Danger! High Voltage” until I heard it Drew Carey’s Sirius/XM radio show (“Friday Night Freak-Out”) a few weeks ago.  Drew, I’m sending you a heartfelt “Thanks, bro!” for sharing so many great records with me!

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The woman in the “Danger! High Voltage” is a French actress named Tina Kanarek.  (She isn’t singing on the record – apparently Jack White of the White Stripes is singing the vocal part that she lip-synchs to in the video.)

Tina Kanarek

There is little information about Ms. Kanarek on the internet.

The South London Theatre’s website has several photos of her performing in that community theatre’s  productions back in the sixties and seventies, and a brief bio:  

Tina was a Gold Medal graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which she attended with certain other fine actors who might still be recognized, such as Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Peter O'Toole. Her professional career was cut short by a serious bout of hepatitis which she caught on tour, so that most of her work after that was in the community theatre. 

Here’s a photo of her from a 1968 production of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone: 

And here’s a photo of her from a 1971 production of Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw:

She was SEVENTY-TWO YEARS OLD when the “Danger! High Voltage” video was made.

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Here’s an exchange relating to Tina Kanarek that I found in an online discussion forum:

Cougar Hunter:  Bizarre video.  But, are you also attracted to the woman?  I love her.

(I second that emotion!)

Scott K: IMO, she’s past the point of do-able.

(I have two things to say to Scott.  First, you are clueless when it comes to what makes a woman hot.  Second, there is no hyphen in “doable,” YOU MORON!)

BrendanO: That’s a great “Wrong hole!” face she makes.

(That may be the funniest line ever written.  But if you don’t get it, you’ll have to ask a friend what it means because I’m too embarrassed to explain it.)

Isvoid:  It’s time she walked out on the ice to be eaten by polar bears and then picked clean by arctic buzzards.

(Isvoid is as clueless as Scott K.)

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I was very unhappy to find out that Tina Kanarek died in 2006.  I can’t imagine I will ever find a woman who’s my age and so dementedly attractive.  (Would “attractively demented” be better?  Neither one sounds quite right, but hopefully you catch my drift.)

Of course, if I had been thinking straight – thinking with the big head instead of the little head – I would have realized that Tina would be NINETY-TWO today if she were still alive.  (The video was shot twenty years ago, after all.)

It’s possible that she would have been just as hot at 92 than she was at 72, of course.

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Tina Kanarek’s cause of death was breast cancer.

Once you’ve watched the “Danger! High Voltage” video, you’ll probably wonder if her cancer might have been caused by the electric-light bra she wore in it – I know I did.  

(Dick Valentine, the other character in the video, is wearing a sort of codpiece that lights up in similar fashion.  Unlike his co-star, he apparently he suffered no ill effects – at least he’s still alive.)

[NOTE TO EDITOR: BE SURE AND DELETE THIS LAST SECTION – WHICH IS IN VERY BAD TASTE – BEFORE PUBLISHING THIS POST.  ACTUALLY, MAYBE YOU SHOULD DELETE THE ENTIRE POST.]

Click here to listen to “Danger! High Voltage.”

Click on the link below to buy that record from Amazon: