"Bobby Brown (Goes Down)" is a Frank Zappa song from the 1979 double album Sheik Yerbouti. It did far better in Europe than its nasty plot would suggest: it went to number one in Norway and Sweden and to number 4 in Germany. It later appeared on the vinyl and European CD editions of Zappa’s best-of compilation Strictly Commercial (1995). For BDSM and adult-media readers the reason it sits in a songs-about-BDSM pile is not subtle. By the last verse the pretty American boy has become a self-described "sexual spastic" in golden showers and S&M, and he is thanking the woman who wrecked his script.
Synopsis: American Dream, Freddie, golden showers, S&M
The lyric follows a wealthy, misogynistic student named Bobby Brown, "the cutest boy in town." His life is the stock American Dream until a traumatic sexual encounter with "Freddie," a "dyke" tied to the women’s liberation movement, leaves him questioning his sexuality. Bobby then becomes a leisure-suit closeted homosexual working in radio promotions. By the end he and "a friend"—later implied to be his boss, because he will "do anything to get ahead," a line that also means getting head—have turned into those self-described sexual spastics. The kinks named on the record are golden showers and S&M, and Bobby thanks Freddie for the education. The joke is Zappa’s, and it is mean: women’s lib, lesbian sex, closet radio hustling, piss play, and sadomasochism stacked as the wreckage of a cute boy’s entitlement. The BDSM content is satirical, not instructional, but the song is still one of the better-known pop-rock tracks that says S&M and golden showers out loud.
Single versions and where it charted
Two single pairings circulated. Version 1 puts "Bobby Brown" (2:43) on the A-side with "Baby Snakes" (1:50) on the B-side. Version 2 keeps the same 2:43 A-side and flips it with "Stick It Out" (4:33). Beyond the European peaks already named—Norway and Sweden at number one, Germany at number 4—published rundowns of the song also list weekly, year-end, and decade-end chart tables and certification notes. Release discographies are collected at Discogs. The track remains the Sheik Yerbouti single that took piss play and sadomasochism onto continental pop charts, wrapped in Zappa’s sneer at the cutest boy in town.
