The Flaming Lips, She Don't Use Jelly, Live on Letterman


Welcome to part 44 of my youtube countdown!  Today I bring you a real blast from the past.  It’s the Flaming Lips on the David Letterman show in 1995 performing their only commercial pop hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly.”  I discovered the Flaming Lips when I was 17 years old ten years ago, right before they blew up again in the pop culture landscape.  They are kind of impossible not to love.  Their sound is a psychedelic mix of screeching yet melodic electric guitars, bodacious larger than life drumming, and lead singer Wayne Coyne’s unmistakable, warbly high, pitched croon.  For whatever reason, “She Don’t Use Jelly” made it to #55 on the US Billboard charts, probably just riding the grunge wave of the early mid 90s, but the Flaming Lips were never a grunge band.  They have always been a psychedelic garage band bent on pop music domination, clawing their way to immortality by recording dozens of gorgeous songs and records, having an always incredible experimental live show, and lastly, just through sheer grit and determination.  They are the ultimate underdog story in rock history.  So, without further ado, I present to you their epic ode to female masturbation, with Paul Shaffer making another appearance in a band that no one would have ever have guessed he performed with.  Enjoy.