politically oriented than Van Peebles' spoken word albums; the most political song on the album is "Save The Watergate 500", which refers to the Watergate scandal. Domestic violence is explored on "There", which Van Peebles described as "a story of how a guy who gets it on the job comes home and kicks his old lady's ass." Because Van Peebles wanted to pay tribute to another singer, he recorded a version of "Superstition", a song by Stevie Wonder, who he admired. Other songs express emotions, such as "Come On Write Me", which expresses vulnerability, something Van Peebles later said was absent from modern recordings by African American males. Van Peebles wrote "Eyes On The Rabbit" as a joke, inspired by the piano player's wife, who he described as "sappy". Van Peebles said, "I'm going to write the sappiest song I can." Van Peebles rehearsed the song at the piano player's house, where the saxophonist and his wife, and the pianist and his wife stayed inside and watched Van Peebles playing the song outside. Van Peebles walked over to the window and saw that none of them laughed at the song. He initially thought they didn't want to laugh at him, but realized that all of them were crying, and the song had a different emotional impact than he had intended. One of the watchers congratulated Van Peebles on the song, but Van Peebles explained that the song was a joke, angering him and his girlfriend, who wanted to beat Van Peebles up. Van Peebles backed off by claiming that the song wasn't a joke. Release and reception What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?! was initially released by Atlantic Records in 1974. Radio stations refused to play any song from the album, demanding an explanation as to what the symbols on the album cover's word balloon meant. Van Peebles said that it was "a private joke and his secret". In 2003, the album was reissued on compact disc by Water, a subsidiary of Atlantic. The reissued album was covered in the March 2004 issue of Spin, which recommended "A Birth Certificate Ain't Nothing but a Death Warrant Anyway" in its "The Mix Club" section as a "hot [track] to impress your CD pen pals", writing, "He can't [sing]. [...] [But] this 1974 joint is still one of the darkest R&B numbers ever." Allmusic writer Thom Jurek gave the album four out