Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Strangest Man Ever Immortalised In Song
I had the iPod on random play a few moments ago and it played, in succession, XTC's 'The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul',John Cale's 'The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy' and then Robyn Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Invented Himself'. Whilst the amazing coincidence of three consecutive songs about 'The Man' emerging from the iPod was certainly worth a ceremonial raising of the eyebrows, it set me thinking about what is the most unusual song ever put to disc about 'The Man'?
I searched through the iPod and found some more, like:
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - 'The Man With The Lightbulb Head'
Thee Headcoats - 'The Man With Eyes Like Little Fishes'
Dead Milkmen - 'The Man Who Rides The Bus'
Brian Ritchie - 'The Man With The Cigarette In His Nose'
Ultravox - 'The Man Who Dies Everyday'
David Bowie - 'The Man Who Sold The World'
The Angels Of Light - 'The Man We Left Behind'
Rainbow - 'The Man On The Silver Mountain'
Gene Pitney - 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'
The Libertines - 'The Man Who Would Be King'
A couple of these might be contenders for the title, but there must be better nominees out there somewhere?
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I'm
The Man who Murdered Love - XTC
The Man who sailed Around His Soul - XTC
Man Machine - Kraftwerk
Man Out Of Time - Costello
Wasn't The Man With The Lightbulb Head one of Robyn's?
There is, of course, also a man who somehow has had a child inserted in his eyes. Oh, hang on, he's here again.
Stand Corrected
You are of course dead right. I have mislabelled the Richard Hell song - it was of course, 'The Man With The Replaceable Head' (so it could have been a lightbulb I suppose!)
Just double checked the old vinyl copy of the Destiny Street album. It has shot me down in flames - it is a song called 'The Kid With The Replaceable Head'! So it doesn't even qualify. Never trust a download!
Frank Black
Didn't he do The Man Who Was Too Loud...I think it was a tribute to Jonathon Richman
The Man With The Child In His Eyes
About him we should worry
Every man's conscience is vile and depraved
Be Wary Of A Future Mash-Up
Put Kate Bush and Bob's song together and you've got the cover of 'Aqualung' perhaps?
Surely
The strangest man ever immortalised in song is Simon & Garfunkel's A Most Peculiar Man? The title kind of seals it.
Don't Take The Trophy Home yet
Ah, but the song says 'A Most Peculiar Man' not 'THE Most..' - so as it is not definitive there's still room for another to sneak past and claim the prize.
Who?
Who Was That Man? - Nick Lowe
Cheery
The man who couldn´t cry - Loudon Wainwright
Billy Bragg
The Man in the Iron Mask
...
The Man In Me...
...from a great film too:
Little Old St. Nick
The Man In The Santa Suit - Fountains Of Wayne...
There was that one by The Super Furry Animals.
A man untroubled overly by concern, as I recall.
And then there's The Uninhabited Man, who sounds like he may have been thought up by Ray Bradbury.
A romantic ruin am I
Funny how I catch the eye
The vacuum slowly sucks you in
I'm left no skill, no art
To meet you heart to heart
You'll find no me beneath the skin
And if there's no me then there's no sin
Some more
The Laughing Policeman - Charles Penrose
The Man Who Told Everything - Doves
The Far Out Son Of Lung And The Ramblings Of A Madman - F.S.O.L
Man In A Suitcase - The Police
The Rubberband Man - The Spinners
More Men
The Man Who Invented Jazz - Bobby Valentino
The Man I used to Be - Jellyfish
Wierder Still
The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy - John Cale
Don't Let The Man Get You Down
I did something like this a while back for the benefit of people watching via Last.FM. A few of the tracks I had have already been mentioned so I've skipped them.
The Man's Too Strong - Dire Straits
The Man Who Loved Beer - David Byrne
The Man with the Golden Arm - Jet Harris
The Man Who Danced Too Slowly - Baka Beyond
Don't Let the Man Get You Down - Fatboy Slim
How Fortunate the Man with None - Dead Can Dance
Mad Men
Man in a shed - Nick Drake
A man of constant sorrow - all those O Brother! folk
A man of great promise - The Style Council
The man you never saw - Tom Robinson Band
I found these men living in my ipod
The Man Who Built America (Horslips)
The Man Who Invented Jazz (Bobby Valentino)
The Man With No Face (Ian Dury)
The Man With The Golden Gun (Alice Cooper)
The Man Who Wouldn't Sing Along With Mitch (Halifax Three)
The Man You Never Saw (Tom Robinson Band)
Gratuitous Heroes & Villains Hitmakers shoehorning
and let’s never overlook the Magnificent Seven. . .
The Jayhawks
The Man Who Loved Life.
The Man In My iPod
The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts - Sufjan Stevens
The Man That Got Away - Jeff Buckley
The Man Upstairs - Steven Jesse Bernstein
The Man Who Left Himself - Blur
The Man Who Rolls - Shudder To Think
The Man With The Golden Arm - Barry Adamson
More Men
The Man With The Cigar - Herman's Hermits
From the top of my head
The Man I'll Never Be - Boston
Man On The Moon - REM.....Andy Kaufman must qualify for "The Strangest Man".
Half A Boy And Half A Man
The Fantastic Four
Robyn Hitchcock - Balloon Man
This jolly, clinically obese resident of New York City, probably named Bruce, explodes on 6th Avenue, showering Hitchcock with “tomato, hummus, chick peas and some strips of skin.”
While washing the remains of Bruce off his hands, Hitchcock finds himself wishing that he could ride a horse. Later the streets of New York are full of balloon men. Some are eating marshmallows and then hurling themselves from The Empire State Building.
Kinky Machine – 10 Second Bionic Man
A sexual Olympian in his own mind. Real-life performance marred by a tendency to jump the gun.
Suede – Elephant Man
Lightweight glam stomp featuring Brett Anderson at his most addled, listing the traits that he shares with an elephant:
1. Emits “fearful, piercing screams, the kind you find on cinema screens.”
2. Looks like an elephant man, just like his elephant fans.
3. Will “steal your children and smoke all your hash.”
The song ends with a warning to fair-weather friends: “Elephants never forget.”
The Flaming Lips – The Supreme Being Teaches Spiderman How To Be In Love
A bizarre, boxing allegory, exploring the existential turmoil that rages inside photo journalist and recipient of radioactive spider DNA - Peter Parker.
“Honesty can kill the spider” suggests Wayne Coyne. Apparently, Muhammad Ali agrees.
What about...
The Boy with the Arab Strap???
Does he count? Or is he too young to play?
Never heard it but heard of it
"The Man with Salt Hair" by Gorkys Zygotic Mynki.
Blimey
All these men; it's almost as if it's raining them, isn't it?
The Flaming Lips
"Guy Who Got A Headache And Accidentally Saves The World" (Clouds Taste Metalic, 1995)
Particle Man
Person Man in the song Particle Man by They Might Be Giants.
Amongst other things:
Hit on the head with a frying pan
Lives his life in a garbage can
Various Indie
The Man Whose Head Expanded - The Fall
The Man Who Shares His Meal With The Beast - Young Marble Giants
I guess when it comes down to it we're all either Working (PJ Harvey) or Waiting (Velvets) for the fella aren't we...?
You said strange...
Man-dy by Barry Man-ilow.
Nowhere Man
Also re Particle Man - They Might be Giants, there was also Triangle Man and Size of the Entire Universe Man
Quite brilliantly...
...if I recall correctly he had "a watch with a minute hand, a millennium hand and an aeon hand". You don't get that with a Timex.
Does a Mister count as a Man?
If so, then 'Mister Odd' by The Jazz Butcher from the classic 'Cult of the Basement' Lp.
If it really must be 'man' based then how about 'Lava Man' from seminal oddballs Gee Mr Tracy?
You're leaning on an open door there...
Mr Soft, Mr Raffles, Mr Lacy, Mr Magnifico, Mr Blue Sky, Mr Zebra, Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Mr Orange, Mr Tambourine Man, Mr Sandman, Mr Man, Mr Harris, Mr Self Destruct, Mr Rebound, Mr Splitfood, Mean Mr Mustard, etc.
To say nothing of
the various Mr Jones - Talking Heads, Counting Crows, Steve Gibbons Band and I'm sure there are a couple of other bands that have songs simply entitled Mr Jones. I just can't recall them.
Don't forget
Misstra Know-it-all
Why Aye
man
Man in Black
Can't believe we're this far into the thread and "The Man comes around" hasn't been mentioned. What the.......!
Strange? Grammatically speaking...
The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This-Love
don't forget
The Man In The Station - John Martyn
Man In The Mirror - MJ
Man From The Past - Tower of Power
Man In Black - Johnny Cash
surely....
the strangest man ever must be one who was Half Man Half Biscuit?