"How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" by The Fall

[carale1986]

They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pave- ments, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us! Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies! gone down the American river!

Just like that rich painting he recoils in from on the face of the New Yorker.

[plastikscene]

good stuff

[nath909]

Still the best

[MsJohnnyMoped]

The Plastic / Elastic thing also interested John Peel.

[cha1tman]

what album is this on?

[euanm99]

TC - What's 'How I wrote Elastic Man' about?

MS - Writers, which is why Dave McCullough didn't like it. It's about a guy who wrote a book called 'Elastic Man' and everybody gets on his back about it, he's a celebrity and it fucks up his art.

[crassology]

silicon is a type of "Plastic" but most modern plastics are made from petrol based products and not sand. Elastic is more rubbery. Plastic does have a broad definition and can even be made from peanuts (As G.W.Carver proved). What does "Plastic man" have to do with this song? why does everyone associate it with that comic book? Or did he really write the song based on it, changed it to elastic as to not pay royalties such as "Sparta". :P

[indevelopment]

The whole point of the song is the 'writer' wrote 'elastic man' but everyone fucks it up and refers to it as plastic man and it drives him fucking mental.

[mikkifly]

i saw mark in the dry 201 bar in manchester in the early nineties,went up to him and asked how he wrote plastic man,he told me to fuck off,then smiled.great great bloke.

[Durriti66]

One of my favourite Fall lyrics. According to the Fall lyric book (German semi official release from years ago), it is 'plastic man' he sings. I always I thought it might be subtle dig at Ray Davies due to the Kinks song 'Plastic Man'.

[josephinewinter]

Unbelievable, there was a plastic man! And you found all those covers and made that video, so lovely. And yes, it is plastic man, i always thought.

[Applemask]

"How on earth did Plastic Man end up on the cover of the New Yorker?"

Art Spieglman drew that cover. Spieglman believes Plastic Man rules. He is correct.

[TheDavmanu]

fuck it let the beard grow... best lyrics ever

[NewLouReeds]

I always thought this song was essentially the same as "I am damo suzuki," or "paranoid man in cheap shit room," it's a song about alienation. MES says 'plastic man' b/c he's self-aware that he's misunderstood. The song is called "How I Wrote Elastic Man," yet the 'mental wrecks' keep asking him "How he wrote 'Elastic Man'?"

"They will stop me in the streets and they will ask me..."

[wiggaroo]

baddiel and skinner's cover of this is amazing

[66gadus]

he sings plastic man but uses elastic man as the title - something to do with the copyright of the plastic man comic strip i think - ie he can sing it but it can't actually be written down on the record or cover - ?

[111noir2000]

..for the record..the song is call "How I wrote 'The Elastic Man' "..and yes he does say "elastic", he just runs the words "the" and "elastic " together...

[oHelmslyo]

Mark E. Smith and The Fall epitomize brilliant yet simultaneously meandering inconsistency, which then is often followed ironically by a given period of relative consistency. As John Peel said, "they are always different; they are always the same". Thus, he could be singing "Elastic man", "Plastic Man", "Vlasic Man", "Lasick Man" or something along those lines despite the song being called 'How I Wrote Elastic Man'. Don't put too much past Mark E. Smith.

[aircap]

The "New Yorker" cover was linked to a story in that issue about Jack Cole, who created "Plastic Man" in the 1940s. He was one of many comic artists whose careers were destroyed by censorship in the wake of Congressional hearings about the medium's influence on juvenile delinquency. Cole took his own life after being unable to find work...and he wasn't the only one. A truly sad and overlooked chapter in American history.

[bobtoomey]

@aircap You're mistaken about Cole. He committed suicide, but it wasn't because his career was destroyed by censorship or because he couldn't find work. On the contrary, he was hitting a career peak when he killed himself. He was a top cartoonist for Playboy magazine and he had just realized his lifelong dream of selling a syndicated comic strip, Betsy & Me, to over fifty newspapers. Why did he kill himself at age 44? Nobody knows, but it wasn't due to lack of success.

[taffwob]

I remeber hearing this driving home late at night on the radio 'king years ago. At first I thought what the hell was that, weeks later it was still playing my head. Odd, quirky & brilliant.

[j0nnyism]

and he actually says haulage in container drivers too

[EpicCommander]

on a side note how the fuck did they call 'stretchy' a Plastic man ?? Does Flameboy melt him before he comes into action ?? :O

[statementallity]

Note: MES sings "Plastic Man" instead of "Elastic Man" to indicate that fans and journalists can't be bothered to get the name correct.....from the fall online lyric page

[BrettCelinski]

I think he's actually singing about Blastic from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

[G7ennx]

I think the song is about people asking MES how he wrote the song. The song is called 'How I wrote Elastic Man' but they are ignorant and ask him about 'Plastic Man', the lyric has to be "Plastic Man" as the song itself quotes these notional ignorant people. All of course adding to the potential confusion. Insane and brilliant even after 30 years!

[cruiserscreek]

Yeah, think that's true, he changed it in live versions certainly, after repeated attempts by journalists asking him how he wrote such a strange song as 'Plastic Man'. The irony, pretty inherent.

[djw1964jdiv]

I think that you're spot on there G7ennx - MES at his brilliant best. Loved this song 30 years ago - even more so nowadays! "I'm too tired, I'll do it tomorrow....!"

[uiogu]

Plastic man rules, and so does this song.

[Blenhemshots]

Life should be full of strangeness

Like a rich painting

But it gets worse day by day

[wiganathletic]

He does actually say "Elastic Man" but just doesn't pronounce the 'e' of 'elastic'

[hexonatapeloop]

@wiganathletic no it's definitely 'plastic'- but 'elastic' would sound better :)

[danrimage]

Yeah, I always thought he was pretending to be Ray Davies in this song.

[michaelstmark]

How TF did he write Plastic Man?

Perhaps we will never know.

[bonyheadboard]

the kinks mate.....

[HarryUpHarry]

Everybody asks me.

Hello reddit

[HarryUpHarry]

Plastic Man has very long arms

[keeshuuk]

WHAT? Plastic Man is a cartoon (as well)?!! I never knew that! Great covers-art.

[HarryUpHarry]

e.g. self-satisfied and smug

[tchamp77]

great lines, they pop up all the time tho I hardly listen to these great tunes anymore...Ignore my dogmission...

[xavierprotocols]

I LOVE Plastic Man Anyone remember the old cartoon??

[gnowave]

a lovely inspired peice of rockabilly

one hell of a band.

is this how rockabilly sounds on LSD? i wonder... hmmmm

exelent lyrics, great bass player, great wonky guitar noise

yeh, these boys will go far! hi hi hi hi

[USchoellerbrandt]

cowpunk!

[roncronton]

A fuckin great song.....da,da,da,da,da,da,da.­..how i wrote elastic man!

brilliant

[HarryUpHarry]

Brillant

[ironzeppelinoverhead]

no you just don't understand the english accent:)

[louchy]

never even heard this song until my mate accidently pressed the wrong button on the pub jukebox and it came on, loved it ever since

[mjeshaw]

He sings "Plastic Man" because he's quoting the ignorant people who ask him that.

[hartmusc]

I guess those'll be the same people who

"track me down" and

"stop me in the shoppies" :)

Thanks for posting this one. I'm still looking for the best version of Roche Rummble.