On the paranoid reactionary ethos of Purple People Eater
Well I saw the thing comin' out of the sky
It had the one long horn, one big eye
I commenced to shakin' and I said "ooh-eee"
It looks like a purple eater to me
Here, against the dilemmas fully-formed adults face, the narrator contrasts the "unilemma" of the PPE: It's only problem is that which stands in it's way from it's goals. And what is that goal?
Here we see the true nature of the PPE: he is the irrational hedonistic force devouring the youth culture of Sheb Wooley's day: Rock and Roll. The reference to "Purple People" is a bit subtler, but a quick quotation quickly resolves the problem
It had the one long horn, one big eye
I commenced to shakin' and I said "ooh-eee"
It looks like a purple eater to me
Here we begin with a description of the beast. What do we notice? Well it's purple(more on that later) but more important for right now is the undeniably sexual aspect of the PPE. It's one long horn and one big eye unmistakably conjure the image of a phallus, provoking the narrator's dread. The cyclopean PPE at first provokes a Lovecraftian dread of the body, and the monomaniacal nature of the hedonist.
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
(One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater)
A one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One eye?)
(One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater)
A one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One eye?)
Notice the focus on the one eye. Remember the expression "the eyes are the windows to the soul". Well, the PPE only has one. This represents it's monomania and it's unitary soul. Against the Western tradition of unified soul, the narrator would probably contrast Jayne's view on the nature of our consciousness as fundamentally binary, rather than unary. A monster, for Sheb Wooley, is a being that has only one "I"
Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn't eat you cuz you're so tough
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn't eat you cuz you're so tough
Here we see the PPE lose it's appearance as a true beast and become a much more suble threat. It false flatters the protagonist by appealing to his sense of self-preservation, but as we will soon learn, the PPE only spares life for the conquest of the mind and soul.
It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One horn?)
One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater
One-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me (One horn?)
Here, against the dilemmas fully-formed adults face, the narrator contrasts the "unilemma" of the PPE: It's only problem is that which stands in it's way from it's goals. And what is that goal?
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line
He said it's eatin' purple people and it sure is fine
But that's not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band
He said it's eatin' purple people and it sure is fine
But that's not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band
Here we see the true nature of the PPE: he is the irrational hedonistic force devouring the youth culture of Sheb Wooley's day: Rock and Roll. The reference to "Purple People" is a bit subtler, but a quick quotation quickly resolves the problem
"Phoenicia is really a Classical Greek term used to refer to the region of the major Canaanite port towns, and does not correspond exactly to a cultural identity that would have been recognised by the Phoenicians themselves. The term in Greek means 'land of purple', a reference to the valuable murex-shell dye they exported."
As Wikipedia says, the true "Purple People" are the Phoenicians, the inventors of one of the first consonantal alphabets. The Purple People the PPE eats are the forces of civilization, culture, and rationality.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
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Comments
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin' purple people eater
(We wear short shorts)
Flyin' purple people eater
Sure looks strange to me
He started to rock, really rockin' around
It was a crazy ditty with a swingin' tune
Sing a boop boop aboopa lopa lum bam boom
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin' purple people eater
I like short shorts
Flyin' little people eater
Sure looks strange to me (Purple People?)
I saw him last night on a TV show
He was blowing it out, a'really knockin' em dead
Playin' rock and roll music through the horn in his head