Song of the day: Famous Man

Famous Man by John Wesley Harding. Seemed appropriate. My favorite version of this is on Dynablob 2. In this live version he combines his A Fan Speaks with Famous Man.

A Fan Speaks starts with JWH running into Ray Davies at an airport and turns into a meditation of fan overidentification:

So congratulations to those of you
Who feel the need to congratulate your heroes
It may be tense for both of you
But I'm sure they appreciate the gesture
But commiserations to souls that are lost
Who feel that murder is a way to get their love across
Great god above keep the people we love
From those merely seeking attention

Next, he segues into Famous Man, which is backed by John Lennon's Mother.

Note: his site uses some very annoying Flash, so it's a bit hard to navigate or point you to a correct page; however, if you go to this page, and under Find an album pull up D2: It Happened Every Night, you can listen to A Fan Speaks/Famous Man.

Famous Man (iTunes link)

Mother, last night I shot a famous man
His music, his life, I was his greatest fan
Mother, I'm sorry for all the things that I did
I've been hiding it all of my life, shouldÌve kept it still hid
Should've kept it still hid

Mother, last night I shot a famous man
Ain't it funny the things a man does cos he knows that he can
When I raise my voice, it's a small feeble sound in the wind
To make yourself heard in this big bad world, you must know where to begin
You must know where to begin

Mother, last night I shot a famous man
But today I can't say it all went according to plan
He just looked at me, he stared me straight in the eyes
Now I know how he felt every day til he died
Every day til he died

Mother, well now people listen to me
I'm the King of America, some say that I'm the King of Comedy
Mother, now that I know what it means to be heard
I wish I put down my gun, like he put down his guitar
And I wish that I'd swallowed my words
Wished I'd swallowed my words

Mother, I knew him, but he never knew me