Momus - Tape Recorder Man lyrics

Come all ye rounders if you
Want to hear the tale of a tape recorder man
He travelled far and wide
Through the dusty countryside
The tape recorder man
Collecting songs of love
Collecting songs of blood
Sometimes songs of evil men and
Sometimes songs of good
(And sing irie aritty ardie and
Sing irie arrity anne)

He said the age of the machine
Would make us all the same
The tape recorder man
And we should tape record the
Songs the old men sing the tape recorder man
Because when the old were gone
There'd be no more songs just mechanical din
(And sing irie aritty ardie and
Sing irie arrity anne)

At a music festival he presented to the
World some of the folk greats
Then, with a condescending smile
He introduced us all to some electronic fakes
Saying 'The old folks don't need gimmicks
To make the music new
But here's a group of college
Kids who apparently do'
(And sing irie aritty ardie and
Sing irie arrity anne)

And he left the stage to seek some nerdy
Boffin geeks who sounded like the Pogues
Singing like the Bee Gees
Dancing like freaks, playing modular Moogs
I met him in the dressing room
At the end of the show
I said you used to be my
Hero but tonight you've fallen low
(And sing irie aritty ardie and
Sing irie arrity anne)

I said tape recorder man damn your Memorex
What about innovation, man
What about art and sex?
He couldn't share my point of view
And he freely said so
So me and the tape recorder
Man quickly came to blows
I hit out at his shoulder
Where his tape recorder hung
It slipped to the floor with a crash
The strap must've been undone
(And sing irie aritty ardie and
Sing irie arrity anne)

It exploded like a bomb from
The first world war
And seven spools of folk recordings
Rolled across the floor
A random burst of yodelling rubbed
Up against the heads
That woozy crazy spool was like
John Cage or Varese
I cried 'Tape recorder man
This I won't forget
This is folk music concrete!'
(And sing irie aritty ardie and
Sing irie arrity anne)