Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Monopoly, twenty-one, checkers, and chess (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'll see you in heaven if you make the list (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
Moses went walking with the staff of wood (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Newton got beaned by the apple good (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are you having fun?
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
Here's a little agit for the never-believer (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Here's a little ghost for the offering (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Here's a truck stop instead of Saint Peter's (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Monopoly, twenty-one, checkers, and chess (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
I'll see you in heaven if you make the list (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
Moses went walking with the staff of wood (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Newton got beaned by the apple good (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are you having fun?
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
Here's a little agit for the never-believer (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Here's a little ghost for the offering (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Here's a truck stop instead of Saint Peter's (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis?
Hey baby, are we losing touch?
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believed there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool
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This I believe is the significance of stype's copious references to games such as 21 risk monopoly and the like. He also associates in the same context as these games, common stories, or myths, such as moses and staff, egypt and the snake, and newton and the proverbial apple, and of course, the man on the moon - which ultimately is a story or image for us since none of can BEGIN to experience this directly. I recall some interesting movie in the 80's where the premise was that the moon experience was all trumped up and contrived...
In the same way that andy could manipulate the breakfast with blassie, maybe there will be a truck stop instead of st peter's.
These are some initial impressions of the song. I did have a question on what stype meant by 'never believers'. 'Belief' in my analysis sketched here would be tantamount to knowing appearance, or a set of self consistant premises and propositions such as in a game like monopoly or in a wrestling match (not 'knowledge' or 'reality').
By the way, the first line of the final stanzay is "Here's a little legend for the never-believer." It's about the theory that he faked his death (truck-stop instead of Saint Peter's.)
adjit is a verb being to "shake-up" or "stir" so what you are saying still makes sense.
The alternating lines of religion and science (Moses / Newton / Egypt / Darwin) reflect the conflict between faith and fact. The second line of the refrain (up my sleeve / nothing is cool) points out that without some mystery, the march of progress does little to inspire wonder. The never-believer is you.
Anxiously awaiting my jetpack, universal translator, and a cure for cancer... Ooh look, 5 channels of home shopping network! Yeah, this is the future we wanted. Do you feel short-changed?
~ Josh
Anyways, I'll try to interpret the bits of the song I ''get'' :
**Mott the Hoople and the game of life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
Not sure about Mott The Hoople (looked them up, it's a glam band that was buddies with David Bowie, and Bowie himself did stage personae like Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke and such - so that could kinda be linked with Andy's putting himself deep into a character). By the "Game of Life" I think they mean the Milton Bradley game.
**Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
Andy and 'Classy' Fred Blassie were friends and were in an indie film
together called "My Breakfast With Blassie." It's pretty much Andy
trolling the viewer and down-talking non-city dwellers and talking
about events that had happened, like the slapping incident on Letterman.
youtube.com/…
Monopoly, twenty one, checkers, and chess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's play Twister, let's play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
See you heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
These are all games where you're trying to outspart and out-perform
an opponent, and I think it's also insinuating that all of Andy's
bizarre actions and rants were just part of 'the game' he created.
The last bit, I think is Stipe fantasizing about hanging out with
Andy in the after-life.
**Now, Andy did you hear about this one?**
A line anybody says when they're about to tell a joke,
also it could kinda be like "Did you hear this theory
people have about you???"
**Tell me, are you locked in the punch?**
It's like a friend of Andy in the biz asking
"Are you locked in the punchline that is the
character you've gotten so deep into?"
**Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby are we losing touch?**
Andy's routines usually consisted of him doing something really
bizarre, or deliberately un-amusing and then he'd break out the
Elvis bit and it was like "I sucked then, but what about now?"
The losing touch bit could be about him losing touch with the
real world, or losing touch with a friend or co-star because
of all the crazy stuff he was doing for the sake of comedy.
**If you believed they put a man on the moon. Man on the moon.**
Some conspiracy theorists think the moon landing was staged in
a sound studio, that we did it to ''beat'' the Russians in the
Space Race. It's like saying "If you believe what Andy's doing
is for real, then you'd believe pretty much anything.
**If you believed there's nothing up his sleeve, then nothing is cool.**
I think this one is like saying "If you think the man is 100% serious,
that this -isn't- all just "taking the piss," so to speak, and you
take everything he's ever said or done as the true Andy Kaufmann,
then it's all in vain, you don't get it... but then, I thought
that was kind of the point, to make people believe it really
was him when he was in the ring or on TV.
**Moses went walking with the staff of wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
**Newton got beaned by the apple good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
**Egypt was troubled by the horrible Asp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
**Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
Not sure about the Moses bit, might have something to do with the story about
the story where God commands him to make a "brass serpent" that would revive
anyone who had died from a snake bite.
As for the rest, it seems to be listing off people who made big discoveries
or took big chances and because of that, changed the world. Andy was a
pioneer and he would risk anything, even himself, for the sake of comedy,
or at least riling people up and using their venom to maintain the
misogynist ''villain'' persona he had made for himself.
**Hey, baby Are you having fun?**
Andy always talked about having fun, like it was
the only reason he did anything ever at all.
In the docu, he says after getting whooped
by Lawler, he says "I was just doing this
for fun, I always thought it was all fake."
**Here's a little agit for the never-believer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
Agit means to shake up (hence the word, agitate), so here's something
to shake up even the most hard to fool person.
**Here's a little ghost for the offering. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
I'm not sure about the meaning of the phrase above, but there's
an urban legend that Andy's ghost haunts the Comedy Store in L.A.
**Here's a truck stop instead of Saint Peter's.**
You were expecting something, but got something else
totally out of left field.
**Mister Andy Kaufman's gone wrestling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.**
A comedian and television actor makes a totally unexpected,
unexplainable potentially career destroying venture into
a field he has, as Lawler often put it, "no business
being in," it made no sense but that just may have
been the point and part of the joke.
I love this song anyway, and I can't believe there's only one comment on here!