I'm The Urban Spaceman

"My natural exuberance spills out all over the place" is such a great line.

I have no idea what it's about.

This song always effects my mood. It will either make me giddy or.. Sad. It makes me hate being part of the generation I am in. I was born in '94 so I never had the priviledge to see The Bonzo Dog as what it is. I would have much rather experienced the prime of my life in the 60's...

Otherwise, I love this song!!!

During the 60s a lot of regeneration of war damaged areas was taking place. These were referred to as "Urban Spaces" (now known as Brownfield sites). Neil Innes reckoned that if there was an Urban Space then it made sense for there to be an Urban Spaceman to occupy it.

I agree... definitely a classic. Great song.

I love this song. But I have no idea what its all about.

Great final line though

It was just a tossoff to get on the charts.

Maybe it was the product of a bar bet. The Bonzos had a great cult following, but a wider fan base was out of their reach because they refused to play that game.

I think one of the guys said, "Bet you can't write a song that gets on the charts!" and Innes said, "Bet I can!"

And he just threw together all the elements of a pop hit; simple ABA structure, 4/4 time, elemental chord changes,, mindless, memorable melody, simple baseline, popular novelty song theme (outer space).

And it did make the charts, unlike their more sophisticated, cooler stuff.

I believe this song is about a speed freak ie-amphetamine user. "I've got speed", "I've got everything I need", "my natural exuberance" etc etc..seems to fit well.

During the 60s a lot of regeneration of war damaged areas was taking place. These were referred to as "Urban Spaces" (now known as Brownfield sites). Neil Innes reckoned that if there was an Urban Space then it made sense for there to be an Urban Spaceman to occupy it.

I think there's some lyrics about taking drugs, more specifically amphetamine.

I don't think that's the main topic of the song though, I take it to be about media portrayals of people resulting in unrealistic expectations of humans in general.

It talks about being a glossy magazine, and an advert but ends with saying these people don't really exist.

"Innes’ inspiration for the song came from two sources. One was the “urban spaces” of post-war rebuilding in Manchester: “They call them ‘brownfield sites’ nowadays. I just thought ‘well, if there’s urban space, why isn’t there an urban spaceman?’” The other was the vacuous consumerism of ‘60s advertising: “shiny, smiley-faced people eating happy meals and things like this. And so the ‘Urban Spaceman’ was a composite of the sort of an ideal figure in an advert. He doesn’t exist in real life.” With a simple melody inspired by the wailing “na-na-na-na” siren of a passing ambulance, ‘I’m the Urban Spaceman’ was very different from the Bonzos’ usual wild pastiche of musical styles and ideas." source: https://writingonmusic.com/2016/03/13/natural-exuberance-im-the-urban-spaceman/