11 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A

Big Mess Lyrics

i am cowboy kim
cowboy kim i am
i am a lucky cowboy
let me tell you why
i'm a man with a mission
a boy with a gun
i got a picture in my pocket of the
lucky one
i'll announce the winner
on the radio
with my microphone
i do a super show
i wear a cowboy hat
it is my business hat
i'm on till 1:00 a.m.
i must tell you that
i'm a man with a mission
a boy with a gun
i got a picture in my pocket of the
lucky one
who doesn't know i'm a big mess
i mean a really big mess
a big big mess he was all mixed
up and a
big mess he was a
big mess he was a
he was really mixed up
cowboy kim i am
mr. reality
the most important thing
i put away my toys

with my microphone
i do a super show
i'll announce the winner
on the radio
11 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Add your thoughts...
Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

This song is actually based on strange letters received by a friend of someone from Devo. The letters by someone who called them self "Cowboy Kim" and talked about their radio show that was on until 1 am. You should read the letters online they are really weird.

That is correct - It's about a guy who called himself Cowboy Kim and wrote bizzare letters to the bad. If you look at the actual letters they look and read like they were written by a 7 year old.

An Except: "I am a lucky Cowboy. I am Mr. reality (...) I am the busy celebrity cowboy. I am 26 yrs. old. I am a cowboy diskjockey."

Weird stuff.

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

Actually, the friend referenced in blarghllon's post was a radio DJ in their native Ohio that got these letters. She had a night show that went from around 10pm to 1 am. It was later found that "Cowboy Kim" was acutely schizophrenic.

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

From the Devo archives at Devo Obsesso...

"The Cowboy Kim Letters

Devo's song "Big Mess" on the Oh No, It's Devo LP was inspired in-part by letters that were written to an LA office that managed local game show hosts' fan mail. Devo had some friends who worked there, and the letters got passed onto them for the sake of strangeness.

The writer of the letters referred to himself as "Cowboy Kim". I can only guess that Kim had some kind of mental handicap, and I have no idea if he was really a DJ or not.

Anyway, you can see that some of the lyrics to "Big Mess" were heavily inspired by these letters. Go find a lyric sheet for Oh No, It's Devo and compare them to these ramblings by the real-life Cowboy Kim."

http://www.devo-obsesso.com/html/ultrageek_pgs/cowboykimltrs.html

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

I used to think that this song referenced the assassination of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, but I looked up the date and it precedes it by a couple of years.

There's still a "lone nut" feeling to this song - having a gun, being on a mission, the "lucky one" not knowing he's coming - it's interesting that this is on the same album as "I Desire," whose lyrics were cribbed from a published poem by would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley.

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

Maybe it's about the actor Evan Kim?

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

two possibly one words/word hitman and or hit man

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

srry big mistake when i said hitman i meant BOUNTY HUNTER totaly thats it

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

It's actually a thought-provoking song, once one gets beyond the basic hilarity, which one should be in no hurry to do.

How do we fix what's broken? It's going to take more than a pseudonym and a cheap message, is what I'm pretty sure they're saying.

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

I'm not sure who they're singing about... but it sounds intrigueing.

Cover art for Big Mess lyrics by Devo

I love this song. I think it's really just showcasing an example of a devolved being.

 
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

Ask a question...