Painter Man
I was driving yesterday when this song came on my radio.
Here are most of the lyrics:
Went to college, studied arts
To be an artist make a start
Studied hard, gettin' my degree
But no one seemed to notice me
Painter man, painter man
Who wanna be a painter man?
Painter man, painter man
Who wanna be a painter man?
Tried cartoons and comic books
Dirty postcards could have done
Here was where the money laid
Classic art has had it's day
If there had been just a bit more bile, they could be Culturcide lyrics.
Weirdly enough, this art school lament received a disco cover version over a decade after it originally came out.
Boney M were a German-Caribbean group. Astonishingly, their version of “Painter man” was a hit. As far as I know, Boney M never had an American hit, but they were very popular for a few minutes in Great Britain. Their song that I am most familiar with is “Rasputin”. It includes the deathless lyric, “Rah rah Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine!” If you haven’t heard this demented 70s classic, check it out.
My mind wanders. Thinking about “Painter Man” led it to Boney M which leads it to Posy Simmonds, one of England’s greatest cartoonists. In the 70s, she drew a comic strip for the Guardian which was about the most Guardian-esque bit of entertainment imaginable. “Rasputin” made a guest appearance in a 1979 strip.
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