Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is The Monster Fact,
Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. In
Speaker 2: this episode of The Monster Fact, I'd like to continue
Speaker 2: our trend of discussing monsters that originate in works of music,
Speaker 2: following most recently an episode on the Googoo Muck. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 2: we turn to another classic novelty song and one that
Speaker 2: predates the Monster Mash by several years, nineteen fifty eight's
Speaker 2: The Purple People Eater, which, along with fifty eight's Which Doctor,
Speaker 2: helped pave the way for even more popular novelty tracks
Speaker 2: including Monster Mash, including Googo Muck and so many others.
Speaker 2: We have American singer songwriter Chev Wooley to thank for
Speaker 2: the track. A successful and highly prolific country and rock
Speaker 2: and roll performer whose acting credits include such films as
Speaker 2: High Noon and The Outlaw Josey Wales, but for many
Speaker 2: he might be most recognizable as the originator of the
Speaker 2: so called Wilhelm Scream and this admittedly stupid song. The
Speaker 2: lyrics are pretty straightforward I don't think I really have
Speaker 2: to walk you through it. A single eyed, single horned,
Speaker 2: flying alien to sinds to Earth with only two goals
Speaker 2: in mind, to eat purple people and to find success
Speaker 2: in a human rock and roll band. I don't know
Speaker 2: what if it manages to eat any purple people, but
Speaker 2: it does find success in a rock and roll band. Again,
Speaker 2: no one is arguing that there's much to these lyrics,
Speaker 2: and yet a lot has been made out of two
Speaker 2: key ambiguities in the lyrics. A lot of fun has
Speaker 2: been had with this. First of all, here's the question.
Speaker 2: Is the creature's horn indeed a living bony protusion from
Speaker 2: the skull or is it a musical instrum of some sort?
Speaker 2: Is it somehow both? Is it a musical instrument that
Speaker 2: grows out of its head? And then second, is the
Speaker 2: creature purple or does it just eat purple people? Or
Speaker 2: is it somehow both? Let's start with the first question.
Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, the idea of a horned creature with a
Speaker 2: horn that produces music is actually nothing new. If you've
Speaker 2: been listening to the show long enough, this may stir
Speaker 2: something in your memory. Because we have the mythical persian
Speaker 2: creature known as Shadhavar, and I have covered this on
Speaker 2: The Monster Fact before. According to various descriptions, it has
Speaker 2: a cranial horn with various apertures on it, and when
Speaker 2: the wind passes over those apertures, the horn produces sweet music.
Speaker 2: This music is so sweet that it draws in other animals,
Speaker 2: subdues those animals, and then allows Shadhavar to kill them
Speaker 2: and eat them. So it ends up being a tricky
Speaker 2: form of predation on the Shatavar's part. In most tellings,
Speaker 2: the creature is land based, but in some tellings it's
Speaker 2: just described as a marine creature. Go back and look
Speaker 2: for that older episode of The Monster Fact on Shatkavar
Speaker 2: if you want some more details. So obviously there is
Speaker 2: a precedent for this sort of thing, So go ahead
Speaker 2: and imagine the purple people eater as having this horn
Speaker 2: on its head with apertures that make sweet music. Music's
Speaker 2: so sweet that it can find success in rock and roll,
Speaker 2: at least for a little while. And then there's the
Speaker 2: issue of purple pigment, which I think is easily addressed
Speaker 2: by looking at the real life pigmentation of the flamingo. Obviously,
Speaker 2: The birds gain their pink or red pigmentation from the
Speaker 2: bacteria and the beta carotene in their diet of animal
Speaker 2: and plant plankdin, as well as shrimp. Color saturation varies
Speaker 2: depending on diet, but this is a classic example of
Speaker 2: you are what you eat, at least with the flamingos.
Speaker 2: Just a reminder, if you were to eat a flamingo,
Speaker 2: you yourself would not turn pink. Therefore, we might imagine
Speaker 2: that the purple people eater here is in fact purple
Speaker 2: because it acquires the pigments from something in these mysterious
Speaker 2: purple people. Purple and violet are exceedingly rare in our
Speaker 2: natural world, and of course it doesn't occur in humans
Speaker 2: outside of arguably bruising certain skin conditions and in rare
Speaker 2: cases of violet irises in the eye, but these instances
Speaker 2: would seem far too rare to sustain the alien's diet.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure we're asking questions involving alien physiology, but
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that the pigmentation would necessarily carry over
Speaker 2: into the purple people eater's body. So I think the
Speaker 2: safest thing is to assume that this alien creature eats
Speaker 2: other alien humanoids that are themselves purple. I think that's
Speaker 2: just logical. I think we can all probably agree on this, right.
Speaker 2: So there you have it. That's my take on the
Speaker 2: Purple people eater. I'm not going to pretend that any
Speaker 2: of these takes we're completely groundbreaking. I think this is
Speaker 2: the natural direction to go in with these two questions.
Speaker 2: But if you have other thoughts, if you disagree, certainly
Speaker 2: write in. I would love to hear from you. And also,
Speaker 2: if you have other monsters that originate in song that
Speaker 2: you think I should consider, go ahead and write in
Speaker 2: as well. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact,
Speaker 2: The Artifact, and Animalia Stupendium each week in the Wednesday slot.
Speaker 2: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 2: to Blow your Mind dot com.
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