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Mayor of Simpleton
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Mayor of Simpleton
| cover = The Mayor of Simpleton.jpg
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = XTC
| album = Oranges & Lemons
| B-side = One of the Millions
| released = January 1989
| recorded = 1988
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Jangle pop
| length = 3:58
| label = Virgin
| writer = Andy Partridge
| producer = Paul Fox
| prev_title = You're a Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel)
| prev_year = 1987
| next_title = King for a Day
| next_year = 1989
| misc =
}}
"'Mayor of Simpleton'" is a song written by Andy Partridge of the English band XTC, released as the first single from their 1989 album 'Oranges & Lemons'. The single reached No. 72 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100 singles chart, No. 1 on its Alternative Songs chart, and No. 15 on its Mainstream Rock chart, becoming the band's best-performing single in the United States.
Background
The song began as a reggae tune and went through numerous iterations. Partridge settled on its final arrangement after discovering a C major to D major picking pattern that he thought resembled Blue yster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (1976). Unlike many other XTC songs, he instructed a specific bass part to Colin Moulding: "Colin had to work very hard to get that bass line. It's very precise. It took me a long time to work it out, because I wanted to get into the J.S. Bach mode of each note being the perfect counterpoint to where the chords are and where the melody is. The bass is the third part in the puzzle." Its lyrics are sometimes criticised for its similarity to Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" (1960), but Partridge denied copying the song intentionally.
Lyrically, the song describes a man who is looked down upon by his girlfriend's peers for being reportedly uneducated and non-intellectual, stating that despite this, he is devoted to her; one lyric from the chorus is "I may be the mayor of Simpleton, but I know one thing and that's I love you."
Charts
See also
*List of Billboard number-one alternative singles of the 1980s
References
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