Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1997
Ocean Man
Buy Ocean Man now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'Ocean Man'" is a song by American rock band Ween, the thirteenth track on their sixth studio album, 'The Mollusk' (1997). It was released as a promotional CD single through Elektra Records in 1997. It was also released as the B-side to the earlier single "Mutilated Lips" on June 24, 1997. It is one of Ween's best-known songs, and has appeared on various film soundtracks and commercials since its release, most notably with 'The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie' in 2004. The song has been performed live at various occasions, most notably 'Live in Chicago' and 'Live at Stubb's'.
Composition
"Ocean Man" was recorded at a beach house in Jersey Shore during the off-season, which Gene and Dean Ween had rented for the recording sessions of 'The Mollusk'. The first song recorded for the album was "Cold Blows the Wind", whose theme influenced the initial two weeks of recording. "The Mollusk," "Mutilated Lips," "The Golden Eel," "She Wanted to Leave," and "Ocean Man," were all recorded during these first two weeks. "Aaron [Gene Ween] had a mandolin, he was always playing it," Dean Ween wrote in a retrospective of the album in 2017, "and we discounted it. [...] when we wrote the lyrics, it was just magic, man. Everything just fell into place."
According to "Sheet Music Boss", Ocean Man is composed in the key of E major. However, according to Tunebat, when played live the song is transposed to the key of G major and is set in the time signature of common time with a tempo of 123 beats per minute.
Track listing
* Elektra PRCD-9858-2 Promotional CD single
Reception
AllMusic referred to this song as an example of how Ween's "array of silly jokes and musical parody is richer and more diverse than most of its alternative rock contemporaries".
In popular culture
"Ocean Man" was most famously used as the end credits song for 'The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie' (2004). In late 2015 and early 2016, "Ocean Man" became an Internet meme. During this time, the song began appearing in remix videos on video sharing platforms such as YouTube and Vine. Becoming a meme also helped the band gain more listeners, with "Ocean Man" being their most listened to song on Spotify and Apple Music.
References
Buy Ocean Man now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1997