The Purple People Eater

Documented

Novelty single written and performed by Sheb Wooley. MGM, 1958. It was a number-one pop record. No artist-channel video of the 1958 recording was located. The link is the rights-holder audio supplied to YouTube by Universal Music Group.

What can be seen or heard

A one-eyed, one-horned purple creature comes down out of the sky, lands, and speaks. The joke, as Wooley told it, came from a child’s riddle. In the song the creature does not eat the singer. It wants a job in a rock-and-roll band, and it plays through the horn. That is the plot on the record.

What the artist said

Wooley’s account is the joke and the novelty song. He is reported to have called it a poor song that he wrote quickly after hearing the riddle. MGM is reported to have hesitated, then released it. The documented creature is a gag. It is not, on his account, a plasma event.

Outside interpretations

• JayDreamerZ, later

  A later reading of this song is his. It is filed on his creator chair, not in this recording. Wooley’s account remains the joke. Do not move the later reading back into 1958.

Living Realm comparison

A purple being descends from the sky. Prince’s “1999” has a purple sky and people running. The two chairs can be set side by side under Purple / Plasma / Sky Phenomena. Neighboring is not identity. One is a 1958 joke. One is a 1982 dream of the end. JayDreamerZ’s reading stays on his creator chair.