MANFRED MANN - “Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)”
(#244, 17th February 1968)
Beginning a hot streak for mentalist bubblegum hits: I always think of this one as a children’s song, because I heard it when I was 7 or 8 and thought it was enchanting, mysterious and funny. As a grown-up I was surprised to learn it was a Bob Dylan number - of course Dylan’s own version isn’t so surprising, as the man always did a roaring trade in shaggy-dog stories. I shouldn’t be surprised either that it makes the transition to pop so well - the Basement Tape songs strike me as an attempt to make aspects of folk (tradition, allusion, intimacy) and pop (hooks, disposability, surface impact) fold into one another in a more interesting way than just doing shiny covers of old tunes. (They’re also an attempt to have some fun on holiday, of course).
This is Manfred Mann’s best number one, free of the overplayed sneering of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” - maybe this nonsense struck more of a chord with them than that nonsense did, or they were suckered into thinking that this nonsense wasn’t, but they sound like they’re enjoying the party at least. What makes the record good though are the flute breaks and the rolling, staggering rhythm, which well suits the freewheeling invention of the lyric. 7
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Jack Fear on July 26th, 2006
You just *had* to work “freewheeling” in there, dincha.
Doctor Casino on July 27th, 2006
How funny, I was just listening to this song earlier today. It’s wonderful, of course, and has a HUGENESS all out of proportion to its arrangement (it’s the way the drums crash back in on the first line of the chorus, and the high harmony behind the lead vocal) which probably explains why nobody can believe it’s Dylan when they find out. I could really do without the ad-libby “We’re singin’ a song! Here he comes now!” additions towards the end though…
I wonder - how many other number ones have really featured such pure nonsense as lyrics? Not “Doo Wah Diddy” type nonsense - but pure rambling Dylanism? Did this glide by on people reading it as “deep, maaan” - Quinn as Christ figure, drug dealer (”everybody gonna wanna dose”)? It’s a heck of a tune with a great hook, but hands up, does anybody relate to this song?
Tom on July 27th, 2006
I would guess at the time a lot of people tried to ‘work it out’ - Dylan had been a recluse for over a year, so dispatches from him were hardly common. The Wikipedia page for the song touches on a couple of possible ‘explanations’ before owning up to the Anthony Quinn connection.
Chris Brown on July 27th, 2006
I remember (not from the time, obviously) someone stretching the eskimo/snow analogy. I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard the Dylan version myself.
It strikes me that John Lennon’s part of ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ is cribbed from this, although he’d surely have had a copy of the Basement Tapes.
Perhaps this is a sort of precursor to Manfred Mann’s Earthband and their motley selection of covers. Better than anything they did, though.
Intothefireuk on July 28th, 2006
I too recall this as a child friendly hit. Just like Ha Ha Said The Clown before it and My Name Is Jack after it the Mann seem to have stumbled upon a rich seam of mildly psychedelic nursery rhymes with flute to the fore (a later element of prog). Soon to be ‘enhanced’ and extended instrumentally by the Earthband (I think Blinded By The Light is just as good if not better). Bring back nonsense lyrics !
Erithian on July 28th, 2006
And Blinded By The Light, if you didn’t know, was a cover of a Springsteen song from his early “New Dylan” phase - which brings us full circle!
FT's Doctor Mod on July 31st, 2006
Hey there! See what happens when I go away for six weeks! The new site is fabulous, and it looks as if I have a lot to catch up on. I’ll try to make some responses in the coming days.
I like the added visuals. I’d never have made the connection regarding “Quinn”–I’m surprised I’d never heard of this film as my family rather liked that sort of thing–otherwise.
I’m trying to recall if I ever heard anyone claim any sort of meaning for this song–can’t recall ever figuring it out. (I thought the line was “everybody’s gonna wanta doze”–guess I was quite innocent then, really.) But it was great fun, and one of my favorite Manfreds recordings before the Earthband era, which I think, in retrospect, was really the best period for the band–even if few of the originals remained by then.
Looking back at the psychedelic era now, I think the lack of any determinate meaning was part of the appeal–and how many of us who spent hours trying to impose some sort of meaning on these lyrics didn’t end up studying literature at the university as a result. And now the middle-aged English professor (c’est moi) looks at these lyrics and thinks it really doesn’t matter–in this case, that heavy-handed thing called meaning was probably beside the point all along.
FT's alex on August 2nd, 2006
c.f. Susan Sontag ‘Against Interpretation’… I was reading about this yesterday preparing for a lecture and it really made me want to read it again. In fact I will try and find it at the back of the cupboard in my office RIGHT NOW!
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on August 2nd, 2006
i hope your lecture is on MANFRED MANN alex
FT's alex on August 2nd, 2006
if only.
Brian on August 2nd, 2006
‘ There she was just talking to her peeps”
singing…..
Doctor Casino on August 3rd, 2006
I actually have no idea whether it’s “dose” or “doze” - “doze” always made sense to me (”nobody can get no sleep”), but then I got into this surprisingly long argument with my lover at the time. She insisted it had to be “dose,” basically because she thought it was cooler that way. I resisted, but quietly changed my mind years later, since, so long as I’m reading too much into a goofy Eskimo song, I may as well go all the way, right? It was the sixties!
FT's Doctor Mod on August 3rd, 2006
Susan Songtag? Indeed! I verily believe this is the first time SHE has been mentioned on this blog. (I’m afraid I had too large a “dose” of Susan Sontag thanks to an ex-lover who worshiped her.) By and large, I’m entirely in favour of interpretation–the more the merrier. We can all interpret this song as much and in as many ways as we want, and we’ll never find the meaning. (Bet Dylan can’t remember what it means.) And that is all well and good, because we can just keep on interpreting it all over again and contradict ourselves if we want to and that’s the joy of interpretation for interpretation’s sake. WOO-HOO!
My latest interpretation of the song is that it really is about that Anthony Quinn film after all.
Which is, perhaps, the reason for building all those ships and boats. A good way to leave those Arctic climes behind.
FT's koganbot on August 13th, 2006
I’m just curious: have any of you seen the Quinn film? I saw the beginning about 25 years ago on TV but then had to go somewhere. Seeing as it was directed by Nicholas Ray, I doubt that it had a whole lot of jumping for joy.
blount on August 14th, 2006
yeah the nicholas ray credit jumped out at me too - this + that jacket on freewheelin = dylan clearly a ray fan
Linked by: Dr. Stupid » Blog Archive » Ma se l’equimese viene qui.. on September 2nd, 2006
[...] Qui la storia completa in una serie di post con un bizzarr riferimento a Susan Sontag sulla liceità e i limi dell’interpretazione. Grazie a Michele Murino (www.maggiefarm.com) per avermi chiarito che anche i Crazy Boy (ma chi diavolo erano ? ) hanno inciso “L’esquimese.” [...]
Linked by: Dr. Stupid » Blog Archive » Ma se l’equimese viene qui.. on September 3rd, 2006
[...] Qui la storia completa in una serie di post, con un bizzarro riferimento a Susan Sontag sulla liceità e i limiti delle interpretazioni. Grazie a Michele Murino (www.maggiefarm.com) per avermi chiarito che anche i Crazy Boy (ma chi diavolo erano ? ) hanno inciso “L’esquimese.” [...]
shoogie on September 27th, 2006
Obviously Quinn is a drug dealer. For example according to the lyrics:
“I like to do just like the rest, I like my sugar sweet.But guarding fumes and making haste,It ain’t my cup of meat.”
Means he likes getting high like everyone else but hiding the pot fumes so that no one smells it out in an open space or else just splitting when the cops come around isn’t the way he rolls. Also:
“Just tell me where it hurts yuh, honey,
And I’ll tell you who to call.
Nobody can get no sleep,
There’s someone on ev’ryone’s toes
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
Ev’rybody’s gonna wanna doze.”
Obviously means whatever kind of high suits your fancy he’ll tell you who to call [he knows where to get anything you want]. And No one can sleep before Quinn gets there! Of course not! did you ever try to sleep coming down off coke or acid and people get really irritable when they’re coming down!
But when Quinn gets there everybody’s gonna wanna doze?? He’s got the downers! Haha its hilarious that people think this is a cute little kids song.
blount on September 27th, 2006
um, obviously quinn is an ESKIMO!
shoogie on September 28th, 2006
whatevah!
joel on October 30th, 2006
Did Manfred Mann release Quinn the eskimo on an album or just on 45?
Marcello Carlin on October 30th, 2006
It appears on their 1968 album Mighty Garvey!. 28 tracks, and a particularly undervalued example of British psych-pop.
Doctor Casino on May 28th, 2007
But guarding fumes and making haste
You’re almost certainly taking the piss with this one, and if so I applaud that - but just in case there’s any confusion, the line is “But jumping queues…”
jfsebastian on December 21st, 2007
I’ve just been watching Milos Forman’s “Taking Off” (1971) and a character within the film uses the phrase “the Mighty Quinn” in an unambiguous and direct reference to the consumption of LSD.
Nothing about Eskimos.