"He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot." is a song by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band Grandaddy, released as the third single from their second studio album '' The Sophtware Slump'' (2000).

Writing and composition

Regarding the song's conception and its position as ''The Sophtware Slumps opening track,

Jason Lytle Jason Lytle ( ; born March 26, 1969) is an American musician best known for his work in the indie rock group Grandaddy. The group split in 2005, and Lytle continued to release music as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. Gra ...

noted: "It was definitely a struggle to get all the three parts to actually sound like they were intended to live together. I usually get into this space where, once the album starts to come together, I start to figure out what's missing or what needs to be added, and I realised that it really needed something like that to set it off in a certain direction. It's just a struggle putting something like that together and making it not sound forced, y’know?"

Release

"He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot." was released as the third single from ''The Sophtware Slump''. It reached number 82 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Touring

Grandaddy toured with

Elliott Smith Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known professionally as Elliott Smith, was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of hi ...

in 2000 and he would occasionally join them onstage and sing lead vocals on parts of this song.

Legacy

The song was featured on the soundtrack of UK

hidden camera A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obje ...

show ''

Trigger Happy TV ''Trigger Happy TV'' is a hidden camera/ practical joke comedy television series. The original British edition of the show, produced by Absolutely Productions, starred Dom Joly and ran for three series on the British television channel Channel 4 ...

'' and the films ''Jackpot'' (2001), ''The Forest for the Trees'' (2003), and ''Occupation: Dreamland'' (2005). Actor

Jason Lee Jason Lee may refer to: Entertainment *Jason Lee (actor) (born 1970), American film and TV actor and former professional skateboarder *Jason Scott Lee (born 1966), Asian American film actor * Jaxon Lee (Jason Christopher Lee, born 1968), American v ...

Writing and composition

Release

Touring

Legacy

Track listing

References

External links