"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 Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
band
Grandaddy
Grandaddy is an American indie rock band from Modesto, California, Modesto, California. The group was formed in 1992, and featured Jason Lytle, Aaron Burtch, Jim Fairchild, Kevin Garcia and Tim Dryden, until Garcia's death in 2017 following a ...
, 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 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.
Touring
Grandaddy toured with
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, whe ...
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'' and the films ''Jackpot'' (2001), ''The Forest for the Trees'' (2003), and ''Occupation: Dreamland'' (2005).
Actor
Jason Lee has cited this song as the inspiration to name his child Pilot Inspektor.
Track listing
References
External links
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2000 singles
Grandaddy songs
2000 songs