Man Made Of Meat

Album: Viagr Aboys (2025)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Man Made Of Meat" was released on January 22, 2025 as the first preview of Viagra Boys' fourth album, Viagr Aboys. Digging into singer Sebastian Murphy's experience cruising through Walmart supermarkets while touring the US with Queens Of The Stone Age, his lyrics are his usual cocktail of absurdist humor and scrappy social critique.
  • The track is classic Viagra Boys: dirty, swaggering basslines, serrated guitar riffs, and Murphy half-speaking, half-yelling verses that veer between weary philosophizing and gleeful provocation. He admits to subscribing to "your mom's OnlyFans," takes a jab at artificial intelligence, and, in one particularly odd and morbid cultural aside, references Friends actor Matthew Perry's death - specifically, Chandler Bing "dying in a freak hot tub accident." This is not a man who softens his edges for radio play.
  • The chorus wanders cheerfully through talk of free food, clothes, and drugs before landing in a closing couplet as bleak as it is relatable: "I hate almost everything that I see, and I just wanna disappear."
  • I am a man that's made of meat
    And you're on the internet looking at feet


    The title may be a tip of the hat to Terry Bisson's short story They're Made Out of Meat, in which alien observers recoil in baffled horror at the idea that humans are entirely biological. The story's strange blend of absurdity and existential alienation dovetails neatly with Sebastian Murphy's sense of humor, which often seems to teeter between stand-up comedy and philosophy lecture.
  • Before Murphy sings a single word on this song, he announces his intentions with a loud, unapologetic burp. This is not a mixing error, nor is it a remnant of some studio lunch; it's a deliberate, irreverent signature. By placing a burp front and center, Murphy sets the tone for what follows: a song that's equal parts absurd theater, cultural jab, and existential shrug. A reminder that, in the end, we're all just meat, muddling our way through the aisles of existence.
  • While actual burps in recorded songs are rarer than you might think, "Man Made of Meat" isn't the first to go there. Here are some others:

    "Raw Power" by The Stooges (1973)
    The song opens with Iggy Pop letting out an accidental burp. It landed so perfectly in time with the track that they decided to keep it.

    "The Camera Eye" by Rush (1981)
    At around 8:56 into this 11-minute opus, Geddy Lee appears to burp, then mutters, "Oh gawd." Rush fans have turned it into a tiny, offbeat piece of band folklore.

    "Shotgun" by George Ezra (2018)
    Rumor has it Ezra burps 59 seconds in. In reality, it's him saying "well" in a peculiar way, but the burp theory spread so widely that it arguably helped the song's viral success.
  • The riff was inspired by the music of Le Tigre, Kathleen Hanna's post-Bikini Kill radical electro-pop project.
  • The video, directed by Daniel Björkman, takes the chaos a step further. It is a direct extension of the song's comedic chaos and biting social satire, bringing to life its blend of absurd visuals, bodily humor, and pop culture references.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Yacht Rock Quiz

Yacht Rock QuizFact or Fiction

Christopher Cross with Deep Purple? Kenny Loggins in Caddyshack? A Fact or Fiction all about yacht rock and those who made it.

Dean Friedman - "Ariel"

Dean Friedman - "Ariel"They're Playing My Song

Dean's saga began with "Ariel," a song about falling in love with a Jewish girl from New Jersey.

Concert Disasters

Concert DisastersFact or Fiction

Ozzy biting a dove? Alice Cooper causing mayhem with a chicken? Creed so bad they were sued? See if you can spot the real concert mishaps.

Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root

Michael Glabicki of Rusted RootSongwriter Interviews

Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in Songs

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.