Album: Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo (1968)

Charted: 7 12

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• When I look up to the sky
  I see your eyes, a funny kind of yellow
  I rush home to bed, I sunk my head
  I see your face underneath my pillow
  I wake next morning, tired, still yawning
  See your face come peeping through my window
  
  Pictures of matchstick men and you
  Images of matchstick men and you
  All I ever see is them and you
  
  Windows echo your reflection
  When I look in their direction, gone
  When will this haunting stop?
  Your face, it just won't leave me alone
  
  Pictures of matchstick men and you
  Images of matchstick men and you
  All I ever see is them and you
  
  You in the sky, you with this guy
  You make me cry, you lie
  You in the sky, you with this guy
  You make me cry, you lie
  
  Pictures of matchstick men
  Pictures of matchstick men
  Pictures of matchstick men
  Pictures of matchstick men Writer/s: Francis Dominic Nicholas Rossi
  Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Sentric Music
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 16

• Jan from CaPictures of Matchstick came out in my senior year of high school. The British Invasion was in full swing then. Loved the music and the style.
• Chris from VirginiaIn the "songfacts" the lyrics are quoted as being "You make men cry, you lie" but in the lyrics sheet they are "You make me cry, your eyes". The songfacts are correct I think, the lyrics are "You make men cry, you lie".
• Matt R. from IllinoisThis was sampled in Mickey Avalon's song "I Get Even"
• Steve from OhioWas there any dispute between Camper Van Beethoven and status quo because this song is not listed for pictures of magic men on Amazon
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyRick Parfitt, guitarist for the British rock band Status Quo, has died at the age of 68, according to multiple news sources...
  Parfitt died on Saturday December 24, 2016, following complications from a shoulder injury he sustained in a fall recently...
  In 1968 the group's "Pictures of Matchsticks Men" peaked at #12 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart, and later in the year their "Ice in the Sun" reached #70...
  May he R.I.P.
• Ed from Kansas City, MoThe mono version has phaser, but the stereo does not, because the phaser effect can only be achieved in mono.
• Cliff from Oakdale, NyThis past summer 2011 (Target) used this song for there introduction for their summer collection of summer items in their TV commercial Nationwide, very effective!
  Cliff Oakdale NY
• Darren from Warrington, EnglandRE: Jack -
  
  Sorry to disappoint this song is nothing to do with the constellations. It is about a famous painter from Salford, a city near Manchester, UK. L. S. Lowry, he was famous for drawing pictures containing matchstick men. Lowry was a small time painter in and around Salford, and it was only after his death that his paintings started to get recognised and that he made any money which was a real shame.
  
  Now Lowry's painting are really famous and originals are worth a lot of money. Also at Salford Quays there is an entire shopping outlet village, cinema, theatre, and art gallery dedicated to his work called The Lowry, it is near to the Salford's new MediaCity which is where the BBC will be moving to from London, along with other TV and media companies such as ITV studios.
  
  
  
  
  
• Jack from Mesa, AzThis seems to me to be about constellations in the sky, "matchstick men" if you draw lines between stars...
• Brian from Chicago Area, IlThe Ozzy and Type O Negative cover of this tune was not for a Black Sabbath tribute albhum. The song wasn't even by Black Sabbth. It actually came from the soundtrack for Howard Stern's movie, Private Parts. Type O Negative did record yhe song "Black Sabbath," and that appeared on the Nativity In Black tribute album, which is where the confusion may lie.
  
  One rumor going around is this song solidifies Ozzy Osbourne's "Satanic" dark side, because he recorded the line "You up there in the sky, you whip this guy, you made men cry, you lie", and it appears backwards no less. However, this lyric is originally part of the Status Quo recording, so how does it indicate anything Satanic about Ozzy Osbourne? It only shows me a faithful recreation of the osng with an added twist.
• Joan from Fayetteville , Ar I remember listening to this song about 1974, sitting on the roof of my parents' house, looking at a pre-rainstorm yellow sky..
• Ekristheh from Halath, United StatesI used to drown in this song. Completely swept away.
• Farrah from Elon, NcThis song totally rocks!!!!
• N from Staten Island, NyI remember a bunch of us riding our bicycles to the local recoed store to buy this, I think 45s were about 75 cents in 1967.
  
  Original 45rpm info:
  
  Label: Cadet Concept, Catalog# 7001, Runtime 2:59
• Brutus from Wynyard, Australiaozzy osbourne and type o negative recorded this song for a black sabbath tribute album, very much a classic osbourne effort, quite heavy in the riff but is just terrific
• Bill from St. Paul, MnThere are two versions of this song, a stereo and mono version, both quite different from the other. The mono version (the original single) has the trademark psychedelic wah-wah guitar between lyric breaks, but for some reason, the stereo version omits it. Quite a shock if you're used to the mono version.

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