Actors Make Decent Music? (1 of 3): Crispin Glover

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Hey McFly! Leave it to one of the quirkiest actors to make some of the strangest music you’d ever hear from an accomplished actor. Crispin Glover‘s most notable acting roles have been as an oddball, from Back To The Future to Willard. In 1989, during a four-year acting hiatus, he released the album The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution = Let It Be. The instrumental aspect was mostly done by Barnes & Barnes (of Fish Heads), with vocals and lyrics done by Glover, who reveals some lyrical wit in songs such as the amusing ‘Clowny Clown Clown’. Glover’s vocals seem to just be written monolauges, and he only seems to actually sing in the lullaby-like ‘The Darling Young Man on the Flying Trapeze’. The cover of ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking’ is certainly original, to say the least, as Glover literally cries his way through the lyrics. Glover takes a stab at rapping in the masturbation ode of ‘Auto-Manipulator’. “Women are sweet and girls are honey, but beat your meat and save your money,” is one example of Crispin’s perverted but often hilarious sense of lyrical humor. I’m not taking any of the songs on the album very seriously, but most of them are still great fun and very innovative.

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Crispin Hellion Glover – Clowny Clown Clown (music video)

[audio:https://obscuresound.com/mp3/cri-clo.mp3]

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Crispin Hellion Glover – These Boots Are Made for Walking

[audio:https://obscuresound.com/mp3/cri-the.mp3]

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Crispin Hellion Glover – Auto-Manipulator

[audio:https://obscuresound.com/mp3/cri-aut.mp3]

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Crispin Hellion Glover – The Darling Young Man on the Flying Trapeeze

[audio:https://obscuresound.com/mp3/cri-dar.mp3]

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Check out this hilarious interview with Letterman. I doubt it’s acid. I think it’s just him staying in character for comedic relief.

Mike Mineo

I'm the founder/editor of Obscure Sound, which was formed in 2006. Previously, I wrote for PopMatters and Stylus Magazine.

Send your music to [email protected].

5 Comments

  1. I remember buying this album on cassette back in 1989, and after reading this post I went and dug it out! Thanks for reminding me I had it. Yeah, it was pretty funny, and on the odd side, but there was a whole publicity thing about what the Big Problem actually was. If you thought you’d figured it out, you could submit your answer to him and find out if you were right. I think a Google search is in order to find out f the answer, er, problem, was ever discovered.

  2. I have been looking for the song ( the darling young man on the flying trapeeze) and can’t find it. For some reason it has been going in my brain for the last 4 nights. I play the harp, and can play the song , put i can’t remember the words in total. Please email me or give me a link….thanks

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