The song apparently has origins in an instrumental demo from 2012 titled "WuzzyTime2".[1] The song's lyrics are vague and the instrumentation is menacing; with the song's meaning fleshed out in a 192-word short story included in the CD liner notes and website.
History
Recording
An early instrumental version of the track dating from 2012, titled "WuzzyTime2," was later given to the producers of the podcast Home Aged Conversations for use as background music in their fourth and fifth episodes, released in 2019.[1]
Background
Although not apparent from listening to the song by itself, the accompanying story in the liner notes tells us of a man who has the disturbing experience of seeing a scarecrow dressed as his recently deceased idol, James Brown. But the figure is not dressed in any of Brown's iconic outfits; it is instead dressed in the bathrobe worn by Brown in his disheveled 2004 mug shot, following his arrest for domestic violence. The man's car radio plays the hits of James Brown in memorial, but the scarecrow is covered in crows, disrespecting its duty. The song makes use of heavy horn samples; brass instruments being a mainstay of Brown's work.
Although the song has never been performed live to date, The Residents performed "Man's World" when touring to promote the album in early 2019, although the song had been a fixture of their setlist since 2017. In October 2019, The Residents used the song as part of the soundtrack for their documentary video "The Residents Present Dyin' Dog".
The Scarecrow is
The Scarecrow is
The Scarecrow is
Covered with crows
And suspicion
Story
As with many of The Residents' later albums, Intruders features short stories in the liner notes which are to be read with the track. Since "The Scarecrow" is mostly instrumental, this story is exceptionally detailed.
James Brown's 2004 mugshot
It's shortly after Christmas, 2006, and a middle-aged black man is driving his car along a road edging the remnants of a long harvested corn field. The radio, tuned to an oldies station, is playing James Brown's "Say It Loud, I'm Black and Proud," a song that defined the man's youth. Brown had died a few days earlier, and the station has been playing his music nonstop ever since.
Singing along, the man glances, to his right as a static, human-like figure catches his eye. Normally he would drive past, but two things immediately strike him as strange, so he pauses for a better look. Curiously, the scarecrow is wearing a robe - a conspicuous green and blue plaid bathrobe. And as he stops to stare, an image, burned into the man's brain, suddenly reappears. The picture, a mugshot of The Godfather of Soul, reveals a sadly disheveled James Brown, reeking of pathos, and wearing what appears to be the exact same robe. Stunned, the man can't tear his eyes away from this seeming effigy, abandoned, alone and eerily reminiscent of the man he once worshipped.
The scarecrow is also covered with crows.
Interpretations
Due to the song's ambiguous use of broad themes, many fans have interpreted the story in different ways. Some say the story represents the duality between an artist's public output and their problematic private selves. James Brown is a hero to many, and his music is important, especially after his death; still, his intruder, represented here as an old and tattered scarecrow, is a complicated figure who was arrested multiple times on accounts of domestic abuse. The Scarecrow is described as being "abandoned, alone and eerily reminiscent of the man he once worshipped".
A common theme of The Residents' work is scrutiny of the public persona, and the story presented here is a part of that, contrasting the public persona of James Brown with the actual man. The photo of Brown mentioned in the story highlights this, with the cluttered look of a man displaced replacing the usual glory of his usual glamour shots.
The story could also be interpreted as being about growing past old pop culture idols. Within the story, our protagonist is specifically listening to an 'Oldies station' to hear Brown's music. The titular scarecrow itself is old, in disrepair, and no longer functional to scare away crows. The story is also very specifically set in the days immediately following Brown's death; the fact of his death still present in the protagonists' mind.
It also reiterates that our protagonist's interest in Brown itself is a thing of the past, describing "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" as "a song that defined the man's youth", and Brown as "the man he once worshipped".
The choice to use the song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" exists to point out that Brown isn't just another problematic old celebrity, but one who, at least at one point, had importance in black culture. Race is a significant element in the story, with the protagonist specifically being a black man. The concept of a scarecrow built in effigy to an important black man is one that is deeply troubling; the imagery almost evocative of a public lynching.
The "intruder", in this interpretation, is the way Brown will be remembered by those in the age range for him to be important, versus the way that the new generation will see him. Old, problematic, and not nearly as important as he once was; a disused scarecrow.
