I'm the Urban Spaceman

{{More citations needed|date=February 2012}}

{{Infobox song

| name = I'm the Urban Spaceman

| cover = I'm the Urban Spaceman cover.jpeg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

| album = Tadpoles

| B-side = "The Canyons of Your Mind" (Stanshall)

| released = 11 October 1968 (UK)
18 December 1968 (US)

| format =

| recorded = March 1968

| studio = Trident, London

| venue =

| genre = Comedy rock, psychedelic pop

| length = 2:23

| label = Liberty Records (UK)
Imperial Records (US)

| writer = Neil Innes

| producer = Apollo C. Vermouth (alias of Paul McCartney)

| prev_title = Equestrian Statue

| prev_year = 1967

| next_title = Mr. Apollo

| next_year = 1969

| misc = {{External music video|header=Official audio|{{YouTube|olGXtohOs7c|"I'm the Urban Spaceman" at Beat-Club}}}}

}}

"I'm the Urban Spaceman" is a song released as a single in October 1968 by British band the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was their successful single, reaching number 5 in the UK singles charts. It was written by Neil Innes, who won an Ivor Novello Award for it in 1968, and produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym "Apollo C. Vermouth".{{cite web |last1=McQuarrie |first1=Fiona |title=Natural Exuberance: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's "I'm the Urban Spaceman" |url=https://writingonmusic.com/2016/03/13/natural-exuberance-im-the-urban-spaceman/ |website=Writing on Music |access-date=17 October 2022 |date=March 13, 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jpgr.co.uk/col_lbf15144.html |title=I'm the Urban Spaceman - release information|publisher=Jpgr.co.uk|accessdate=2012-02-24}}{{cite book|last=Castleman|first=Harry|title=All Together Now – The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975|year=1977|publisher=Ballantine Books|location=New York|isbn=0-345-25680-8|edition=Second|author2=Podrazik, Walter J.|page=[https://archive.org/details/alltogethernowfi0000cast/page/68 68]|chapter=1968 – And God Created Apple|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/alltogethernowfi0000cast/page/68}} A well-known staging of the song involves Innes performing solo while a female tap dancer performs an enthusiastic but apparently under-rehearsed routine around him. This skit originally appeared in a 1975 edition of Rutland Weekend Television, with Lyn Ashley as the dancer, and was more famously revived in the 1982 film Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl with Carol Cleveland taking over the role.

Leeds indie rock band Cud performed an extremely fast version, only 1:07 long, for a 1989 Peel Session. The recording appears on their albums Elvis Belt and BB Cudn't C.

The B-side, "The Canyons of Your Mind", was written by the Bonzo's frontman Vivian Stanshall.

References

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