The Man in Me

"The Man in Me" is a song from Bob Dylan's 1970 album New Morning. The song is featured in the soundtrack to the 1998 Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski. It plays during the stylized opening title sequence and during the hallucination sequence after the Dude is punched and his rug stolen. More recently it has been performed live by the film's star, Jeff Bridges, at Lebowski Fest, an audience-participation oriented event commemorating the film. The song was featured in The Simpsons episode "The Town" during a bowling montage (likely in reference to The Big Lebowski). The song was featured in the soundtrack to the 2013 documentary The Smash Brothers, highlighting the career of Ken Hoang and paying homage to The Big Lebowski. In 1971, the song was covered by Lonnie Mack on his album, The Hills of Indiana. In 1975, it was covered by London reggae band Matumbi, with another reggae version recorded by Joe Cocker the following year. The song was also covered by The Clash during sessions for the album that was to become London Calling. It is available on The Vanilla Tapes. More recently, it was covered by alternative rock group Say Anything; a demo version of the cover features Chris Conley (of Saves the Day) on vocals. It has also been covered by Al Kooper, David Bazan (who regularly plays it live), Jenoah, Vandaveer, Buffalo Tom, and My Morning Jacket.

[Harmonizing] [Verse 1] The man in me will do nearly any task And as for compensation, there’s little he would ask Take a woman like you To get through to the man in me [Verse 2] Storm clouds are raging all around my door I think to myself I might not take it anymore Take a woman like your kind To find the man in me [Verse 3] But, oh, what a wonderful feeling Just to know that you are near Sets my heart a-reeling From my toes up to my ears [Verse 4] The man in me will hide sometimes to keep from bein’ seen But that’s just because he doesn’t want to turn into some machine Took a woman like you To get through to the man in me