A Man in a Purple Dress

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"A Man in a Purple Dress"

Song by The Who
From the album Endless Wire
Recorded
Genre	Rock
Song Length	4:14
Record label	Polydor
Endless Wire Album Listing
Fragments	A Man in a Purple Dress	Mike Post Theme

A Man in a Purple Dress is a song by The Who, written by Pete Townshend, and is featured on their most recent album Endless Wire.

[edit] History

This was one of three songs that Pete Townshend wrote after seeing Mel Gibson's film The Passion of The Christ. In a press release for the album, Townshend said "This was one of them. It is not so much a rail against the principles of justice through the ages, but a challenge to the vanity of the men who need to put on some kind of ridiculous outfit in order to pass sentence on one of their peers. It is the idea that men need dress up in order to represent God that appalls me. If I wanted to be as insane as to attempt to represent God I’d just go ahead and do it, I wouldn’t dress up like a drag-queen". Some fans, and reviewers, have speculated that the song may also be an attack on the people who criticized Pete Townshend after he was arrested for using his credit card on a child pornography website, when conducting research.

It has also been noted for its resemblance to what some people have referred to as circa-'63 Bob Dylan.

This song was performed live throughout the 2006-2007 US tour. It was also one of the first songs to be performed in publicity for the album, as they played it on their appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.