"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a song released as an iTunes single from American alternative rock band Weezer's sixth album, Weezer (2008). The song bears a resemblance to the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" hence the "(Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" in the title. According to lead vocalist and writer Rivers Cuomo, "The Greatest Man" has 11 different themes, including rapping and imitations of other bands such as Nirvana and Aerosmith (both of whom also recorded for Weezer's then-label Geffen Records at one point).
This song received favorable critical reviews. After being announced as the third single, a music video was also announced; however, this never materialized and instead the song was featured in a film directed by Warren Miller.
Read more about The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn): Recording and Inspiration, Composition, Critical Reception, Music Video and Appearances in Other Media, Personnel
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“Ye learned sisters which have oftentimes
Beene to me ayding, others to adorne:
Whom ye thought worthy of your gracefull rymes,
That even the greatest did not greatly scorne
To heare theyr names sung in your simple layes,”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“Where the whole man is involved there is no work. Work begins with the division of labor.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“Daughter to that good Earl, once President
Of England’s Council and her Treasury,
Who lived in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content.
Till the sad breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
Kill’d with report that old man eloquent;—”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Of the Shaker society, it was formerly a sort of proverb in the country, that they always sent the devil to market.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)