The Sunday Read: ‘Why Did This Guy Put a Song About Me on Spotify?’

Have you heard the song “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes”?
Probably not. On Spotify, “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes” has not yet accumulated enough streams to even register a tally. Even Brett Martin, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and the titular Nice Man, didn’t hear the 1 minute 14 second song until last summer, a full 11 years after it was uploaded by an artist credited as Papa Razzi and the Photogs.
When Martin stumbled on “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes,” he naturally assumed it was about a different, more famous Brett Martin: perhaps Brett Martin, the left-handed reliever who until recently played for the Texas Rangers; or Brett Martin, the legendary Australian squash player; or even Clara Brett Martin, the Canadian who in 1897 became the British Empire’s first female lawyer. Only when the singer began referencing details of stories that he made for public radio’s “This American Life” almost 20 years ago did he realize the song was actually about him. The song ended, “I really like you/Will you be my friend?/Will you call me on the phone?” Then it gave a phone number, with a New Hampshire area code.
So, he called.

[@girtbysea7831]

What did Matt Farley expect would happen when he sang his own phone number at the end of a song hidden on spotify.
Did he want to make a connection, or just see if it was possible?
In the 1991 film The Double Life of Veronica, there is an artist who does something similar.

[@tasha6151]

Great piece about an amazing character.
Very well written -- and well enjoyed

[@cdavidlake2]

Very Tom Waits.

[@DaucusKarota]

I've been trying to beat Dolly Parton's publishing digits but, this dude's buried both of us.