Clothes of brass and hair of brown.
Seldom needs to breathe,
Don't need no wings to fly.
And a heart of stone
And a fear of fire and water.
Who am I?

Hi hailstorm,
This riddle posed in the song "Lurker" by Genesis has sparked some
debate on Usenet.  The real answer is that there is no real answer. 
In an interview, Tony Banks admitted that "there is no real solution.
You can search for your own one if you like. It was a bit of a joke.
When I was writing it I honestly didn't really have a specific idea in
mind. If you can find out what the answer is, perhaps you can tell me!
"[1].
However, many theories exist.  I shall discuss two of the most
convincing ones and you can read more about them and others with the
search strategy.

Man
====
Man wears armors ("clothes of brass") and can have brown hair.
Man invented machines that breathe for them (iron lung, oxygen tank,
etc.) a bit farfetched, I know.
Man invented airplanes to enable him to fly.
Many people are described of having a "heart of stone."
Many can not live in fire nor in water.

Submarine[2]
=========
"'Clothes of brass':
Brass is very common in the nautical world because of its resistence
to
corrosion.
'Hair of brown':
When submarines come to the surface, they are covered with all sorts
of
seaweed.
'Seldom need to breathe':
Submarines can stay under water for long periods.
'Don't need no wings to fly':
Submarines fly through the ocean without wings.
'And a heart of stone':
Uranium, the stone that powers the submarine's nuclear reactor.
'And a fear of fire and water':
The two worst enemies of a submarine. Water means a hull breach, and
everyone drowns. Fire means all the oxygen aboard burns and everyone
suffocates.
"

I hope that answered your question.  If you need clarification, please
request for it before rating this answer.
Regards,
secret901-ga

Sources:
[1]http://perso.club-internet.fr/meddle92/dodo.htm
[2]http://groups.google.com/groups?q=g:thl3897861563d&dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=8ma7lp%249gm%241%40plutonium.btinternet.com
various other sources

Search Strategy:
Google:
"Clothes of brass and hair of brown" riddle
Goolge Groups:
"Clothes of brass and hair of brown" riddle

---

Request for Answer Clarification by hailstorm-ga on 24 Nov 2002 15:49 PST

secret901-ga,

Thanks for your work on this. Actually, I knew about the "no real
answer" as well as the man and submarine theories, but haven't heard
about others. Could you please list the other possibilities you came
across in your searches?

---

Clarification of Answer by secret901-ga on 24 Nov 2002 16:26 PST

Hi hailstorm,
Here are some other theories:
burning amber:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=31EE9D2A.14EC%40pacbell.net
bullet:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=4smstf%24ajq%40nuhou.aloha.net
Earth:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=Pine.SUN.3.95.960926123001.12874B-100000%40galileo.cris.com&output=gplain

It appears that the most popular answer is the submarine.  You can
read a more elaborate explanation in page 376 of this PDF file:
http://autoperl.skwc.com/gendis.pdf

If you need further clarification, please let me know.
secret901-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by secret901-ga on 24 Nov 2002 16:32 PST

Another possibility:
Crab/clam:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=4t146r%248s2%40dfw-ixnews4.ix.netcom.com

The answer was great, but the ulterior motive of this question was a
shameless attempt to solicit unsolicited praise for my favorite band. 
A simple "Phil Collins RAWKS!" or such would have earned you a hefty
tip.  Something like "Steve was the real brains of the band!" or "It's
a shame that Abacab didn't come off as a double album as originally
planned." would have earned a gargantuan tip.  But in lieu of
something like that, the five-star rating alone will have to suffice. 
:-p