"Digital Man" was one of the songs worked on during the late 1981 writing sessions at Le Studio, during which the music and lyrics for its verses, plus the ska-influenced bridge, was worked out. The song was also heavily influenced by funk, with Lee's bass line described as "so funky and fluid its almost laughable". Its instrumental break has been compared with "Walking on the Moon" by The Police. The song developed further in March 1982 during the band's one month stay at The Grange in Muskoka Lakes, Ontario. Peart wrote the remaining lyrics by an open fire in his chalet while Lifeson and Lee worked on the music in the adjacent barn. After numerous attempts they devised a combination of suitable words and music for the chorus, and Peart wrote: "We were all very pleased with the dynamic and unusual nature of the part, it was so different for us". However, Brown expressed a lack of enthusiasm to record the song and remained so until the group had continually talked about why it worked "until he got tired of hearing about it". "The Analog Kid" and "Digital Man" served as the inspiration for comic book writer Troy Hickman to create heroes of the same names in his 2004 comic "Common Grounds".