Gunhill Road

[2ndbanana]

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I was mowing the lawn the other day when THIS song popped into my head (you'd be amazed at the bizarre stuff running through my head all the time).  It was released in March of 1973, and I probably haven't heard it since shortly after then.  And for 37 goddam years, I haven't been able to figure out what the hell he's saying at the end of the

Comments

[progbear]

Funny, I always thought the most cynical song about hippiedom would have been something (anything?) off of the We’re Only in It for the Money album.

I never really cared for the lead singer’s voice, but this song is better than I had remembered. Gotta love that piano. Weirdly, it kind of resembles Ben Folds Five twenty years too soon (that singing style is very 90s).

[2ndbanana]

It's possible. I never much listened to Frank Zappa. I always thought of him as a one-joke comedian. Or maybe I just heard the stuff that all happens to sound the same.

I've always had a thing for guys with un-pretty voices who harmonize well. I blame Neil Young. You're right, it does have a kind of '90's sound. Kind of the "The Battle of Who Could Care Less" with less swing.

[progbear]

RE: Zappa. His output is all over the place. He’s always kind of had a cynical sense of humour but got really bitter and misanthropic around the time Sheik Yerbouti came out (circa 1979). He also did these really weird modern classical instrumental/mostly instrumental albums like Uncle Meat and other instrumental discs like Hot Rats which were basically a sort of species of fusion jazz. There was that sort of wacky, cartoon, Carl Stalling-sort of sound to almost all of his music (having xylophone/marimba players in his bands helped).

RE: “un-pretty voices that harmonize well.” Reminds me of Roger Chapman of Family or his Italian voice-clone, Bernardo Lanzetti, formerly of PFM and Acqua Fragile:

This song is so funny because it’s such a wannabee of CSN’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”! Bernardo sounds totally sweet in those harmonies, but when he sings solo (he gets a few solo lines at around 3:40), he sounds like a frickin’ sheep!

[bobobear12]

Why does this remind me of Godspell?