I heard this song a couple of times as a kid and it haunted me, and then I think I forgot about it in general, and every few years I might hear it again and remember how good it was, and then forget about it again. It wasn't until I was an adult (insert snide comment here) and really gave it a more careful listen (as opposed to just letting it haunt me) that it knocked me out all over again.
So it's written by Shel Silverstein, who as you might know had a pretty phenomenal career as the creator of children's books, children's songs, adults' songs, naughty Playboy cartoons and a variety of other stuff. I believe he wrote all the songs for the first two Dr. Hook records, though I wouldn't swear to it (though he certainly DID write Cover of a Rolling Stone). But in this one - by God it just didn't work out for Sylvia and our narrator; or did it, but for reasons not made apparent to us somehow the kibosh was applied. We can speculate of course.
But what I absolutely love is the narrative turn at 2:40 or so when Mom directly addresses Sylvia with regard to the umbrella, THEN thanks our narrator for calling (referring to him as "Sir"), which can only mean that Sylvia has entered the room and Mom is attempting to shield/protect her in two different ways. I mean it's practically Robbe-Grillet, there...
Sylvia's Mother...
IBL:mm
So it's written by Shel Silverstein, who as you might know had a pretty phenomenal career as the creator of children's books, children's songs, adults' songs, naughty Playboy cartoons and a variety of other stuff. I believe he wrote all the songs for the first two Dr. Hook records, though I wouldn't swear to it (though he certainly DID write Cover of a Rolling Stone). But in this one - by God it just didn't work out for Sylvia and our narrator; or did it, but for reasons not made apparent to us somehow the kibosh was applied. We can speculate of course.
But what I absolutely love is the narrative turn at 2:40 or so when Mom directly addresses Sylvia with regard to the umbrella, THEN thanks our narrator for calling (referring to him as "Sir"), which can only mean that Sylvia has entered the room and Mom is attempting to shield/protect her in two different ways. I mean it's practically Robbe-Grillet, there...
Sylvia's Mother...
IBL:mm
Boom. Facial hair everywhere. How about that lead voice. It seems like in the seventies there voices like that just lying around all over the place!!
ReplyDeleteAnd those boys went on to make some truly bad pop songs in the mid to late 70s. Sharing the Night Together, for starters I do NOT want to learn that Shel wrote that one, too.
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