Song Lyric Sunday: Talkin’ ‘Bout My G-g-g

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It seems a little strange not to be crediting Nancy with the choice of theme for today’s Song Lyric Sunday, but she has taken a well-deserved retirement – for now. Jim’s post Fell Short doesn’t tell us where this idea came from, but it’s a good one: today we are playing songs that reached #2 on the charts, but never got to #1. The field for this was very wide, but I’ve decided to go for three classics from the era in which my musical taste were developed – the Swinging Sixties – and I bet you thought that at least one of these made it to #1. Not in the UK, they didn’t, and being a Brit that is of course the chart I’m using for this.

My lead song is the one in the Billboard poster above:

And as if you needed them, here are those iconic lyrics:

People try to put us d-down (talkin’ ’bout my generation)Just because we get around (talkin’ ’bout my generation)Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin’ ’bout my generation)I hope I die before I get old (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
 
This is my generationThis is my generation, baby
 
Why don’t you all f-fade away (talkin’ ’bout my generation)And don’t try dig what we all s-s-say (talkin’ ’bout my generation)I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (talkin’ ’bout my generation)I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-generation (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
 
My generationThis is my generation, baby
 
Why don’t you all f-fade away (talkin’ ’bout my generation)And don’t try d-dig what we all s-s-say (talkin’ ’bout my generation)I’m not trying to cause a big sensation (talkin’ ’bout my generation)I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-generation (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
 
This is my generationThis is my generation, baby
My, my g-generationMy, my, my, my, my generation
 
People try to put us d-down (talkin’ ’bout my generation)Just because we g-g-get around (talkin’ ’bout my generation)Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin’ ’bout my generation)Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
 
This is my generationThis is my generation, baby…
 
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend
My Generation lyrics © Fabulous Music Ltd., Fabulous Music Ltd
 
My Generation was released as a UK single in October 1965, and in November in the US, and its #2 chart placing is their equal highest in the UK, along with I’m A Boy from 1966. Pete Townshend reportedly wrote the song on a train and is said to have been inspired by the Queen Mother, who is alleged to have had Townshend’s 1935 Packard hearse towed off a street in Belgravia because she was offended by the sight of it during her daily drive through the neighbourhood. I don’t know if that is true, but it’s a great story! There are also various explanations for the stuttering effect in Roger Daltrey’s vocals, the most credible of which to me is his own: that he was nervous and couldn’t hear the band over the monitors in the studio. The song was originally banned by the BBC as they thought it might offend people with a stutter, but they had to relent when it started climbing the charts. The album made #5 in the UK but didn’t chart in the US, and the single only did slightly better there, despite the poster campaign – it got to #74.
 
I was a little surprised to find that this next one only got to #2 here, as my memory of that time is that it was inescapable! But it didn’t hit the top, though it did achieve that in the US:
 

Wild Thing was written by the American songwriter Chip Taylor, who also wrote the lovely song Angel Of The Morning – quite some variation! It was first recorded by a band called The Wild Ones but didn’t chart. The Troggs released their version in April 1966 and turned it into a smash hit, and quite possibly the only one to have included an ocarina in the mix (go on, prove me wrong, I dare you!). There have been many other versions but for me this is still the definitive one. It was the opening track on the band’s debut album – From Nowhere in the UK, Wild Thing in the US – which peaked at #6 in the UK and #52 in the US. A little ironically, perhaps, for the purposes of this theme, their follow up – With A Girl Like You – did get to #1 in the UK three months later.

My third song for today is another of similar vintage, and is another cover version:

If You Gotta Go, Go Now was written by Bob Dylan, who recorded his own version in early 1965, but it was only ever released as a single in the Netherlands in January 1967, and failed to make the chart. Manfred Mann released their cover as a single in September 1965, and true to today’s theme it peaked at #2 in the UK Singles chart, though it wasn’t a hit in the US. Hearing it again takes me right back to the days when I was enjoying pop music in a massive way, and we were really spoilt for choice. I have often said that the decade in which our musical tastes developed is the one we think of as the best: for me that was the Sixties, and I don’t think that time has ever been bettered. (Discuss!) A quick footnote: another version of this song also made the UK chart in 1969, by one of my all time favourite bands: the folk rock outfit Fairport Convention, who sang it in French, along with clattering sound effects. I love that one too!

That’s it for today: three classics from a golden era for music. I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes. Have fun 😊

42 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Talkin’ ‘Bout My G-g-g”

  1. Pingback: May(be) | Take It Easy

    • Strange things sometimes happen! Wild Thing did make #1 in the US but as I was using the UK chart I was safe including it. The Manfred Mann one wasn’t a hit over there, so I guess it didn’t get much airplay.

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    • Sorry for planting the earworm! If you fancy it done a little differently and have access to YouTube try looking up the version by the Zimmers – it’s a lot of fun.

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  5. I imagine you don’t follow baseball, Clive, but Wild Thing reminded me of a relief pitcher (Mitch Williams) who used to come in to close the games. His nickname was “Wild Thing” as he was known for throwing hard but not always accurately. They used to play this song as he came into the game, perhaps putting a few ideas in the batters’ heads.

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  6. I agree, we were sooooo spoilt for choice at the time. Every time you turned on a radio you were apt to hear a future classic being released. To my ear the 60s Who were the perfect performers of Hard Pop, if there’s such a category. They lost me somewhere in the 70s as they went in a more bombastic direction. (Just my own observation!!!!) And Manfred Man must have kept Dylan in royalty cheques for most of the 60s. The Troggs and ‘Wild Thing’- the first song every garage band in the world literally has a bash at only went to number 2? That just feels wrong, it’s a landmark song. (Please please please don’t tell me ‘Wild Thing’ was kept out of number 1 by some thing by someone like Val Doonican.)

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    • Back then that just seemed the norm, but if you look at the charts from those days they were so much better than the talentless morons who fill them these days. Manfred Mann did well by Dylan, didn’t they, what with this and The Mighty Quinn. I looked up the chart archive: Wild Thing was kept off the top by the Stones with Paint It Black. No shame in that!

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  8. Nice music, Clive thanks for joining in again. The Queen’s husband had been buried in a similar vehicle and she got pissed off seeing Towsend’s car. The stuttering was added to the song to make him sound like a speed freak.

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    • Thanks, Jim. Royal coffins are carried on gun carriages, not in hearses, so that they are visible to the crowds who line the route, but QEQM may well have been in a car like that for the funeral. That explanation is one of a number given on Wikipedia as being possible reasons for the stutter – who knows, apart from Roger?

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  10. Love the idea for this list…funny how “My Generation” has always been “controversial” for using stuttering as part of Roger’s vocal playfulness…when Bachman Turner Overdrive had the hits song “B-B-B-Baby You Just Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” they had the same criticism…I mean, everyone C’MON.

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    • It’s a good idea, isn’t it. I knew The Who had never had a UK #1 so I started from there and looked up other possibilities on Wikipedia. There were many!

      I doubt we’ll ever be entirely certain about the reason for Roger’s stuttering but BTO are on record as saying theirs was deliberate, as a joke. And we thought sensibilities about that were a modern day ‘woke’ thing!

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  12. Oh, how I w-w-wish that song w-w-would just f-f-fade away! I never really developed a liking for The Who but I do like some of Pete Townshend’s solo stuff. “If You Gotta Go” was ok but there’s only one version really worth listening to IMO and that’s Dylan’s. “Wild Thing” is such a cool song which is why it made it to #1 here in the rocking US of A!

    Miss me yet, Clive? 😁

    Great post!

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    • You chose another great one too – there were so many we could have picked from. I almost went for Strawberry Fields but couldn’t leave any of these out!

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