small faces, “itchycoo park”
from: there are but four small faces, 1967
“Over bridge of sighs
To rest my eyes in shades of green
Under dreamin’ spires
To Itchycoo Park, that’s where I’ve been
What did you do there?
I got high
What did you feel there?
Well I cried
But why the tears there?
I’ll tell you why
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
I feel inclined to blow my mind
Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun
They all come out to groove about
Be nice and have fun in the sun
I tell you what I’ll do (what will you do?)
I’d like to go there now with you
You can miss out school (won’t that be cool)
Why go to learn the words of fools?
What will we do there?
We’ll get high
What will we touch there?
We’ll touch the sky
But why the tears then?
I’ll tell you why
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
I feel inclined to blow my mind
Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun
They all come out to groove about
Be nice and have fun in the sun
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
Ha! It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
It’s all too beautiful
”
What makes a strong song? Perhaps the catchy chorus – “the answer my friends is blowin’ in the wind” – the melody, the emotion, the power of the lyric?
Itchycoo Park is about getting high, going to a park and then…being blown away by the beauty? The song was the first to use a electro-mechanical studio process called flanging in which two synchronized tape copies of a finished recording were played simultaneously into a third master recorder, and by manually retarding the rotation of one of the two tape reels by pressing on the flanges, a skilled engineer could subtly manipulate the phase difference between the two sources, creating the lush 'swooshing' phase effect that sweeps up and down the frequency range. The original single version was mixed and mastered in mono, and the phasing effect is more pronounced in the mono mix than in the later stereo mix.
-Alan West-
Small Faces Members in 1967
Steve Marriott – lead and backing vocals, guitar
Ronnie Lane – backing vocals, bass
Ian McLagan – backing vocals, organ, piano
Kenney Jones – drums, percussion