Fact #105896
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On 30 March 1967, The Small Faces were in Bristol for a gig at Colston Hall. The band's bassist Ronnie 'Plonk' Lane was whiling the time away reading a magazine article about Cambridge. The phrases 'dreaming spires' and 'bridge of sighs' lodged in his mind, and, of course, they eventually surfaced in the lyric of Itchycoo Park.
As the song took shape, however, the action was re-located to the band's stamping ground, the East End of London, and Small Faces scholars have identified Manor Park, located near Aldgate East, as the real-life Itchycoo Park. "That was the nickname for it," explains the band's organist Ian McLagan, "because there were stinging nettles there. They should have re-named it, don't you think?"
Sadly, both composers of Itchycoo Park have since died but, in The Small Faces biography Quite Naturally by Keith Badman and Terry Rawlings, Steve Marriott revealed that the melody was, "basically a nick from an old hymn called God Be In My Heart. It was an old melody that stuck in Ronnie's mind, I think. Ronnie came to me and he had the melody of the first part and the chorus and I thought of the sort of mad middle eight bit."
Given this religious background, it's intriguing that the subject of the song is clearly the convenience of the park as a venue for local teenagers to buy drugs get stoned. "I feel inclined to blow my mind," sings Marriott, "Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun/ They all come out to groove about/ Be nice and have fun in the sun."
The track's gimmick was its use of flanging, a recording studio trick suggested to The Small Faces by engineer George Chkiantz. Flanging involved the use of two identical tape recordings running at fractionally different speeds to create a distorted out-of-phase sound. "The Beatles had used it," revealed organist Ian McLagan some years later, "and George was on the session. Later, he was on tape op with us and he said, 'Oh you might want to try this.' And he showed us how to do it. It was very simple."
At first listen, Itchycoo Park might seem to be just an intriguing period piece, but its enduring charm has been illustrated by the fact that it became a hit again on re-release in 1976, and charted a third time in 1995 when covered by M People.
(Source : feature by Johnny Black)
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As the song took shape, however, the action was re-located to the band's stamping ground, the East End of London, and Small Faces scholars have identified Manor Park, located near Aldgate East, as the real-life Itchycoo Park. "That was the nickname for it," explains the band's organist Ian McLagan, "because there were stinging nettles there. They should have re-named it, don't you think?"
Sadly, both composers of Itchycoo Park have since died but, in The Small Faces biography Quite Naturally by Keith Badman and Terry Rawlings, Steve Marriott revealed that the melody was, "basically a nick from an old hymn called God Be In My Heart. It was an old melody that stuck in Ronnie's mind, I think. Ronnie came to me and he had the melody of the first part and the chorus and I thought of the sort of mad middle eight bit."
Given this religious background, it's intriguing that the subject of the song is clearly the convenience of the park as a venue for local teenagers to buy drugs get stoned. "I feel inclined to blow my mind," sings Marriott, "Get hung up feed the ducks with a bun/ They all come out to groove about/ Be nice and have fun in the sun."
The track's gimmick was its use of flanging, a recording studio trick suggested to The Small Faces by engineer George Chkiantz. Flanging involved the use of two identical tape recordings running at fractionally different speeds to create a distorted out-of-phase sound. "The Beatles had used it," revealed organist Ian McLagan some years later, "and George was on the session. Later, he was on tape op with us and he said, 'Oh you might want to try this.' And he showed us how to do it. It was very simple."
At first listen, Itchycoo Park might seem to be just an intriguing period piece, but its enduring charm has been illustrated by the fact that it became a hit again on re-release in 1976, and charted a third time in 1995 when covered by M People.
(Source : feature by Johnny Black)