Another single I bought in Bexhill-on-Sea; this one a couple of years after The Happenings.
It was the first big hit for Jethro Tull, coolly if somewhat archaically named after the improver of the seed drill, fronted by a trampish looking guy who sported a codpiece and played the flute while standing on one leg.
Rock and roll?
Apparently the band quickly came to hate this song and didn’t play it on stage for what amounted to decades.
This song was of course written in the 1930s but I mentioned in my post on God Only Knows that I’d always liked male voice harmony.
This version is in that vein, but has more falsetto.
I bought this single in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, no less. I had relatives down there (still have) and at that time my boyhood family visited more or less every year. When I first listened to it on their record player (it probably wasn’t a stereo but I can’t remember exactly) my cousin rushed in to say it was brilliant.
There is a video on You Tube showing The Happenings performing it (miming?) on The Smothers Brothers Show in the US but that one can’t be embedded.
This version is from an LP (as they used to be called.)
And, I’ve just noticed, on a record player!
Edited to add:- That video I referred to in italics above is no longer available. To replace it here is one where the recording is superimposed over a TV performance.
