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I Really Don't Care for Gnome Rock
01/10/08 | by sammymaudlin
UPDATED AGAIN WITH TOMORROW'S CONTRIBUTION (THANKS TO TOWNSMAN SATURNISMINE)
UPDATED BELOW THE FOLD WITH BOWIE'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE GENRE (THANKS TO TOWNSMAN SHAWNKILROY)
I LOVE Syd Barrett and even kinda like this song but I fear it may be the song that launched the Gnome Rock genre. Is Syd to blame? Tell me. I can take it. Is he responsible for...
Follow up:
Fum, fum, diddle-um di
or
or
I'm sure I'm missing some choice Gnome Rock cuts. Let's get 'em all out in the open to make it easy for Rhino or K-Tel to release a compilation. Is there anyone here who can defend Gnome Rock?! Make yourself known.
Is there anyone here that can help me put a finger on what it is? It's definitely not Old Timey or even Ye Olde. It has a Celtic (hard "C") feel but I'm not sure why. They tell stories of impish characters and/or the kind of psychedelic landscapes that you might expect to see in a '70s breakfast cereal commercial and/or have characters named Grimble Grumble, Silas Stingy or Cracky Crocky or some shit.
I think what bugs me the most is that the artists plopped their Gnome droppings in the middle of otherwise great albums. Anyone that knows me well knows that I really, really don't like skipping songs but when those Gnomes start River Dancing out from behind their red polkadotted mushrooms, I spring for that next button with all speed.
I really don't care for Gnome Rock.
Tommorow's Three Jolly Little Dwarfs
14 comments
OK. I am just CRACKING UP right now. Very funny! But you know what? I kinda like gnome rock. Which is a scary revelation. But both the Kinks and the Who are pretty high up in my i-pod playlist. It's frightening to see them in THIS context.
I'll mine my collection for more. Yikes.
I'll mine my collection for more. Yikes.
01/09/08 @ 00:53
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
I'm with Loophole: very funny. I'll dig out some gnome rock tomorrow afternoon, if I get time. I'm with you on feeling disappointed by these tracks in otherwise fantastic albums.
The thing I often don't like about these songs is that it makes British guys put on a certain kind of too-obvious British accent. I'd liken it to what I call "blackface" singing. Do we call it Britface?
The thing I often don't like about these songs is that it makes British guys put on a certain kind of too-obvious British accent. I'd liken it to what I call "blackface" singing. Do we call it Britface?
01/09/08 @ 01:01
Comment from: mrclean [Member] 
Great post. I like this stuff in small doses...of course "Boris the Spider" and "Happy Jack" come to mind...
01/09/08 @ 07:03
Comment from: saturnismine [Member]
I remember a song on either a nuggets or a pebbles called "Three Jolly Little Elves", which kind of sums up the whole thing.
Then there's the whole first side of "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake", with Stanley Unwin's story-telling.
I'm not sure how "Silas Stingy" fits into all this, however. I always pictured Silas as a grumpy old (full grown) man. It's just a song about a miser who is mocked by children. How is that gnome-like?
mrclean: package received! quid pro quo on its way.
Then there's the whole first side of "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake", with Stanley Unwin's story-telling.
I'm not sure how "Silas Stingy" fits into all this, however. I always pictured Silas as a grumpy old (full grown) man. It's just a song about a miser who is mocked by children. How is that gnome-like?
mrclean: package received! quid pro quo on its way.
01/09/08 @ 09:18
Comment from: shawnkilroy [Member]
David Bowie's The Laughing Gnome is like a psychadelicized Alvin and the Chipmunks.
YES! we do call it BRITFACE!!!
i fuckin love it.
I'm Ling O L!
STONEHENGE is a great piece of Gnomerock. Hubbins referrs to the "little children" of stonehenge, but I know gnome code when i hear it.
LED ZEP barely escaped the clutches of Gnomerock as they flirted with the depths of MiddleEarth. Just a single reference to the Shire would have pushed them ofer the cliff.
THE LADYTRON (not LADYTRON), the Collingswood band that was on Shimmydisk a few years ago was a pure Gnomerock revival.
YES! we do call it BRITFACE!!!
i fuckin love it.
I'm Ling O L!
STONEHENGE is a great piece of Gnomerock. Hubbins referrs to the "little children" of stonehenge, but I know gnome code when i hear it.
LED ZEP barely escaped the clutches of Gnomerock as they flirted with the depths of MiddleEarth. Just a single reference to the Shire would have pushed them ofer the cliff.
THE LADYTRON (not LADYTRON), the Collingswood band that was on Shimmydisk a few years ago was a pure Gnomerock revival.
01/09/08 @ 10:13
Comment from: sammymaudlin [Member]
More than anything, even the alliteration, Silas Stingy feels musically aligned with Gnome Rock. That is, strip the lyrics and I think we'd have a Gnome Rock instrumental.
01/09/08 @ 10:55
I've got a MOJO 4 cd box set of first wave British psychedelia, sort of their answer to the Rhino Nuggets II box. It's got its fair share of gnome stylings.
I have noticed that it's a just a hop skip and jump from Uncle Granny's Strawberry Bicycle Emporium Extract to Thine Golden Gates of Fairie.
I have noticed that it's a just a hop skip and jump from Uncle Granny's Strawberry Bicycle Emporium Extract to Thine Golden Gates of Fairie.
01/09/08 @ 11:02
Comment from: Oats [Member]
I'm cool with "Phenomenal Cat." It might seem like the odd track out on Village Green, but it does fit in with the theme of contentedness vs. complacency. Also, my girlfriend has a cat whose life slightly parallels that of the cat in the song.
On the other hand, I don't like "Silas Stringy" at all. Annoying!
On the other hand, I don't like "Silas Stringy" at all. Annoying!
01/09/08 @ 11:11
Comment from: saturnismine [Member]
sammy, i dig your take on silas, now.
and given my previous thread starter on psychedelia, in which i railed against the more annoying, cloying tendencies with which the genre had been bogged down, i appreciate your identification of gnome rock as one of them!
and kilroy is right: Britface is a brilliant term with clever thinking at its core!
and given my previous thread starter on psychedelia, in which i railed against the more annoying, cloying tendencies with which the genre had been bogged down, i appreciate your identification of gnome rock as one of them!
and kilroy is right: Britface is a brilliant term with clever thinking at its core!
01/09/08 @ 11:37
Comment from: saturnismine [Member]
oh man! I just figured it out: it's "Three Jolly Little Dwarves" (not elves), and it's by Tomorrow! You MUST check it out!
01/09/08 @ 20:35
Comment from: homefrontradio [Member]
I'll got to a nod to George Harrison's 'Crackerbox Palace' video here, which used to crack my sister and I up because we loathed anything Gnome, Dwarf or Womble-related. (Admittedly, we were 5 and 7 at the time).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yla9-VdrktA
Yeah, I love the song, goofy as it is. You can see how he ended up involved with the Pythons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yla9-VdrktA
Yeah, I love the song, goofy as it is. You can see how he ended up involved with the Pythons.
01/09/08 @ 20:40
Comment from: saturnismine [Member]
wow...the dwarf song is even goofier than i remember. is that a sooped up re-issue mix, or what? listen to the compression on those drums.
gnomes to the elf power!
that george song...(shaking my head)...whew.
gnomes to the elf power!
that george song...(shaking my head)...whew.
01/10/08 @ 09:01
Comment from: alexmagic [Member]
Boy, Entwistle should have passed “Silas Stingy” off to Keith, maybe he could have saved it for Two Sides Of The Moon. It’s no “Mean Mr. Mustard” as far as songs about old miserly jerks go.
“In Another Land” is Wyman, right? Are bass players especially drawn to Gnome Rock? There does seem to be some kind of doof-y bouncing bass and drum thing running through most of the songs that fall into this particular musical ghetto. To capture, perhaps, the prancing and skipping that gnomes and dwarves love so damn much.
“Phenomenal Cat” is definitely the only song that doesn’t work for me on Village Green, mostly because of the sound effects on that one vocal part. Sped-up or otherwise whacked-out vocals appear to be another Gnome Rock touchstone.
I have a very high tolerance for psychedelia and odd musical British-isms – The Move’s “Fields of People” works for me better than it probably should – but the gnomic level of Britface might just be a bit too much for me. Is anything on that Mojo set worth looking into that didn’t turn up the second Nuggets set? The Sands’ “Listen To The Sky” ended up being my favorite thing on there, and it looks like it’s on the Mojo set, too.
“In Another Land” is Wyman, right? Are bass players especially drawn to Gnome Rock? There does seem to be some kind of doof-y bouncing bass and drum thing running through most of the songs that fall into this particular musical ghetto. To capture, perhaps, the prancing and skipping that gnomes and dwarves love so damn much.
“Phenomenal Cat” is definitely the only song that doesn’t work for me on Village Green, mostly because of the sound effects on that one vocal part. Sped-up or otherwise whacked-out vocals appear to be another Gnome Rock touchstone.
I have a very high tolerance for psychedelia and odd musical British-isms – The Move’s “Fields of People” works for me better than it probably should – but the gnomic level of Britface might just be a bit too much for me. Is anything on that Mojo set worth looking into that didn’t turn up the second Nuggets set? The Sands’ “Listen To The Sky” ended up being my favorite thing on there, and it looks like it’s on the Mojo set, too.
01/10/08 @ 10:32
Is anything on that Mojo set worth looking into that didn’t turn up the second Nuggets set? The Sands’ “Listen To The Sky” ended up being my favorite thing on there, and it looks like it’s on the Mojo set, too.
It's not nearly as solid as the Nuggets II box, though there are definitely some cool things on it. Not as many mod rave-ups, lots more wizards and elves stuff. The last time I played it was before the whole folkadelica revival, so I might have to pull it out again to re-evaluate the contents.
I've also got on cdr the entire 20 cd Rubble series. The first one, "The Psychedelic Snarl" is still by far the best, but again, some neat things scattered throughout.
It's interesting to note 60's UK psych-pop songs that recent artists have sampled or quoted from. I'm thinking specifically of the new Caribou record, one which one song quotes heavily from Manfred Man's "It's So Easy Falling in Love", and Sebadoh's "Flame", the main riff of which is sampled from a track off the Psychedelic Snarl called "Grey" by the Hush.
It's not nearly as solid as the Nuggets II box, though there are definitely some cool things on it. Not as many mod rave-ups, lots more wizards and elves stuff. The last time I played it was before the whole folkadelica revival, so I might have to pull it out again to re-evaluate the contents.
I've also got on cdr the entire 20 cd Rubble series. The first one, "The Psychedelic Snarl" is still by far the best, but again, some neat things scattered throughout.
It's interesting to note 60's UK psych-pop songs that recent artists have sampled or quoted from. I'm thinking specifically of the new Caribou record, one which one song quotes heavily from Manfred Man's "It's So Easy Falling in Love", and Sebadoh's "Flame", the main riff of which is sampled from a track off the Psychedelic Snarl called "Grey" by the Hush.
01/10/08 @ 13:12
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