Jason Crest -- Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree

It's tough to pick the best 1967 version of "Here We Go Round the Lemon Tree". The original Roy Wood/Move version (released as a B-side), the Idle Race top-side, or the Jason Crest version.



I went with the Jason Crest version. Here's nine comments about it.

1. The Jason Crest version was the third single I know of to be recorded of the Roy Wood song, and if I had to pick a reason I favor it it would be that Jason Crest pulls together the three parts of the song (verse, chorus, bridge) in a way that is coherent. Roy Wood writes deliciously schizophrenic songs, with bridges and choruses that seem divorced often from the verses. That's good, but I like the Jason Crest attempt to hide some of the seams here -- the strength here is the appearance of simplicity, and that's what the band focuses on.

2. Song story as I see it -- Boy sees crazy girl. Boy desires crazy girl. Crazy girl tells boy to bugger off in form of crazy song. Boy considers numerous approaches to her heart, but finally settles for joining in her delirium, wearing crazy underpants and singing crazy bugger-off song along with her. It works.

3. The song sounds bubblegum, but it's not. It's more William Blake. There's a deep repression in each of these lines, and Wood knows it.

4. Great near-rhymes: see me/bikini/fruit tree, tiger/cider/beside her.

5. Best line "Could I calm her down by throwing stones at her / If only I could make the right approach to her". That seems insane, but you've never taught 16 year old boys. They are clueless.

6. Typical nursery-rhyme psych-pop use of refrain -- it's something that someone is singing, but with each verse it takes on a slightly different meaning in the story, until at the end it's song as a sort of triumph. See also "Ob-li-di, Ob-la-da", etc.

7. Yes, I know Ob-la-di is one of the worst songs the Beatles ever recorded. So not a great example, but you get the point.

8. Oh, right, the single w/ bottom-side, for the record: (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree / Patricia's Dream (Philips BF 1687).

9. Green underpants? This is the big plan? And what is the ethics of getting "beside" a girl who is "round the bend"? It's this sort of uneasiness in Wood's stuff that makes me love him.

Mirage -- The Wedding of Ramona Blair

OK, it seems almost cheating to pull one of the great tracks off of the Rubble Collection for my first pick -- but how could I do otherwise? Besides, I imagine this blog is going to rely on Rubble a lot.

May I present Mirage with The Wedding of Ramona Blair:

Play MP3.

[MP3 is uploaded for a limited time at a gloriously degraded 64kbps to respect fair use guidelines for educational use of media]

The track was released as a Philips single (Philips 1571) in 1967, with 'Lazy Man' on the bottom side.

Here's 9 comments about it.


1. The line-up was Peter Hynes on the lead vocals, Pat Hynes on guitar, Dee Murray on bass/vocals, and David Hynes on drums/vocals. (Both Dee and Dave would later join the Spencer Davis Group, and David would head on to back Elton John, along with fellow psych-popper Caleb Quaye).

2. The song was written by David Hynes.

3. Like much of the "observational" sike genre, it uses character names to imbue a sense of particularness, and it puts it right in the title (not "The Wedding", but "The Wedding of Ramona Blair")

4. To stick with the title for a minute, it's titled the "The Wedding of Ramona Blair" which is also a neat bit of irony -- the whole point is there is no wedding at The Wedding of Ramona Blair, as the groom stands her up.

5. The plot is pretty thin: Ramona goes to sleep, wakes up the next morning, gets ready for her wedding, and waits for a groom that stands her up. And the unnamed narrator repeats that it's "nice to see Ramona in prayer / give an occasional stare / at the door". So really not much happens. But a lot of the beauty of the song is its lack of motion, the guests and her frozen in this thing. Everything from the unresolved chord the organ hangs on at the end of each verse to the waiting while looking at the door, to the static title, to the hanging unrhymed line the refrain ends with keeps us in the same place, waiting.


6. The lyrics don't seem to be anywhere on the interwebs, so here they are:

In a cozy bed,
Ramona dreams
of the very next day.

Going round her head,
The sound of her brother next door
saying his prayers.

When the morning came,
Ramona tried
on her very best face.

But she looked the same.
She sighed
and carried on sewing her lace.

People came,
But the groom he wasn't there.
At the Wedding of Ramona Blair.
It was nice
To see Ramona in prayer
Give an occasional stare
at the door.

In the bridal gown,
Ramona cried
on the very new bed.

She was on her own,
Alone
on the very same day

As the wedding bells
They rang
But the groom he wasn't there.
At the Wedding of Ramona Blair.
It was nice
To see Ramona in prayer
Give an occasional stare
at the door.

7. There's something neat the refrain does here -- the song's verses break into two sections -- one detailing Ramona before the wedding, one detailing her crying afterwards. And after both of them we get the refrain. After the first verse the refrain moves us forward in the story. But after the second it moves us, Tarantino style, backwards to that pivotal moment where she is waiting and all is in stasis. And that's where the song ends, with her trying to look like she is praying, but glancing at the door as time passes.

8. What does it all mean? Not much, which is really the genius of this genre. The only interpretation we get is the odd "It was nice / to see Ramona in prayer / give an occasional stare / at the door." Nice? Really? Who's voice is this telling the story, and how dense are they?

9. I'm rambling on about this but will try to do that less in future posts....i just have a lot of thoughts backed up here...