Tiny Tim himself held this song in quite shockingly low regard - "The worst song!" he exclaimed in one interview; "one I wish I never recorded." Its inclusion on God Bless Tiny Tim (one of the greatest albums of all time, by the way) was, to hear him tell it, entirely the decision of producer Richard Perry, with which he reluctantly went along. "I don't like story songs," he explained to the interviewer (who seemed as surprised as I was).
If this is a story song, it's a good story. It's about, well, coming home, and reaching an understanding of "home" that, for all the song's light-hearted feel, is basically a mutual dislike.
Well, artists are often poor judges of their own work, I've found, and surely self-awareness was never one of Tiny Tim's strengths. If this song is to be attributed more to Richard Perry than Tiny Tim, then bravo, Richard Perry.
My Trusted MOGs
Tiny Tim has been unfairly overlooked. It's a shame really because he's quirky songwriter/singer as this cut proves.
My Trusted MOGs
Bart; I'm delighted you enjoyed the song. I've tried, when posting a song, to pick things that aren't very well-known, and I sometimes suspect my tastes are more oddball, even when I'm trying to pick things that will go over well, than I normally like to think. So it's a relief that you seem to have enjoyed the last few. Thanks.
I should also observe that Tiny Tim didn't actually write that song; it's by Diane Hilderbrand and Jack Keller. In fact, TT wrote very little of his material; he was instead a fantastically learned scholar of American songwriting, and could be said to have had a gift for discovering songs that eclipsed most musicians' gifts for writing them. There were a good six or seven numbers on God Bless Tiny Tim whose composer(s) I absolutely could not, information superhighway notwithstanding, discover.
My Trusted MOGs
Yes, it's a shame that someone so sincerely enamored of early 1900s music was successful because he was marketed as a freak show. Of course, he was an exceedingly eccentric man.
My Trusted MOGs
You mean TT sang in a voice besides falsetto??? Wow, they kept that facility quiet. Great song - it's said that Richard Perry learned how to make records with this album due to the quirky arrangements and instrumentation.
My Trusted MOGs
Tiny Tim was indeed underrated. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of turn-of-the-20th-century music. Mention a song and he could rattle off the name, artist and year of release. He was also very weird :-)