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Alan Brackett explains the meaning behind this cryptic postcard from band manager Billy James: "The story on the reason for the postcard is that in 1967 they were very scared and concerned about saying anything outright about drugs, sex, etc. How things have changed! Many of the songs I wrote had "double meanings" - I knew I couldn't just say "Turn On A Friend" when I wrote the song and added "to the good life" for that reason. It's a good thing I did as you can see what happened. "Why Did I Get So High" related to being high on love, but was one of the favorite "sing-along" songs we did. Everyone liked singing the chorus because the words were semi-forbidden at the time. I knew that the Fugs song "I Couldn't Get High" could not be played on the radio because it talked about drugs specifically. Not that my song got a lot of airplay and that wasn't really the point of writing it that way. I felt it was more of a challenge to write with double meanings anyway. Another is John's "You Took Too Much", which has the line "You're droppin' all the time" and can hardly be construed as anything but what it is, but at the time I don't think the music business people were hip to the lingo and they didn't know what it meant. This is how things got stretched. Led Zep's "Way down deep inside" line in "Whole Lotta Love", The Stones saying "She blew my nose and then she blew my mind" are examples of stretching the rules about sex. Gene Vincent was way ahead with his Lotta Lovin' song way back in the '50's. And of course, before any of these, were the blues singers with their great double meaning songs! There's something about it - it's like seeing a girl scantilly dressed compared to nude. It leaves something to the imagination which is much more than reality can ever be - or at least it should be! The blatant lyrics today, along with the video that is one point of view of what the song is about, leaves little to the imagination. I think we are missing something here that we used to have with our "double-meanings" and inuendos leaving the imagination of the listener to participate in the fulfilment of the musical experience." Alan |