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Timothy (song)
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Timothy (song)
"Timothy" is a song recorded by American pop rock band The Buoys as a single in 1970. The song describes a mine cave-in and aftermath, with the implication the two survivors cannibalized their companion, the eponymous Timothy. Written by Rupert Holmes, who also performed piano on the song, "Timothy" was conceived from the band being forced to promote their first single without the aid of their label, Scepter Records. Holmes' solution was to have the song generate attention by depicting a controversial subject.
Despite initial efforts from radio stations to ban the song, "Timothy" proved to be a success for the Buoys. It reached the US Billboard Top 40 chart on April 17, 1971, where it remained on the chart for eight weeks and peaked at number 17. On the US Cash Box Top 100, it spent two weeks at number 13. In Canada, the song reached number nine. "Timothy" became the Buoys' best known song and their most successful song to chart on Billboard.
According to his own account, Rupert Holmes pitched the idea to producer Michael Wright. "The challenge was to write something that could get played, but that some people would ban,” Holmes said. “If I wrote a song where the lyrics were obscene, or I described something sexual that was not allowed in those days, or if there was a clear drug reference, that would not work, because it would just never get played at all.”
Holmes has cited the 1947 country song "Sixteen Tons" (about the hard life of a coal miner) and the 1959 film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play Suddenly Last Summer (which also contains allusions to cannibalism) as inspirations for "Timothy". He decided to combine the themes of both works into a ballad of three miners — Timothy, Joe, and the singer — trapped by a cave-in, sung in the first person from the perspective of one of the miners. By the time they are rescued, only two survive.
Although the fate of the missing man, Timothy, is never explicitly revealed, it is strongly implied by the fact that the survivors, once hungry and with no access to food and only enough water for two people, show no sign of hunger when they're rescued. Indeed, the singer's "stomach was full as it could be"; how they found food, however, is purposely left blank, and the singer has blacked out the experience leaving him unable to recall how they obtained food or what happened to Timothy (the lyrics make it clear he suspects he and Joe ate Timothy: "God, why don't I know?!").
To make the song appealing to listeners, Holmes disguised the borderline-gruesome lyrics to a degree by juxtaposing them against a light, bouncy melody with a heavy emphasis on brass and string orchestrated and conducted by Howard Reeves.
Although not an official member of The Buoys, Holmes played piano on the song in addition to composing it.
"Timothy" attracted little attention when it was first released, in large part because Scepter Records did not promote the record. Soon, however, it became popular among young listeners who were able to deduce Timothy's fate from the lyrics. Only as the song became more frequently requested did radio stations begin to take note of it and its unsettling subject matter. Then, just as Holmes and the Buoys had expected, the song started getting banned.
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Timothy (song)
"Timothy" is a song recorded by American pop rock band The Buoys as a single in 1970. The song describes a mine cave-in and aftermath, with the implication the two survivors cannibalized their companion, the eponymous Timothy. Written by Rupert Holmes, who also performed piano on the song, "Timothy" was conceived from the band being forced to promote their first single without the aid of their label, Scepter Records. Holmes' solution was to have the song generate attention by depicting a controversial subject.
Despite initial efforts from radio stations to ban the song, "Timothy" proved to be a success for the Buoys. It reached the US Billboard Top 40 chart on April 17, 1971, where it remained on the chart for eight weeks and peaked at number 17. On the US Cash Box Top 100, it spent two weeks at number 13. In Canada, the song reached number nine. "Timothy" became the Buoys' best known song and their most successful song to chart on Billboard.
According to his own account, Rupert Holmes pitched the idea to producer Michael Wright. "The challenge was to write something that could get played, but that some people would ban,” Holmes said. “If I wrote a song where the lyrics were obscene, or I described something sexual that was not allowed in those days, or if there was a clear drug reference, that would not work, because it would just never get played at all.”
Holmes has cited the 1947 country song "Sixteen Tons" (about the hard life of a coal miner) and the 1959 film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play Suddenly Last Summer (which also contains allusions to cannibalism) as inspirations for "Timothy". He decided to combine the themes of both works into a ballad of three miners — Timothy, Joe, and the singer — trapped by a cave-in, sung in the first person from the perspective of one of the miners. By the time they are rescued, only two survive.
Although the fate of the missing man, Timothy, is never explicitly revealed, it is strongly implied by the fact that the survivors, once hungry and with no access to food and only enough water for two people, show no sign of hunger when they're rescued. Indeed, the singer's "stomach was full as it could be"; how they found food, however, is purposely left blank, and the singer has blacked out the experience leaving him unable to recall how they obtained food or what happened to Timothy (the lyrics make it clear he suspects he and Joe ate Timothy: "God, why don't I know?!").
To make the song appealing to listeners, Holmes disguised the borderline-gruesome lyrics to a degree by juxtaposing them against a light, bouncy melody with a heavy emphasis on brass and string orchestrated and conducted by Howard Reeves.
Although not an official member of The Buoys, Holmes played piano on the song in addition to composing it.
"Timothy" attracted little attention when it was first released, in large part because Scepter Records did not promote the record. Soon, however, it became popular among young listeners who were able to deduce Timothy's fate from the lyrics. Only as the song became more frequently requested did radio stations begin to take note of it and its unsettling subject matter. Then, just as Holmes and the Buoys had expected, the song started getting banned.