I have always liked Bob Lind’s music – and there probably aren’t that many people who can say that. He was a one-hit wonder (“Elusive Butterfly”), but a lifetime writer. His songs (mostly the ones from the mid-1960s) have been covered by over 200 artists ranging from Cher to Dolly Parton to Eric Clapton to the Four Tops to Hugh Masekala to the Blues Project. His elusive success, combined with an overindulgence in alcohol and various pharmaceuticals, caused him to leave the music business for many years. He became a staff writer for the Sun and the Weekly World News, those famous supermarket tabloids. He also wrote award-winning plays, screenplays and novels (at least one of which was published – a work called East of the Holyland.)
Despite his musical and writing talents, and despite the fact that I like a lot of his stuff, it is not difficult to see why he had only one real hit. His songs have often been called “cloying,” he regularly mixes metaphors (even in a 3-minute song) and he has a tendency to use three or four words to express what could better be said in one. As an example, look at one of his early songs called “Mister Zero” – which, by the way, Keith Relf, the lead singer of the Yardbirds, chose for his first solo record.
“Mister Zero” is about a less than perfect relationship between Mr. Zero and Little Miss Someone. It begins like this: “Diamonds of silvery rain in the fountains,/And ten-cent red roses from department store counters,/Watching the moonlight reflect off the river,/Beside where the trains cross the bridge and slow down,/Trains with white letters on black iron sides,/And white rushing water that all rolls away,/And Little Miss Someone does not want to stay.” Wordy, yes; and that is not even a whole verse. Nevertheless, Keith Relf must have thought it was good.
It is not surprising that Bob Lind became disenchanted with the music industry because the industry did not seem to understand him. He was essentially a troubadour with a guitar, but the producer for all of his “popular” songs was Jack Nitzsche, who thought his songs should have a lush background with strings and things. The backing musicians were good, including Leon Russell and others, and the production did work fairly well on “Elusive Butterfly”; but most of his songs would be better if the production was a little more sparse.
Having said all that, I will repeat that I have always liked Bob Lind’s music. Despite some major flaws, he wrote songs that are melodic and sound good and are memorable. I mean, I remembered the words to “Mister Zero” though I have not heard the song for several decades. I also recall seeing Bob Lind in concert in 1972. He sang a song for which I have never found a recording that began something like, “Down at Danny’s Diner over ham and eggs, you got me in trouble for looking at your legs.” I still remember parts of it.
“Go Ask Your Man” is one of those catchy, memorable ditties. Darcy and I were out for our dog walk the other day and this song sort of popped into my head. There is a line about “rolling toward the ocean in your trusty Morris Minor.” As we turned the corner, coming up the street toward us was a red and white Mini Cooper, which is the current version of the Morris Minor of the 1960s. That was the sign that this should be the song of the week.
By the way, Bob did release a CD of new songs in 2012, at about the time of his 70th birthday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg4av8UbjS8