"King Midas in Reverse" is one of the most braindead songs I've ever heard

Or sniffing marker pens...

 

Nice hat dude.

 

Overanalyzing Graham Nash.....the world has truly come to an end.

 

Unlike you, I couldn't care less.

 

Came here to say this. Using it to introduce Fonda's character was brilliant.

 

Like others here, I've always thought of it as meaning some people turn things into crap.

 

How much less?

 

Yeah, that's understandable. Bus Stop was written by a great Manchester songwriter Graham Gouldman. I won't go on at the risk of offending anyone.

 

So I assume the OP has never heard a Kiss song?

 

...and that's the thing about The Hollies. Their hit songs were written by so many different people, most of them not part of the band, that I find the question about whether I am a fan of the Hollies hard to answer. They did some great songs, they did some crap songs, and the great and the crap were both scattered throughout their career. They sang and played them competently, I will say that for them.

 

They were never encouraged to write for their singles 'A' sides by their longtime producer Ron Richards unlike say George Martin for The Beatles and Norrie Paramor for The Shadows etc who gave their bands good songwriting support

in 1964 their song 'We're Through' made no.7 in the UK chart....however Ron Richards deemed that to be a failure !

so they probably did well to pen nine of their UK chart hits between 1964 and 1973 plus they wrote a number of overseas hits too including a top ten hit in Sweden, plus an Australia / New Zealand chart topper 'Too Young To Be Married' that was never a UK or USA single

Clarke's 'Long Cool Woman' was a big USA hit in 1972

they wrote their UK 'B' sides, EP tracks and quite a lot of album tracks - three complete albums in the sixties, and bar maybe the one track six seventies albums which included several original songs which charted as overseas singles only in Europe and / or Australia and New Zealand

their song 'Have You Ever Loved Somebody' was a UK chart entry for both The Searchers and Paul & Barry Ryan in 1967 while Graham Nash co-wrote John Walker's UK solo hit 'Anabella' that year too

so while quite a number of their best known hit singles between 1963 and 1974 were penned by outside writers they did make a notable contribution to the overall total themselves

 

But millions of Americans heard this amazing track when it was included in the Columbia Different Strokes various artists album. It sold for a dollar in 1970. Think how cheap that was.
That guitar work on Too Young always impressed me and until recently I thought it was a studio guy. Shame on me. I shoulda known better.

 

Thanks, it's one of my favorites as well...I remember specifically getting this CD to get "Midas":

 

I'm not sure there's much to be gained in dissecting most popular song lyrics to that extent. I'm fine with that lyric, but I'm not crazy about "Stop, stop stop all dancing"

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to trying to figure what's going on in the storyline of "What a Fool Believes"...

 

You must have avoided turning on the radio for the last twenty years...

 

Used to rate King Midas as my favorite Hollies song, though the harmonies sound a bit flat ..in the chorus.

 

You have to admit that `King Midas In Reverse` is a great title, I always liked the song, it was a bit `heavier` than their usual fare, and anyway Graham Nash was not known for his profound lyrics......."You light the fire, while I put the flowers in the vase that we bought today",........Well, thanks for sharing that with us Graham.

 

Those lyrics describe an idyllic "honeymoon" period in a couple's relationship quite nicely, IMO.

 

Actually I think that HE was lighting the fire!
You have to get these gender rolls correct, "Put the flowers in the vase Joni".

 

I'm aware that Nash wrote this as an attempt to shift The Hollies from pop music to be a more serious singer-songwriter act (which he achieved with his move to CSN).
However, musically I've always found it dead-boring and have never warmed to the song. I always felt that on this song Nash was trying much too hard to be meaningful, and ended up being more pretentious than meaningful.

 

Annoyingly, the single was a slightly shortened version of the song, with most of the instrumental bridge - the best part of the song - removed.

 

I'm with Graham Nash here great song pure psyc pop

 

Graham Nash wasn't so naive...in fact he was laughing all the way from his 'very very fine house' to the bank as in the UK a building society used his song for a TV commercial re new homes for young couples !

however never mind King Midas....if you want REAL Brain dead - tho' again not quite so silly as it reached NUMBER ONE in the UK in 1971 (and it's lyrics were later quoted in another UK TV commercial adding further to the songwriter's bank balance)

try this one for it's amazing lyrical content !



it helps a lot to get a pretty lady in hotpants to do your song of course !

I think guys were buying this record to keep it at number one so we could watch her each week on BBC's 'Top of The Pops' !