Itchycoo Park

"Itchycoo Park"
Single by Small Faces
B-side	"I'm Only Dreaming"
Released	4 August 1967 (UK) 1967 (US)
Format	7"
Recorded	Olympic Studios, London (1967)
Genre	Psychedelic pop
Length	2:45
Label	Immediate
Writer(s)	Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane
Producer	Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane
Small Faces singles chronology
"Here Come the Nice" (1967) "Itchycoo Park" (1967) "Tin Soldier" (1967)

"Itchycoo Park" is a psychedelic pop song written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, first recorded by their group, the Small Faces. The song reached number three in the UK Singles Chart, 1967.

Song profile

"Itchycoo Park" was released by mod band The Small Faces in August, 1967. Together with "Lazy Sunday", "Tin Soldier" and "All or Nothing", the song is one of the band's biggest hits and has become a classic of its time.

The song reached number 16 in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968.

Long running British music magazine NME cites readers poll voting "Itchycoo Park" number 62 out of the top 100 singles of all time.

"Itchycoo Park" climbed the charts again when it was re-released on 13 December 1975.

The song was one of the first pop singles to use flanging, an effect that can be heard in the bridge section after each chorus. Most sources credit the use of the effect to Olympic Studios engineer George Chkiantz who showed it to the Small Faces regular engineer Glyn Johns; he in turn demonstrated it to the group, who were always on the lookout for innovative production sounds, and they readily agreed to its use on the single.

Although many devices were soon created that could produce the same effect by purely electronic means, the effect as used on "Itchycoo Park" was at that time an electro-mechanical studio process. Two synchronized tape copies of a finished recording were played simultaneously into a third master recorder, and by manually retarding the rotation of one of the two tape reels using the fingers, a skilled engineer could subtly manipulate the phase difference between the two sources, creating the lush 'swooshing' phase effect that sweeps up and down the frequency range. Because the the original single version was mixed and mastered in mono, the flanging effect in "Itchycoo Park" is more pronounced in its original mono mix, and is noticeably diluted in the subsequent stereo mix.

Inspiration

The song was first thought of, and largely written, by Ronnie Lane, who had been reading a leaflet on the virtues of Oxford which mentioned its dreaming spires.

A number of sources claim the song's name is derived from the nickname of Little Ilford Park, on Church Road in the London suburb of Manor Park, where Small Faces' singer and song-writer Steve Marriott grew up. The "itchycoo" nickname is, in turn, attributed to the stinging nettles which grew there. Other sources cite nearby Wanstead Flats (Manor Park end) as the inspiration for the song.

Photo of Wanstead Flats, London E12 near Marriott's Manor Park home

Marriott and Small Faces manager Tony Calder came up with the well-known story when Marriott was told the BBC had banned the song for its overt drug references, Calder confirms:

"We scammed the story together, we told the BBC that Itchycoo Park was a piece of waste ground in the East End that the band had played on as kids - we put the story out at ten and by lunchtime we were told the ban was off." - Tony Calder (Manager)

Ronnie Lane on the true location of Itchycoo Park:

"It's a place we used to go to in Ilford years ago. Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it's full of nettles and you keep scratching". - Ronnie Lane

Other possible etymologies

Another local park, in the nearby town of Ilford, called Valentines Park, was also often referred to as Itchycoo Park.^{[citation needed]}

Itchy Park is located in the East End of London and dates back to the Victorian era.

The hairy seeds from the Rose hip (or wild Dog Rose) were called "Itchycoos" by English children in the 1950s^{[citation needed]} The seeds could be broken out of the berry and dropped down someone's collar between shirt and back to cause itching.

Uses and cover versions

• 1984: covered by progressive rock band The Enid
• 1993: Blue Murder cover on the album, Nothin' But Trouble
• 1993: Heavy metal band Quiet Riot covered on the album Terrified.
• 1995: 90s dance band M People covered the song for their album Bizarre Fruit II: see "Itchycoo Park ".
• 1996: covered by Ben Lee for the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack
• 1996: Tasmin Archer covered the song as a bonus track to the Japanese edition of her album, Bloom
• 1999: Itchycoo Park 1999 was a "Pre- Bonnaroo" like music festival in Manchester, Tennessee, the same place in which Bonnaroo is today. The festival was successful its first year but did not fulfill its plans to return in 2000.
• 1999: The song can be heard in the marijuana documentary Grass.
• 2006: The original version is heard in the opening scenes of the British film Severance starring Danny Dyer.
• 2009: Used in soundtrack for the movie The Men Who Stare At Goats starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor & Jeff Bridges.

Notes

Notes:

References:

• Paolo Hewitt John Hellier (2004). Steve Marriott - All Too Beautiful.... Helter Skelter Publishing ISBN 1-900924-44-7.
• Paolo Hewitt/Kenney Jones (1995) small faces the young mods' forgotten story - Acid Jazz ISBN 0-9523935-0-6
• [1] CHUM Charts (Canada)

External links

• The Small Faces Official Site
• youtube:Small Faces - Itchychoo Park