In 1974, there were plans for a Who television special and Squeeze Box was originally intended for that programme. The band just wanted to see if they could get away with singing about explicit sex and clearly, they did – ‘Mamma’s got a squeeze box daddy never sleeps at night!’ indeed! Further incredulity was caused when it became a hit for us in the USA.” I had no thought of it ever becoming a hit but amazingly recorded by The Who to my disbelief. It wasn’t written by coincidence, Pete said, “I had bought myself an accordion and learned to play it one afternoon,” adding, “The accordion gave the song a polka-esque rhythm and the lyrics, which I wrote for fun, were intended as a poorly aimed dirty joke.
For the innocent and naive it is an accordion which is an air-based bellow-driven keyboard and button-operated instrument strapped round the body and, with both hands, pumped in and out to get the sound, for the not-so innocent, it’s another term for a vagina. Well, it’s a similar story for The Who’s Pete Townshend when he wrote Squeeze Box.Ī squeeze box, very simply, has two slang terms. The third verse opens with ‘I’m like a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea food store’, but they did and, 65 years later, it still gets an airing…so to speak. The first song I remember hearing and thinking, ‘how the hell did they get away with that’ was on Bill Haley’s Shake Rattle and Roll. It must be a nice feeling for a songwriter when they write something a little risqué and get away with it.
0 kommentar(er)
