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From The Times-Leader - April 28, 2002 |
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'Timothy's time By Jack Smiles, The Sunday Dispatch At 10 a.m. on June 9, 2001, the DJ at KFOG radio in San Francisco played 10 songs for the regular feature "10 at 10." That is, 10 songs at 10 a.m. from a selected year. In this case 1971. After the 10 songs were played - among them "Another Day" by Paul McCartney and "Reason to Believe" by Rod Stewart - listeners were asked to call in and vote for their favorite of the 10. The landslide winner was "Timothy," a tune about trapped miners who cannibalize a friend to survive, by The Buoys, a band from the Wyoming Valley. That incident illustrates the cult status that "Timothy," 30 years after it hit the charts, has achieved around the country and in certain pockets around the world. "Timothy" pops up - along with songs like "Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band, "Sweet City Women" by the Stampeders, "Sky Pilot" by the Animals, "Magic Carpet Ride" by Steppenwolf and "The Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes - on several greatest-hits album compilations. "Timothy" was even reissued as a collectible 45 with "Shaking All Over" by the Guess Who on the "B" side. Today, "Timothy" is on the "Safe 300 Play List" at the radio Web site MonsterFM.com. But the other side of the "Timothy" cult coin has the song on Dr. Demento's 1995 25th Anniversary Collection with "The Curly Shuffle," "Smells Like Nirvana" by Weird Al and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" by Tiny Tim. Late last year, "Timothy" got so many hits on Napster, an Internet site where fans share music files, that it was the subject of Napster's "Daily Rant" on March 1. Wrote Napster: "Not since Chaplin's 'The Gold Rush' have people taken such delight in such a morbid possibility." At hotplatters.com, "Timothy" is described as "... the morbid death tune of all time. Pass another finger and toe, ugh." Nationally syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry even included "Timothy" in one of his columns, which turned into "Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs," where the song is listed as the fourth worst song of all-time after "MacArthur Park," "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy," and "Having My Baby." So which is it? An all-time classic that charted higher than the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" in 1971 and is found on compilations with Paul McCartney? Or a novelty song about cannibalism that makes worst songs lists and is found on compilations with Weird Al? The answer is that "Timothy" - unlike almost any other pop song - is both. The ultimate tribute to "Timothy," one way or the other, may be that it was covered and recorded by the Mighty Squirrels. The Squirrels - a zany Seattle-based band that has released parody albums such as "The Not so Light Side of the Moon," and "Scrappin' for Hits" - recorded "Timothy" for their CD "What Gives?" in 1991. In a review of the album one Seattle music writer mused: "Any band that covers The Buoys' 'Timothy' (the greatest/sickest faceless pop song about coal miner cannibalism) with such determined glee could be the biggest thing out of Seattle since the Kingsmen, Hendrix, and Heart put together." The Buoys sprang from a chance meeting in the summer of 1964 at the West Wyoming Hose Co. No. 2 in the Toy Town section of West Wyoming. Billy Kelly, then 13, heard music coming from the fire hall near his home and stopped in to check it out He found Fran Brozena playing the guitar, Brozena's cousin Bob Gryziec on bass and John Staschak banging on the drums. Kelly introduced himself by singing "All My Lovin'," a song by that outrageous new band from England, The Beatles. In that fire hall, a band - the Escorts later changed to the Moffats - was born. Kelly got the band a job playing at the morning assembly at his school, the old West Wyoming High School. That led to their first paying gig, a dance at that same school. When Bill Bachman, a DJ at WBAX in Wilkes-Barre who ran weekly dances at the Jackson Township fire hall, heard the band he was blown away, especially considering that the eldest of the Moffats wasn't old enough to drive. Bachman "adopted" them as his "boys." With Bachman as manager the band played more area dances where he introduced them as "Bill Bachman's Buoys from BAX." Though as landlubbers the guys didn't dig the nautical reference, the name, like The Beatles, was simple and easy to remember, so it stuck. In 1967, Chris Hanlon replaced Staschak and Steve Furmanski was added as a guitarist. The new lineup took off. By 1968, the year Kelly graduated from Wyoming Area, The Buoys were arguably the hottest band on the local rock circuit. They could pack a college gymnasium in Wilkes-Barre or a nightclub in Scranton. Bob O'Connell, a jazz pianist from West Pittston who was playing New York, convinced a Scepter Record executive to give The Buoys a listen. The Scepter guy came to Pete's Pizza in Exeter and liked what he heard. He brought The Buoys to New York and introduced them to songwriter Ruppert Holmes, who in turn fell in love with Kelly's voice. Kelly recalls how Holmes introduced the boys to "Timothy." "Ruppert was a great doodler on the piano. He was doodling on the piano and played and sang 'Timothy.' We laughed our heads off and agreed to record the song, really just for the fun of it. We thought it was a great joke." At first it seemed that Kelly was right. The song was released regionally but quickly died. Thirteen months later it was released nationally and took off. The controversy over the song's cannibalism storyline, while it got the song banned by some stations, actually helped generate a buzz and record sales. By May 1971 'Timothy' was a national top 15 hit. By that time Furmanski and Gryziec had left to be replaced by Carl Siracuse of the Glass Prism and Jerry Hludzik. The lineup of Kelly, Brozena, Hanlon, Siracuse and Hludzik recorded The Buoys debut album, "Timothy" (subtitled with tongue in cheek, "Dinner Music"), wrapping up in December 1970. The Buoys then went out as an opening act to promote the album. As Kelly remembers it, "It seemed like one day we were playing fire halls and gyms and the next day we were at a pop festival in front of 200,000 people. Here we were 20 years old and opening for Spencer Davis and Ike and Tina Turner." Though "Give Up your Guns," another Holmes song from "Dinner Music," made a little chart noise, the album never did. After "Timothy" died down The Buoys found themselves back in the local fire halls and gyms. But it just wasn't the same. Scepter folded. The Buoys signed with Polydor Records and recorded an album of all-originals, two of which were released as singles, but no chart action. They gave it one more shot with an smaller label, but again no chart action. By 1976 The Buoys, as Kelly put it, "were out of gas." In 1991 The Buoys reunited for one night on the Friday after Thanksgiving at Genetti Manor in Dickson City. The gig was so wildly successful that the band has reunited several times at the Pittston Township Volunteer Fire Department's Olde Tyme Fair and the Pittston Tomato Festival.
Timothy
Trapped in a mine that had caved in |
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