THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Sonny Bono’s Surprisingly Hip Psychedelic Opus
Sonny Bono — “I Told My Girl to Go Away”
Sonny’s sole solo album, his late ’67 psychedelic opus Inner Views, is not well known — Bruce Eder notes that it “disappeared without a trace of its passing.” “My Girl” is Gabe Crawford’s “favorite song of the album,” “[a] ballad explaining how he has to tell the girl he loves to go away[:] ‘How could I tell her as much as I loved her we’d never be?’ and then ‘I don’t love you I had to say, and then I died that day I lied.’”
Lindsay Planer adds that:
“I Told My Girl to Go Away” is an ambiguous protest number with a simple and childlike melody contrasting the heady lyrics “I overheard her mom and dad/I heard them say that they’d be glad/When she’d start dating her own kind.” Interestingly, monaural pressings of the album edited that verse out of the song, but the words remained printed on the back of the LP jacket. While the similarities to Janis Ian’s groundbreaking “Society’s Child” are undeniable, Bono’s . . . makes no direct allusions as to the nature of the parental disapproval, be it racial, religious, or social. The dramatic instrumental score embodies a larger-than-life “Wall of Sound” arrangement, proving Bono and company had learned a thing or two during their tenure with [Phil] Spector.”
Oh, and Serene Dominic notes that “the verses . . . are the exact same melody as ‘I read the news today, oh boy.’–at a dirge-like speed, no less!”
Those turned on to Sonny’s LP seem to have polar opposite reactions — delight or derision. Nathan Ford fondly writes:
Sonny briefly dropped Cher (and a lot of LSD by the sound of it) for this surprisingly hip psychedelic opus. There are sitars all over the place and the lengthier tracks . . . have the slightly unhinged quality of Eric Burdon’s San Francisco narratives. It all fits together marvelously as an album and has moments that suggest a wiggier Lee Hazlewood. Why this potential cult favourite has remained largely unchampioned is a mystery to us.
Crawford is similarly effusive:
In 1967 Sonny Bono did the unthinkable. He departed from Cher . . . and made his own album. Inner Views is not well known, and definitely not renowned, but it does deserve serious respect. . . . By the time Inner Views was released Sonny was 32. He was past his party heyday and was actually quite conservative in nature. He did not smoke pot or partake in any other kinds of drugs. [H]is age and maturity are a major factor in the content of this album while showing some serious songwriting skills. . . .
On the other hand, Serene Dominic is deliciously and hilariously bitchy:
Everybody who made a record before 1967 has at least one bad psychedelic moment and this week you’d better sit down, kids. Sonny Bono’s Psychedelic Skelton in the Closet wants to bum you out. . . . Sonny, who had a voice like the horn on a Hyundai[, f]or some unexplained reason . . . cut an entire album by himself . . . . Its cover is a hideous etching of Sonny sitting peacefully with a smokey genie of Cher billowing next to him . . . . In Sonny’s autobiography And The Beat Goes On, he admits, “I tried chasing the newer sound for awhile but could never get a handle on it. The LP Inner Views was my attempt at psychedelic music. . . .” [S]onny understands the requirements of this new music (to take drugs and do everything to excess) but stubbornly refuses to follow through with those requirements (by doing everything to excess stone cold sober) . . . . There aren’t two grooves pressed together on the whole first side that escape contamination from squiggly sitar runs . . . . [l]ike the dull droning buzz of a dying bee or the hum of a faulty air conditioner . . . .
And Lindsay Planer opines that “the album reinforces why Bono let his then professional partner and wife, Cher, take the vocals” and points to “the seemingly uncomfortable references to the Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’ as Bono warbles ‘I read the news today, oh boy’ with all the finesse of a teenage high-school narc.”
My verdict? Well, I’m playing a cut, aren’t I? Whether or not it is a guilty pleasure, in my mind’s eye, Inner Views is pure pleasure. I should note that I got to work with U.S. Representative Sonny Bono during my days as a congressional staffer. I don’t think I won’t select another cut or two from Inner Views.
I’d threaten more, but the album only had five songs!
See my website at bracefortheobscure60srock.com.
