Follow along with me on this.
It’s 1971, and a struggling rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania is looking for its first big hit. Eventually they hook up with a songwriter who is also looking for his first big hit. And after scoring a one-song deal with Scepter Records, they produce what might be the most topically-surprising song of the 1970’s.
They put together a story-song about three men who were trapped in a mine cave-in. But only two men are rescued; and the third man is never found.
What happened to the third man?
Take a listen. This is the Pennsylvania rock band The Buoys, with a song that reached #17 on the national pop charts – their first and only hit. A song called “Timothy.”
Um …. are you suggesting … Timothy isn’t there because the other two miners actually KILLED HIM AND ATE HIM TO SURVIVE?
YIKES!!
Let me repeat that. YIKES!!
So … this song was banned on several radio stations. Here in Albany, however, it was a major hit. WPTR had it as high as #2 on their pop surveys (only being held out of the #1 spot by Three Dog Night’s “Joy To The World,” and above tracks like the Jackson Five’s “Never Can Say Goodbye” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”
Other radio stations had this song in heavy rotation for months. It spent eight weeks at #1 in Seattle, and also hit the top of the charts in Honolulu, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and Cincinnati.
I should note that while some stations played this song until the grooves wore out, the subject matter – seriously, cannibalism – kept the song from being a national coast-to-coast #1 hit. In some cases, the record company simply suggested that “Timothy” was actually a pack mule, and not a human.
Sure, Jan.
The Buoys also released a second version of “Timothy,” with a revised lyric – and no longer do you hear “Our stomachs were full as they could be.” You can tell this version by a slight slowdown in the audio before the revised lyric is heard.
There’s also a third version of “Timothy,” which bleeps out the word “Hell” in the second verse. Because there’s no problem with a song about human cannibalism, but you don’t dare say “Hell” on AM radio. No you don’t.
So what do you do for a follow-up track?
The Buoys came up wit ha story-song called “Give Up Your Guns,” which did have some success overseas, but stiffed stateside. There just wasn’t enough meat in this song to sink your teeth into.
What, too soon?
Oh, and the singer-songwriter who composed “Timothy?” He went on to his own success in 1979, with a pair of massive hits about relationships and cheating. Let’s put it this way … I’m presuming Timothy goes well with pina coladas.
And then there was his follow-up song, “Him.” With that lyric, “Him, him, him / what’s she gonna do about him?” Well, considering Rupert Holmes’ previous song catalog, I’m thinking it might involve some fava beans and a nice chianti.
All stemming from a 1971 one-hit wonder song that’s purportedly about consuming a human / or a mule / in a mine cave-in. Yeah. Timothy, by the Buoys, on K-Chuck Radio. 😀
I think Timothy was actually Joe’s long-time (tasty) pet chicken, which he treated like a brother. He brought it along as their ‘canary in the coal mine.’ RIP Tim.
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