Taking sides: Pink Floyd's "The Gnome" vs Bowie's "The Laughing Gnome"

You're a heretic. "The Gnome" is fuckin' great! You should be thrown to the lions for that.

I want to tell you a story
About a little man
If I can.
A gnome named Grimble Crumble.
And little gnomes stay in their homes.
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine.

He wore a scarlet tunic,
A blue green hood,
It looked quite good.
He had a big adventure
Amidst the grass
Fresh air at last.
Wining, dining, biding his time.
And then one day - hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Oooooooooomray.

Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn't it good?
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn't it good?
Winding, finding places to go.
And then one day - hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Oooooooooomray.
Ooooooooooooooomray.

I'm not at all convinced by this statement. About all I can think of off the top of my head is Tomorrow's "three Jolly Little Dwarves" Which is admittedly fukcing rubbish.

"The Gnome" os okay, I think. it's the weak track on the album, but it certainly isn't bad enough that you'd want to hit the skip button for, unlike the Tomorrow track.

I think "The Laughing Gnome" is shit, and if I heard it being played, I'd either switch it off, or leave the vicinity.

Get outta here - it's genius man! "Laughing Gnome" rocks too. "Three Jolly Little Dwarves" is pretty poor. The Monkees' "Teeny Tiny Gnome" ain't great either.

But maybe I'm wrong. I think that's Brit exoticism as seen through the distorted lens of American sensibilities. I should give the song a spin again (haven't listened to it in years).

Even so, the Kinks "Phenomenal Cat" is outstanding, a better song than "The Gnome" by far.

That style should have lasted forever. Those songs were all works of genius. Great pop sounds like nursery rhymes. Always!

Enid Blyton? Kenneth Grahame? And let's doff our jesters caps to Donovan and the Incredible String Band.

"The Laughing Gnome" is great too but really isn't comparable.

Finally Geir you are still crazy, Piper is better than all of those albums you cite

I listened to "piper at the gates of dawn" last night, and i have to say that these lyrics (matilda mother) are I think absolutely wonderful:

There was a king who ruled the land.
His majesty was in command.
With silver eyes the scarlet eagle
Showers silver on the people.
Oh Mother, tell me more.

Why'd'ya have to leave me there
Hanging in my infant air
Waiting?
You only have to read the lines
They're scribbly black and everything shines.

Across the stream with wooden shoes
With bells to tell the king the news
A thousand misty riders climb up
Higher once upon a time.

Wandering and dreaming
The words have different meaning.
Yes they did.

For all the time spent in that room
The doll's house, darkness, old perfume
And fairy sories held me high on
Clouds of sunlight floating by.
Oh Mother, tell me more
Tell me more.
Aaaaaaaah
Aaaaaaaah
Aaaaaaaah

(I stand by my theory though, psychedelia + hippies = prog)

(...and yeah, Pashmina's point)

thank you, "god"!!!

Anyway, a lot of great music came out of it :-)

I would say the first multisection prog "suite" was another Procol Harum track - "In Held In Twas I" from their second album.

i'd say it's one of the strongest songs on an already genius record.

The great thing about the Gnome is that it immediately follows Interstellar Overdrive without even a three-second break. Kinda like the moment of lucidity after the trip, know what I mean?

The Kinks' "Phenomenal Cat", mentioned upthread, is a really really appalling song; Syd Barrett could have twisted that round and made it work, but it wasn't Ray Davies' natural metier at all, and it just sounds false and tokenistic. The best songs on that album are "Johnny Thunder" and "People Take Pictures Of Each Other".

I always think it's funny when people pick apart a classic record and say, "Well, it's a total classic, except for THAT ONE CONFOUNDED song." I mean, what the heck is wrong with "Phenomenal Cat"? It's a fine track on one of my favorite albums, an album quite frankly I couldn't imagine without it. Best songs though are "Animal Farm", "Monica", and yeah of course the two Robin mentioned, and "Days" is perhaps the best song they ever recorded. Oh but wait, was that even on the original lp? Anyway it's on the cd reissue.

Mr. Carmody, I always thought that "Phenomenal Cat" was knowingly sarcastic - sarcasm being VERY MUCH Ray Davies' metier; the joke being on anyone who would take the inane lyric/sentiment (dumb innocence as, I dunno, "cosmic truth", cf. the loathsome likes of "The Fool on the Hill", etc.; OF COURSE R. Davies knew how stupid it all was) and those "Fum dum diddle-um-day" choruses straight. (Need it be said that sarcasm is decidedly alien to Syd Barrett's universe?)

I can well believe that RD was extracting the proverbial with "Phenomenal Cat"; I just don't think it comes off. His recurring sarcasm works better for me when it isn't carried in total pastiche.

And Robin, I'm still waiting to read your assessment of 'Their Satanic Majesties Request'. (Come to think of it, "Phenomenal Cat" and "In Another Land" both flow in similar sarcastic rivers.)

I like the Pink Floyd song a lot, btw.

That's the best song on that album!

Plus anyways, the beauty of Piper is its outlandish variety. You wouldn't want it to be all metronomic raka-raka-raka oooeee raka stuff would you.

TIL that when paracelsus introduced the word "gnome" to the discourse he did indeed intend it to be pronounced "guh-nome"