The Story of "Buttercup Joe"
A little anecdote – as told by Dozy

Last November after a gig in Landshut I had the fortune to be joined by Dozy down in the bar. It was really nice of him to come down again although his foot hurt – but then of course he wanted to pick up his birthday presents…

D.B.M.T. Fresh Ear Album 1970 - click to enlargeWe talked about this and that and when we came to old DDDBMT songs I mentioned "Buttercup Joe" – the last small song on the 1970 DBMT-Album “Fresh Ear” – a song that always makes me giggle.
Dozy remembered that song as well – and so I asked how it did happen to be recorded – in the booklet of the “Boxed” CD-Set they just say he improvised that one while waiting for another recording.

Dozy told me that he did not make it up all by himself but that this song actually is quite a popular folk tune all over England – and that it has a lot of verses – many of which are quite rude. His wife´s father had been singing it all the time at home so he knew it by heart. Back then in the studio he had decided to throw it in for a laugh – but only the more innocent parts of it of course... The band then decided to keep that acapella piece for the LP and put in a fanfare for the grande finale. 
Dozy actually gave us a small excerpt of it live as well that evening – what a fun ! 
And just by coincidence he said, a few days earlier his son had told him that he had just put "Buttercup Joe" as a ringtone on his mobile phone !
 

So a big thank you to Dozy for sharing this recollection !  

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[Last update of this page: 19-Apr-07]