28 July 1984
Another number one that I don’t know, so as per my usual process I will listen to it LIVE as I write. Before that, some context: I’m aware that Neil was a character in The Young Ones, that British sitcom featuring a lot of Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson hitting each other about the head and groin but not Bottom. Neil was a mopey hippy. That’s literally all I recall of it. ‘Hole In My Shoe’ is a late-’60s blues-rock single by Traffic that I don’t think I know either. Expectations? A “joke” that’ll wear thin after a minute.
[One listen later]
Well, a lot of work has gone into this record: serious production values! The song itself is played with a relatively straight bat, and the latter half borrows quite a lot of cues from ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Neil’s character adds what I presume were Neil-ish spoken word bits, which no doubt pleased fans of the show. Still, I don’t imagine anyone listened to this more than once. I know I was glad to get to the end.
