Waxing Nostalgic: The Buoys, “Timothy”

By Jeffery X Martin

Lots of bands hope to write that song, the song, the big hit that will make them household names and mansion money. It’s not as easy at sounds. Public tastes change quickly. That Calypso epic you came up with at four in the morning may not be the chart-topper you think it should be. It’s hard to make it in the music business, to be sure.

Rupert Holmes of The Buoys decided the best way to get his band the attention they desired was to write a song so controversial, it would get banned. Negative attention is still attention, and there’s no such thing as bad PR.

It was 1971, and story songs were all the rage. These songs were usually about beautiful young people dying too soon. Either they went to war or they contracted a wasting disease, and then there’s Henry Gross’s “Shannon,” where I still don’t know what the hell happened. Did Shannon drown? Did she hang herself? Did she join Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods? I can’t tell.

“Timothy” tells the harrowing, heart-breaking tale of the only three survivors of a mine collapse. There’s no way to know if rescue is coming. Oxygen could run out at any time. Things are bleak, and the miners face their mortality.

I love light-hearted pop songs, don’t you?

All is not lost though; suddenly, help arrives! Daylight pokes through the darkness and the miners are rescued, brought back to the surface. There’s just one problem. There are only two miners. Where’s Timothy?

The survivors don’t know. The narrator of the song claims he can’t remember what happened to Timothy. It’s pretty clear, though.

They ate him.

Yes, my friends, “Timothy,” a song about killing and eating one of your co-workers, hit #17 on the Billboard Top 100.

The Buoys never achieved that level of success again, which is not a surprise. How many songs can you write about cannibalism and keep it fresh? The answer, apparently, is one.

What can you say about this? It’s weird, but it’s a wonderfully written slab of AM gold, replete with horn and string sections. It’s the catchiest song about the consumption of human flesh I’ve ever heard. And what was going on the collective hivemind of 1971 that said, “Yes, we will make this song a hit? This will get radio airplay, but Captain Beefheart will not?”

It’s also worth noting that songwriter Rupert Holmes went on to huge success with his solo tune “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).” He’s also done many stage musicals. He’s doing okay for himself. If you like pina coladas and getting trapped in a mine, there’s nothing preventing you from enjoying the heck out of the song that launched his career, “Timothy.”

Listen to “Timothy,” see if you can figure out what the hell happened to “Shannon,” and enjoy some of the other songs mentioned in this series on our Waxing Nostalgic playlist on Spotify! It’s free, it’s fun, and occasionally funky!