Song of the Day 2/5: Small Faces, “Itchycoo Park”

Don’t know about you, but an unseasonably warm day in winter like today brings back fond memories of cutting school to hang out in the park — and, therefore, Ronnie Lane’s 1967 ode to doing exactly that. It’s all too beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ViwvgtvbA

Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane are just lip-synching, but the video gives you an idea of why Marriott was a rock god to the Mods. The song was banned by the BBC for a time over its overt advocacy of drug use, until Marriott and the band’s manager, Tony Calder, came up with a cover story: “We told the BBC that Itchycoo Park was a piece of waste ground in the East End that the band had played on as kids,” Calder said. “We put the story out at ten and by lunchtime we were told the ban was off.” The true identity of the park in question has been debated, but all versions agree that the name comes from the stinging nettles found there.