I bought George Harrison’s Cloud Nine when it was released in 1987. I took it and recorded it on cassette to play in my car (sorry George). I always liked this breezy song.
I played it constantly. I started to notice a change was happening…classic rock was coming back old and new. In the 2 years that followed a great string of albums was released. The Traveling Wilburys, Keith Richards Talk Is Cheap, Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever, Jeff Lynne’s Armchair Theatre, Roy Orbison’s Mystery Girl, and then another Traveling Wilburys. The older guys were back in the game again.
There is not a bad song on Cloud Nine. The one I played the less was ironically the biggest hit on the album…Got My Mind Set On You. Personally, I thought this album was his best since All Things Must Pass. The reviews at the time agree with that.
This song is about what I talked about in the first paragraph. George was poking fun at himself as a dinosaur rocker although he was only 45…that’s young in today’s world. The first verse says it all…
I’m not the wreck of the HesperusFeel more like the Wall of ChinaGetting old as MethuselahFeel tall as the Eiffel TowerI’m not a power of attorneyBut I can rock as good as GibraltarAin’t no more no spring chickenBeen plucked but I’m still kickingBut it’s alright, it’s alright
The title came from an 1842 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem of the same name that combined fact with fiction. Procol Harum also had a song on their 1969 Salty Dog album called The Wreck of the Hesperus but no relation to this one.
The Cloud Nine album peaked at #8 on the Billboard Album Charts, #6 in Canada, and #10 in the UK in 1987. This song was not released as a single. The best-known songs off of the album were Got My Mind Set On You and When We Was Fab. The album was produced by Jeff Lynne with guest appearances by Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr to name a few.
When I would buy albums I would explore every song good or bad. Many times I found songs I liked more than the singles that were pulled from it. This song did make me hunt down Bill Big Broonzy in the 80s…which wasn’t that easy but I did get my hands on some of his music and liked it…great blues player.
It’s funny how when you first hear something and what you think the lyrics are. I’ve been hearing them wrong since 1987.
What I thought I heard…
I slipped on the pavement “with no ice there” and Met a snake “carrying lanterns”
No on both accounts…
I slipped on a pavement oysterMet a snake climbing ladders
George Harrison: The song, it just came to me with this lyric. I don’t know. Maybe I was thinking from the point of view that people tend to think of you as somebody who’s passe, been and done. And it was just a sort of tongue-in-cheek kind of thing that… This was an old poem, but I was brought up [in] that period they sang, you know, the little catch thing they always said, you know, ‘you look like the wreck of the Hesperus.’ I never really knew what it was, I suppose, but it sounded good, kinda like some awful wreck. It was a shipwreck and a poem, an old Victorian poem. Anyway, that line just came to me and I just continued the lyric from there. [It’s] sort of [a] strange lyric. [Eiffel Tower] and rock as good as Gibralter, you know, it just gets silly. By end of it, I’m saying I’m not the wreck of the Hesperus, more like Big Bill Broonzy. You know, I don’t know. That to me is… I mean, as far back as I can remember [there was] Big Bill Broonzy with this big ol’ guitar playing. It was pretty groovy. I suppose now, it’s like that really. All of us are turning into– like Eric Clapton and such– I keep telling my boy, when you get older, he’s gonna be like, ‘that was Big Bill Broonzy, man, hanging around at our house!’ We’re all getting old as my mother.
George Harrison: “I’ve been friends with Eric for years. And I think I always will be. He’s a lovely fella and I love him very dearly. And he, [sic] and I called him up again and you know I’m doing an album, Eric could you come and play. Sure, he came over and played great stuff. Devil’s Radio, Cloud Nine [sic], he does a nice little solo on the end of That’s What It Takes and also the other one the second side The Wreck Of The Hesperus
The Wreck of the Hesperus
I’m not the wreck of the HesperusFeel more like the Wall of ChinaGetting old as MethuselahFeel tall as the Eiffel TowerI’m not a power of attorneyBut I can rock as good as GibraltarAin’t no more no spring chickenBeen plucked but I’m still kickingBut it’s alright, it’s alright
Poison penmen sneak, have no nerve to speakMake up lies then they leak ‘m outBehind a pseudonym, the rottenness in themReaching out trying to touch me
Met some Oscars and TonysI slipped on a pavement oysterMet a snake climbing laddersGot out of the line of fire(But it’s alright)
Brainless writers gossip nonsensesTo others heads as dense as they isIt’s the same old maladyWhat they see is faulty
I’m not the wreck of the HesperusFeel more like Big Bill BroonzyGetting old as my motherBut I tell you I got some company(But it’s alright)
But it’s alright, it’s alrightBut it’s alright, it’s alrightIt’s alright, alrightIt’s alright
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I have that CD somewhere in a box, now you’ve planted the ear worm again and I ‘ve got to dig.
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It’s worth the hunt.
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This is my first time hearing this and it is pretty cool.
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As one that likes to sing-along, I wore out my Traveling Wilburys cassette! Fun tunes.
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Thanks for listening!
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Never heard this song, but I do like it. Got My Mind Set On You was certainly a big hit for him off that album.
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Yes it was and I was happy that he was back at the time.
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Good lyrics. He was a wise man …with a wee dose of ‘smart alek’ added in here which is fun.
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Yea I love those lyrics… and he was only 45…shows you how much times have changed.
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He was pretty upbeat at this time, despite the fact he’s feeling older- gotta have a sense of humour once you hit 30!
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Wasn’t there a saying back then? Don’t trust anyone over 30?
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Yep, and I wholeheartedly agreed till the last few days of being 29…
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Man…I just spit my water I was drinking on my monitor…thank you Obbverse.
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I agree ‘Got My Mind Set on You’ at least to me was a just a cheap sh//ty song. Never liked it. To be honest I’m not a fan of this one either. To be honest I’m not that familiar with post Beatles like an obsessive, but George in his early solo album/s and Lennon seemed to embrace why they were so talented. George’s ‘Give Me Love’ is one of the greatest songs I have heard, not to mention Lennon’s Jealous Guy. They are my go-to Beatles.
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I was happy at the time because he was brought back to promience…and the success of this album led to The Wilburys
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That is true
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I loved the fact that even well into 1988 George’s videos were being played right alongside the GNR- Def Leppard-Poison videos..
I told Dave this but I will get this on vinyl at some point I love When We Was Fab
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It is a good one… you are right he was playing along side his younger peers which is cool…then this album opened up the gate for The Wilburys and then Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever…they all connected together.
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Geez thats a great call. George solo, Wilbury’s and Petty all within like a year. Macca was probably going bonkers at that time!
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LOL…he probably thought…Damn…I should have thought of that.
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I’ve got this album and am pleased at how many good tunes are on it and the videos that were created for a couple of them. I really love how Geo kept a smile on his face no matter who tried to rule him out of the game over the years. These cutting little ditties have me smiling right along with him. That one he did in the courtroom still makes me smile.
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Oh the video for That Song…I love that one also. I rediscovered a song by him that I want to cover soon…”Art of Dying” which is just great.
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Yes, I love that song!
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“Cloud 9” is one of my favorite albums. There ain’t a bad song on it, and this one is one of the best.
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I totally agree. I think All Things Must Pass and Cloud Nine are his best two.
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I also bought “Cloud Nine” when it came it out and immediately liked it. That said, I haven’t listened to it in a long time. Sadly, I did not remember “Wreck of the Hesperus”, even though it’s a really nice tune. George had a good sense of humor!
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Yes he did…this one and Devil’s Radio are two songs other than the hits that I really like.
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Back in the 80’s/90’s I would buy the CD and immediately burn it to cassette to do the same thing. Leppard was the only band I would buy both the CD and cassette because I couldn’t wait to get home to play it, had to throw it on right then and here.
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Yea I would sometimes end up buying the cassette also because of quality…we had a second hand record shop that sometimes also you got lucky on new releases.
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