Them – Richard Cory

When I bought the album “Backtracking” in the mid-1980s…I was in Van Morrison heaven. This was the only Van Morrison era I knew at the time. The first time I heard Brown Eyed Girl was in 1985. I fell in love with that song so just like I do now…I wanted to find out everything about this man. The first thing I did was to go to Tower Records. I looked it up with a magazine there and they ordered it…Tower did not have a huge stock of Them albums, to say the least.

I wore this album out and I still have it. It was the best $10 I ever spent. This was the intro song to the album. I noticed that Paul Simon wrote this one. After devouring this and another Them album I made the jump to Van’s solo career. I’m happy I did it in order. The album had songs that caught my attention. Baby Please Don’t Go, Richard Cory, Don’t Start Crying Now, and most of all…Mighty Like a Rose which was never released but on this 1974 compilation album. That song would not have passed by the censors…if you haven’t heard it give it a listen. A song about a nympha and her sugar cubes.

Richard Cory is a folk-based song but Morrison supercharges it with his voice. Simon wrote some standards but he could have never done this like Them did. The song was based on a poem called Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It’s about a lonely rich man who everyone thought was happy because of his money but they were too intimidated to come around him.

Them released this as a stand-alone single in 1966. It didn’t chart but the band was pretty much over… at least Van’s participation. The following year Van would release Brown Eyed Girl and begin his solo career with Bert Berns and Bang Records.

Them’s influence on garage, punk, and rock bands was immense.

Richard Cory

They say that Richard Cory
Owns one-half of this here town
With political connections
Spread his wealth around

Born into society, a banker’s only child
He had everything a man could want
Power, grace and style

But I, work in his factory
And I curse the life I’m livin’
And I curse my poverty
That I wish that I could be
Yeah, I wish that I could be
Lord, I wish that I could be, Richard Cory

Paper’s print his pictures
Almost everywhere he go
Richard Cory at the opera
Richard Cory at the show

And the rumours of his a-parties
And the orgies on his yacht
Well, he surely must be happy
With everythang that he has got

But I, work in his factory
And I curse the life I’m livin’
And I curse my poverty
And I wish that I could be
I wish that I could be, yea-ah
I wish that I could be, Richard Cory

He freely gave to charity
And had that common touch
They were grateful for his patronage
And thanked him very much

So my mind was filled with wonder
When the evenin’ headlines read
That Richard Cory went home last night
And put a bullet through his head, hu

But I, I, I, work in his factory
And I, I don’t don’t dig the life I’m livin’
And I don’t dig my poverty
And I wish that I could be
Yeah, an’ I wish that I could be
Well, wish that I could be, Richard Cory

Ay-hey, I wish that I could be
I wish that I could be
Sometime, I wish that I could be
A-just like a-Richard Cory
Just li-iiiiiiike, a-Richard Cory
A-Richard Cory

A-Richard Cory
Just like Richard Cory…