Song Of The Day 11/22/2013: Lieutenant Pigeon - "Hilda's Tonic"

Lieutenant Pigeon was a British novelty band who had an expectedly thriving career in the early '70s, scoring a #1 hit in England with something called "Mouldy Old Dough." They tried without too much of a resultant legacy to resurrect the penny whistle, a relative to the nearly useless recorder, and a key component to the isle-wide success of "Mouldy Old Dough." Lieutenant Pigeon were from Coventry which, according to a British friend of mine, "explains that." I don't know what he meant. It didn't occur to me to ask.

Lieutenant Pigeon was led by the twin upright-piano attack of lead Pigeon Robert Woodward and his mother, Hilda. In fact Hilda's the one who did most of the honky-tonk freak-outs in the band, so if you're wondering who's responsible that salacious ivory lust brewing in your belly whilst listening to Lieutenant Pigeon, that would be Rob's mom.

Lieutenant Pigeon lasted until the end of the decade without kowtowing to any of the modern sounds that developed when they weren't looking up from their fishpaper. "Hilda's Tonic" is representative of the kind of blissed-out bowler-shaking they attempted to launch across the world. I found it attached to this video of anonymous guinea pigs at tea time. I found it calming.

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