TINY TIM – “God Bless Tiny Tim” Reprise RSLP 6292 1968
“There once was a songbird named Tim
Who in singing went out on a limb
But the kids didn’t care
Or make fun of his hair
Cos they realized the groovy in him”

— John Mendelsohn Aug’ 1969

One year ago, a superstitious phone rang from Australia asking after my health as one of my paintings had jumped off the wall, which can be an omen of illness or death, but there I was, perfectly alive, tho going thru a crisis.…no deaths here. This all being by the by but gives me the chance to work in the morning when decrusting the piping morning eye my bleary gaze happened on the empty ukulele shaped cloud of air. Why ukulele shaped? Cos that’s where the very night before my ukulele number 2 (why’ve I got 2 I dunno, can’t play one.….) the nice red one with the SST “fuck parental advice” sticker on the reverse was laying on the window sill and had evidently done a ‘I cant stands no more’ out the window.…Does this tie in with superstition and the death of Herbert Khaury aka Mr Tim on stage as he thrummed and trilled thru the final final version of “Tiptoe thru the Tulips” ? Well, no…it’s just the only intro I could think of that had a ukulele in and I start to realise whilst Tiny is pretty much damn UN-sung except in a real Key of Z kinda way, some folks might wish to see him stay that way, and even I tho I love his schizophrenic 2 voiced work, HOW to cast his spell your way…Besides the fact he just cheers me the hell up in a real entertainer cabaret UNrestrained way (that’s him not Me) that some modern drongo who isn’t BORN to entertain just cant do. Tiny Tim does what it sez on the can, so to speak…even post post fame the guy never stopped pushing his huge schnozz stagewards in his quest to release “the spirits of the singers who are living within me” and take his audience away from all this, whatever this is, but let us not get all existential here…
“GOD BLESS TINY TIM” in essence is a LP of joy, aside for a couple of darker moments. There is no kitsch or retro or even irony in it’s Uke’ and driven oddballness simply cos the man was genuine, a genuine nut maybe, and knowing enough to realize his persona, but too TIM to play on it ~ “They’re only laughing, people have been laughing at me my whole life”. And it’s an LP full of surprises…all most of you’ll know is ‘Tulips’ and that outrageous cracked falsetto but “Bless” is a rekkid of many shades and moods and in fact the old Uke’ is hardly there. Starting with the introduction vocal song “Welcome to my Dream” where he welcomes us in “so glad you got here and I hope you can stay” we’re harped in soothingly to the either ridiculous or sublime or ridiculously sublime “Tulips”, but frowners, death metallers and all give it a chance, and past the you are truly into Tim’s unique world as he actually ushers you in with little vocal asides to a big heart full of cabaret and sweat, sort of like like a James Brown “hardest working man in vaudeville” trip…He wants you to be happy and my foots certainly tapping to “Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight” and a most undruggy undrunky smile on me chops.

“Oh my what a lovely band” he trills as he leads into a ‘lovely duet’with himself on “The Old Front Porch”, a little romantic piece for lovers against the world, or rather their disapproving parents. The whole thing so far is a bit of a time machine in full reverse to the 30’s; an amusing terrible pun of a story “The Viper” , more hearts and flowers on “Ever since You’ve told me that You love me (I’m a nut)” and “Fill Your Heart” and a plain bonkers self-duet on his version of “I’ve Got You Babe” and Sonny and Cher never sounded better. But it’s the songs where he gets on a more 60’s tip of the psychedelic mushroom that the LP starts to really stand out with some genuine music of the interesting and strange phenonomen. “Stay Down Here Where You Belong” a creeping bass thing with some nice Hammond jazzy organ in which the devil exhorts to his rebellious son to stay down on those planes of hell as the “folks who live above you don’t know right from wrong” and are making “butchers from their brothers”, and OK hardly prophetic but it’s a good take on what things are unchanging with this wretched race…Even the devil finds us to hot too handle…
“Never hit your Grandma with a shovel it makes a bad impression on her mind”…not a song but a little aside before the daft country of “Then I’d be satisfied with life”, but to hell with it, I’m turning over for the masterpiece, a true, hidden psych masterpiece in my ‘umble…
Fried, fried on “The Other Side” which aptly starts the other side and what a start! Madcap sinister , just MAD laughter leads us into a helluva catchy simple as simon bass and guitar as Tim recites “One eye is brown the other is brown, I am a fish I swim around, You say im lost, I disagree , the map has changed, and with it, ME” in sinister hushed tones, telling more woes of the modern world before we’re spun into to a fairground carousel as “THE ICE CAPS ARE MELTING OH HA HAH HA” the sins of the world are washed away but Tim still plays the fish and can swim and observe and preach upon the coming destruction of the world at our hands and never has someone prophesying death and destruction and all that end of the world devil stuff sound so flippin’ cheerful, and you will be too as he endears you to join in the maddingly fervent “THE ICE CAPS ARE MELTING!!!!! HA HA HA HA!!!!” over and over…
The remaining songs are all gems (Daddy What is Heaven Like, The Coming Home Party, the big sincere lurve to us all of “Fill Your Heart”) and im sure if you haven’t liked the sound of any of the former, you won’t like these either…! But hat’s off to not-so Tiny Tim, a consummate PERFORMER of a rare kind,of a rare talent and a rare humour with a million songs in his heart, and he just wants to make the old blood in yours run a little easier and lighter.…Of course you may prefer his later stuff, “TINY TIM ROCKS” – hilarious and over long versions of rock standards such as “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be”(genius) and “Rebel Yell” (tedious) or simple songs such as “Santa Claus has Got the Aids this year” (about a weight reducing USA diet candy bar, I don’t think) or “She Left Me With The Herpes”…
Tiny Tim…so wrong, he’s right.
S’all folks! Fill your heart with love today! 

“The World is Wide
With Many Things Within
But Few So Rare As He
God Bless
Tiny Tim”