6/6/07: Bob Lind “You Should Have Seen It” (1966)

We could easily fill a theme week with sociopathic songs of the ’60s. Only one, however, truly rates alongside Altamont and the Manson Family as grim icons of what-the-hell-did-you-expectdom. Bob Lind is best known today for 1966’s “Elusive Butterfly,” which remains a minor masterpiece of folk-pop whimsy. Meanwhile, his other songs revealed him to be a particularly dark denizen of a predatory decade.

“You Should Have Seen It” is the ultimate kiss-off to every gullible hippie gal who fell for a creep like Lind. It’s too difficult to weed out the most loathsome lyrics. Read the whole thing:

        I told you when I left you
        You’ll hate me someday
        You refused to believe me and begged me to stay
        Now that your illusions of my saintliness are dead and gone
        Now that I have fallen from the pedestal you put me on
        You’re suddenly aware that I have weaknesses like any other man
        My humanness astounds you as you realize how real I am

                But now it’s lying crooked in your mind
                Doll, you should have seen it all the time

        Believe me, it tore at me watching you cry
        With no way to say that you set me too high
        I should have found a way to make you see that I wasn’t always right
        Someone should have shown you all the colors between black and white
        I am not perfection, but neither am I always wrong
        Now you tell your friends I disappointed you and lead you along

                But you expected more than you could find
                Doll, you should have seen it all the time

        A man must be measured by things that he does
        But you looked for me higher up than I was
        Now that you can see that both my feet are standing on the ground
        You’re telling everybody that you hate me because I let you down
        I wish that you could know that I’m not angry, I am only sad
        To see someone so sensitive making herself look so bad

                But the foolish have no patience with the blind
                Doll, you should have seen it all the time
                Doll, you should have seen it all the time

Okay, maybe this is the worst part: “I wish that you could know that I’m not angry, I am only sad /To see someone so sensitive making herself look so bad.” How many swinging folksingers had a good cackle over the young girl revealing her tired old morals as he ran off into the night? Like we said, we could fill one of our old five-day weeks with examples.

“You Should Have Seen It” is a catchy and soaring little tune, though. It’s also important to note that Bob Lind is ashamed of himself. The song was included in the 1993 compilation The Best of Bob Lind: You Might Have Heard My Footsteps, with liner notes from the lovely (and then pre-Catholic) rock historian Dawn Eden. Lind provided track-by-track commentary, and he quickly acknowledged how pathetic he was back in his glory days. That certainly makes it easier to enjoy “You Should Have Seen It”—along with Lind’s many other disturbingly great songs.

Bob Lind ended up in Florida, where he continues to perform. You can keep track of him at his website. He looks great, and ultimately capitalized on his knack for twisting the truth. Lind would become one of the early contributors who helped make the Weekly World News a tabloid legend.

Make it your own: The Best of Bob Lind: You Might Have Heard My Footsteps is out of print, and has gotten pricey. Fortunately, this week sees the UK release of Elusive Butterfly: The Complete 1966 Jack Nitzsche Sessions—with nearly all the same songs, and hopefully with the original sound instead of the remixes on the earlier release. We haven’t gotten our copy yet, but it’s probably a good sign that producer Jack Nitzsche gets prominent billing. The liner notes are written by Bob himself. That’s the only other writer we’d be willing to accept.

 

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