Eyes, Eyes

Michael Hurley (1941–)

This is the only song of the 100 that I learned from the composer while said composer was in bed with Antonia and me. We had decided in 1963 that bed, besides being a great place to sleep, was also a great place to just hang out, so we often invited friends to hang out in bed with us. No group sex was ever involved. Michael said the song was sort of a postcard to all his friends. I sing the “eyes” part differently than Michael recorded it because that was the way he originally sang it before he changed that part. He often changes words and stuff in his songs and I almost always prefer the original way. My take on Freak Folk––BTW––is that it was invented by Michael Hurley, Robin Remailly (who wrote Euphoria in 1958) and the Rounders. I wrote a long piece on the subject that is available in a couple of parts on the Perfect Sound Forever site if you crave the true Freak Folk dirt.