Up the Wooden Hills to Bedfordshire
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| "Up the Wooden Hills to Bedfordshire" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Small Faces | |
| from the album Small Faces | |
| Released | 23 June 1967 |
| Recorded | March 1967 |
| Studio | Olympic, London |
| Genre | Pop rock[1] |
| Length | 2:05 |
| Label | Immediate |
| Songwriter | Ian McLagan |
| Producers | |
"Up the Wooden Hills to Bedfordshire" (alternatively known as "Up the Wooden Hills") is a song written by English keyboardist Ian McLagan, first recorded and released by his band Small Faces in 1967. The song was McLagan's first original composition written for the band.[2]
Ian McLagan joined the Small Faces in October 1965 as a keyboardist, and performed his first gig with them on 2 November that year at the Lyceum Theatre, in London.[3] McLagan acted as a keyboardist, preferring to play the Hammond organ over other organs, but also occasionally played rhythm guitar, an instrument he played in a previous band.[4][5] However, McLagan had not significantly contributed a song to the band, who either played covers or songs written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane.[6] He had however, received a shared songwriting credits for several instrumentals of the band, including "Own Up Time" from their debut album, "Grow Your Own", the B-Side of "Sha-La-La-La-Lee" and "Almost Grown", the B-side of "Hey Girl".[7][8][9]
By early 1967, the band had had experiences with psychedelic drugs, and started coming up with new songs.[10] The song was largely inspired by Ronnie Lane's father Stan Lane, who used to have specific word plays.[2] In a later interview, Stan stated that upon putting Ronnie into bed, he would say "Come on, let's go up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire". As Stan was a lorry driver, he would occasionally go to Bedfordshire to pick up bricks, often bringing Ronnie there.[2] Later, during an interview with Ken Sharp, McLagan would ask "Do you know what that means? Up the stairs to bed. Wooden hills. It was an expression that Ronnie Lane's father used to use when he was about to go to bed "....well, it's up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire...." I thought it was a lovely line. It's a drug song I suppose. I used to be stoned all the time -- you know, when you "sleep"—trying to explain how you felt. "When you're slipping into sleep..." isn't falling asleep, it's gettin' stoned."[11]