Mama Told Me (Not To Come)

April 4, 2017

When you listen Mama Told Me (Not To Come) most probably it will be by Three Dog Night. It's not realised buy most that it was wrote by Randy Newman in 1966, before launching his solo career, then a songwriter-for-hire, for Eric Burdon who had one of the first goes at.

Newman is quite a famous character; since the 1980s, he has been working mostly as a film composer. His film scores include some well known productions, has received twenty Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and has won twice in the latter category. He has also won three Emmys, six Grammy Awards, and the Governor's Award from the Recording Academy. Newman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 for classics such as "Short People", and as a Disney Legend in 2007. Also was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2013. As famous as he is, the only Newman composition to date to top the Hot 100 is Three Dog Night's biggest hit, Mama Told Me (Not To Come).

Randy Newman originally wrote Mama Told Me Not to Come for Eric Burdon to sing, who he did record it with The Animals, but it was withdrawn in 1966 from being a single release. It shows up in an early Eric Burdon 1967 solo album Eric is Here, which included the single Help Me Girl. Harpsichord is used on the Burdon track. Given that Burdon was about to become something of a psychedelic guru, the rube stance of the Newman lyric failed to capture the optimistic spirit of the age.

By the way, even if Eric Burdon is a great singer, the arrangement of his version is not really big deal, so it is not strange that it went unnoticed by general public. Vocals of Thre Dog Night are by Cory Wells. I wouldn't like to discuss if Eric Burdon is or not a better or greater vocalist then Cory Wells but somehow the entonation of Cory Wells is more in accord, more appropiate to a guy in some weird party!

By the time Three Dog Night recorded the song, in 1970, popular opinion had begun to turn against drugs.

The drifting off coda of the Three Dog Night version is reminiscent of the First Edition’s 1968 recording of Just Stopped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), one of the earliest hit records after the Summer of Love to criticize drug use.

Mama Told Me wasn’t Three Dog Night’s first American Top 10 single release, but it was their first to reach #1 in the U.S. Furthermore, for the first time, Three Dog Night had a hit in the UK.

REMEMBER THE LYRICS?

What's all these crazy questions they're askin' me?

This is the craziest party that could ever be.

Don't turn on the lights 'cause I don't wanna see.

Mama told me not to come.(2x)

"That ain't the way to have fun, no"

Open up the window, let some air into this room.

I think I'm almost chokin' from the smell of stale perfume.

And that cigarette you're smokin' 'bout scare me half to death.

Open up the window, sucker, let me catch my breath.

Mama told me not to come. (2x)

"That ain't the way to have fun, son" (2x)

[Break]

The radio is blastin', someone's knockin' at the door.

I'm lookin' at my girlfriend - she's passed out on the floor.

I seen so many things I ain't never seen before.

Don't know what it is - I don't wanna see no more.

Mama told me not to come. (2x)

She said, "That ain't the way to have fun, son."

"That ain't the way to have fun, no."

[Scat on the chorus]

[Coda]

The warped psychedelic sound that had usually communicated “higher consciousness” was employed in the Three Dog Night song to suggest wooziness, a party gone too far. During the Summer of Love no one sang about “passing out” from marijuana, but here the singer’s girlfriend is completely out of it. The rube stance of being scared half to death is cut with the singer’s disdain for drug use. Marijuana is described as smelling like stale perfume, and the singer begs to have a window open. He slips in an insult with the request, calling the drug user a “sucker”.