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Postcard — The Who
“Postcard” is a bit of an oddity in The Who’s catalog. Released as the lead track on the 1974 compilation album “Odds & Sods”, it came as a surprise to fans who thought of the band as forerunners to the contemporary heavy-metal sound of bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. But “Postcard” sounded more like mid-’60s psychedelic rock than anything contemporary at the time of its release.
The album “Odds & Sods” was a collection of outtakes from deep in the band’s catalog. Meant to offer fans an alternative to bootleg recordings of unreleased songs, this may explain why a song like “Postcard” can sound so out of step with the time it was released.
The song, written by bassist John Entwistle, contrasts a sunny, upbeat instrumental sound with sarcastic lyrics about the troubles of traveling and touring. It describes a world in which playing Rock & Roll was still a little dangerous, as when the lyrics describe the band’s arrival as bad news.
As much as the popular bands of 1974 continued to push the envelope in finding new sounds and styles, they were playing in an era during which Rock music became a solid part of the American cultural landscape. By the mid-’70s, Rock & Roll was two decades old. There were young parents who’d listened to Rock & Roll all their lives. This growing social acceptance of the music took some of the edge off Rock’s rebellious image.
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The most well-known version of “Strawberry Letter 23” was recorded by the Brothers Johnson in 1977. However, the song was first recorded five years earlier by Shuggie Otis, the artist who wrote the song.
As with so many other songs that mention mail in their lyrics, “Strawberry Letter 23” is about a love letter. Otis was inspired to write the song by a girlfriend who wrote letters to him on strawberry-scented stationery. He would return to the letter-writing theme two years later with his song “Island Letter”.
Though Otis’s original recording of “Strawberry Letter 23” was successful, the Brothers Johnson version of “Strawberry Letter 23” was a smash, reaching number five on the Hot 100 and number one on the Soul Singles chart. The Brothers Johnson, along with producer Quincy Jones, brought a funk influence to the composition, making the song more danceable than Otis’s lush, mellow approach.
In the years after the Brothers Johnson released their version, more than a few other artists have covered the song, and several more have sampled parts of it in their own work. But so far, none of those other artists have been identified with the song as strongly as the Brothers Johnson.
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October is National Stamp Collecting Month. This really fun video of I'm From Barcelona doing their song “Collection of Stamps” fits the bill perfectly. Hope it gets your October off to a happy start.
Oh, and, if you have a stamp collection, we'd love for you to share your stories by leaving a comment.