"Lay Down" is a single by the

Strawbs The Strawbs are an English rock band founded in 1964 as the Strawberry Hill Boys. The band started out as a bluegrass group, but eventually moved on to other styles such as folk rock and progressive rock. They are best known for their hi ...

which reached No. 12 in the UK Singles Chart in October 1972 - their first hit. It was included on their 1973 album '' Bursting at the Seams''. The lyrics are loosely based on the 23rd Psalm in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

and the song was widely considered to be writer

Dave Cousins Dave Cousins (born David Joseph Hindson; 7 January 1945) is an English musician who has been the leader, singer and most-active songwriter of Strawbs, since 1967. Cousins is a founding member of Strawbs, which started out as the Strawberry H ...

's most commercial and radio-friendly offering to date. Indeed, some aficionados accused Cousins and the band of "selling out", especially as the band later appeared on

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

dressed in glittery "

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was primarily defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles of its musicians, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists d ...

" outfits and wearing make-up (with drummer Richard Hudson unusually placed at the front of the stage). The single was described, in the original A&M Records Press Release, as ".. the Strawbs first real attempt to crack open the singles market." It featured strong rock guitar riffs from the band's new guitarist Dave Lambert. The album version features an additional guitar solo, making it about thirty seconds longer than the single. The song unusually also features mellotron choir parts. The song was brought to the public's attention again in 2007 when it featured on the BBC television series "

Life on Mars The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no conclusive evidence of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that ...

". It was, however, unaccountably absent from the DVD boxset soundtrack.

B-Side

The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Backside" is attributed to "Ciggy Barlust and the Whales from Venus", an obvious allusion to

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's " Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars". It was actually a Strawbs composition credited to all members of the band at that time.

Other recordings

The song was re-recorded (with different personnel) for the 2003 Strawbs album '' Blue Angel'' and also the 1979 Dave Cousins and Brian Willoughby album '' Old School Songs''.

Personnel

–

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

* Dave Lambert –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, backing vocals *

Blue Weaver Derek John "Blue" Weaver (born 11 March 1947) is a Welsh rock keyboardist, session musician, songwriter and record producer. Career Weaver's career as a musician began as a co-founding member of 1960s Welsh rock band Amen Corner and its succ ...

–

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

Awde, Nick 2008, p225-226 * Richard Hudson –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, backing vocals

Release history

Notes

References

"Lay Down" at Strawbsweb
*Sleeve notes to CD 540 936-2 (A&M) ''Bursting at the Seams'' *Awde, Nick. ''Mellotron: The Machine and Musicians That Revolutionised Rock'', Desert Hearts, 2008.

External links

Lyrics to "Lay Down" at Strawbsweb official site

Lyrics to "Backside" at Strawbsweb official site

Lyrics to "The Winter and the Summer" at Strawbsweb official site

Lyrics to "Tomorrow" at Strawbsweb official site

Lyrics to "The Flower and the Young Man" at Strawbsweb official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lay Down 1972 singles Strawbs songs 1972 songs Songs written by Dave Cousins Songs based on the Bible