ln Waterford, O'Sullivan's father worked in a meat factory while his mother ran a sweet shop. In 1958, at the age of 11, he moved with his family to Swindon in England in search of a better life. He attended St. Joseph's Comprehensive school in Swindon. While there he developed an interest in both music and amateur boxing. Musically he began with the guitar and progressed to the piano. In the boxing ring he had nearly 50 bouts. Meanwhile his painting and drawing had won him a place at Swindon Art College. He started there in September 1963. His aim was to be a graphic designer. He played drums in his first group The Doodles and left them to join The Prefects while attending Swindon Art College. It was while at college that he met Rick Davies, who was later a member of Supertramp. While at college he began writing songs and sending out demo tapes, alas they were always returned unopened. The first song he remembers writing was Ready Miss Steady.
After finishing college, O'Sullivan moved to London in 1967 to try and further his musical career. He took a part-time job as a salesman at the C & A department store in Oxford Street. Mike Ward who also worked at C & A, had a contract with CBS and Gilbert went with him one day and played his tapes for some of the CBS executives. Gilbert signed a five year publishing contract with CBS which called for one single a year, and released two singles Disappear/You in 1967 and What Can I Do/You in 1968. Gilbert was disappointed that he was not allowed any input into the arranging or production of the singles. Neither single did well. Disillusioned with CBS, O'Sullivan signed with the Major Minor label and released I Wish I Could Cry/Mr. Moody's Garden in 1969.
O'Sullivan came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, John Peel, who gave him a slot on his radio show Top Gear, little of note resulted, and O'Sullivan spent part of 1969 applying to other record labels and management companies. It was at this time that O'Sullivan formulated his 'Bisto Kid' image; grey flannel suit, flat cap, school boy tie, football socks and hobnail boots. In search of a manager he sent some demo tapes to Gordon Mills, an ex-pop singer and himself a songwriter of repute, who had successfully guided the careers of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. Gordon Mills recognised something unique in the young Irishman and signed him for management as well as to a songwriting contract.
O'Sullivan made an irresistible impression with Nothing Rhymed, his first Top 10 hit and an introduction to his witty lyrics and original approach as a singer/songwriter. Signed to MAM Records, the label launched by Gordon Mills, who was also his record producer, great friend and surrogate older brother, O'Sullivan enjoyed four years of major success, incorporating a dozen more hit singles, ten of which reached the UK Top 10, and four Top 5 albums: Himself (1971), Back To Front (1972), I'm A Writer Not A Fighter (1973) and A Stranger In My Own Back Yard (1974).
Both Clair (written about Mills's infant daughter for whom Gilbert occasionally babysat) and Get Down were number one hit singles in Britain, and additionally, Back To Front topped the UK LP chart in 1972, emulating the success of the two million seller Alone Again (Naturally), a six week US chart-topper in 1972. O'Sullivan made his live debut in The National Stadium in Dublin in October of '72. Around this time, the singer jettisoned his so-called "Bisto Kid" image in favour of an endless series of collegiate-styled sweaters embossed with the letter "G". As quickly as O'Sullivan ascended to fame, however, his star began to fall , although singles like Ooh Baby and Happiness Is Me and You continued to chart, they sold increasingly fewer copies, and after 1973 his overseas popularity essentially ceased altogether. At home, he notched his final Top 20 hit with 1975's I Don't Love You But I Think I Like You. After a Greatest Hits album in 1976, and Southpaw in 1977, by which time the hit singles had dried up, disagreements over future direction led to a bitter split between O'Sullivan and Mills, which effectively sidelined the former as a recording artist for five years. The gruelling court case between O'Sullivan and his erstwhile manager, producer, music publisher and record company boss finally gave him control of his own recordings and the copyright in his songs, although it exacted an inevitable toll on his energy and his creativity during it's precedent-setting course.
Gilbert returned to CBS in 1980 and released Off Centre (1980) and Life & Rhymes (1982) but maintained a low profile during much of the 1980s, recharging his batteries and moving to Jersey, where he still lives with his wife and two children. Off Centre provided his 13th UK Top 20 single, What's In A Kiss?, after which legal proceedings monopolised his time. However, he continued writing songs, performing what he called "concepts within four walls" rather than starting back on the road before it was appropriate. He later recalled that the lyrics he wrote during that period were too heavily influenced by his personal emotions - having been extremely close to Mills before their disagreement, he was highly distressed to discover that his dear friend had been guilty of considerable financial greed at Gilbert's expense. Even so, he applied himself to his lonely creativity, working from 9 to 5 each day "just like Goffin & King and people like Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield at the Brill Building in New York used to do", although he later confessed "Really, the words were no good, because my mind was cluttered with all the problems". Lyrics have always been O'Sullivan's most unique facet, reflecting what's going on in his mind, and the strain under which he found himself was hardly conducive to much positive artistic or commercial creativity.
The first release for five years was Frobisher Drive and was only available in Germany. The same album with a slightly different track listing was released in the UK in 1989 under the title In The Key Of G, and included So What, his first chart single in almost a decade. Since the low-key comeback, the pace has increased, with five more albums. Gilbert also made a return to live performances in the early nineties, playing regularly in both Europe and Japan. In 1991, Gilbert was again in court, this time he sued American rapper Biz Markie and won the decision after Markie's unauthorized sample of "Alone Again (Naturally)" on his 1991 album I Need a Haircut. A 1992 single, Tomorrow Today had topped the Japanese charts for nine weeks, and this success led to a tour of Japan in early 1993 with his newly formed backing group, during which he recorded and filmed his first ever live album Tomorrow Today. Gilbert's newfound success in Japan led to the Japanese only release of The Little Album (1992) and Rare Tracks (1992). 1993's critical acclaimed Sounds Of The Loop (Daily Telegraph's Record Of The Week) included a duet with the legendary Peggy Lee on Can't Think Straight and even a solo version of the same song in Japanese. This album was recorded almost entirely at his home in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
By Larry (with a similar track listing to the Japanese released The Little Album) was released in 1994. Larry is a famous English cartoonist, much admired by Gilbert. Larry provided original cartoons for the album sleeve and booklet. Every Song Has It's Play was released the following year and was the soundtrack of the semi-autobiographical stage show that Gilbert had acted and sang in, in 1991. Singer Sowing Machine was released in 1997. The title is a humorous reaction by Gilbert to being constantly referred to as a singer/ songwriter. Irlish was released in 2000 and yielded three singles, Have It, Say Goodbye and Two's Company (Three Is Allowed). The album title Irlish, combination of the words Irish and English, appropriate for someone born in Ireland and raised in England. Gilbert's family was part of this migration. In 2001 The Official Gilbert O'Sullivan Website was launched as well as his own record label ByGum Records.
Gilbert continued to tour and he played a series of concerts in Ireland in 2001 and in the UK in 2002 to promote the Irlish album. A new studio album Piano Foreplay followed in 2003. In 2004 Rhino Handmade Records released a 3 CD anthology in the USA of Gilbert's music entitled Caricature: The Box. It contains 73 tracks which span the years 1967-2001. This is the first in-depth survey of Gilbert's lengthy career. It contains numerous singles and B-sides, tracks from 16 of his albums, and five previously unreleased tracks. A b-side collection entitled The Other Sides of Gilbert O'Sullivan was released in Japan in 2004 and contained many tracks available on CD for the first time. A series of concerts followed in Japan in June 2004 followed by a 20 date European Tour of the UK, Ireland, Norway and Denmark in November and December. In February 2005 a DVD/CD set of the 2004 Japanese show was released in Japan. Gilbert returned to Japan in June 2005 for a series of 13 shows. Gilbert spent the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 recording his next studio album "A Scruff At Heart" which was released in Japan on 25 October 2006.
Thunder and Lightning
Gilbert O'Sullivan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That what we're to receive
Is meant to happen anyway
Then there're those who'll admit
That they're literally scared stiff of it
No matter what you say
Then there are those who'll astound
By simply being around to play
So lock yourself away or else face it all tonight
I was supposed to meet her at eight
Now I find it's gone eight
And I haven't done a thing
There's people all around me
People who have found me
Not very funny when I sing
A little song about the bad things
The weather can do
Thunder and lightning ain't worth fighting
So lock yourself away or else face it all tonight
People running everywhere
There's not a soul who'll stay out there
And I don't think there will be tonight
But we've got to accept what's right
Thunder and lightning
I'm trying hard to remember
Was it last November
When I got caught under a tree
I stood there like a fool
Without so much as a stool
That I could sit upon to comfort me
I shudder at the thought
Howerer I got out safely
Thunder and lightning
Gilbert O'Sullivan's Thunder and Lightning is a contemplation of how people perceive and react to the natural phenomenon of thunder and lightning. The song is divided into two parts. The first part talks about different attitudes towards thunder and lightning. It recognizes that there are people who believe that the occurrence of thunder and lightning is predestined and therefore, there is no point in fighting it. On the contrary, some people are terrified of it and prefer to lock themselves away to avoid facing it. The song then concludes that no matter how people react to it, thunder and lightning are not worth fighting.
The second part of the song is a personal account of the singer's experiences with thunder and lightning. He remembers a time when he was trapped under a tree during a thunderstorm, feeling scared and helpless. He is more accepting of it now and recognizes that he has to face it. The last line of the song - "Thunder and lightning" is a repeated refrain that reinforces the idea that there is no point fighting it.
Line by Line Meaning
There's people who believe
Some individuals believe that whatever happens in life is predetermined.
That what we're to receive
What we get in life is decided for us by fate.
Is meant to happen anyway
We have no control over our destiny.
Then there're those who'll admit
Other individuals are honest enough to acknowledge
That they're literally scared stiff of it
They are absolutely terrified of the idea of fate.
No matter what you say
They remain firm in their beliefs.
Then there are those who'll astound
There are people who surprise us
By simply being around to play
By showing up and being present.
Thunder and lightning ain't worth fighting
There's no point in opposing the unavoidable forces of nature.
So lock yourself away or else face it all tonight
Either stay inside or confront the storm head-on.
I was supposed to meet her at eight
I had plans to meet someone at a particular time.
Now I find it's gone eight
However, the time has already passed.
And I haven't done a thing
I haven't accomplished anything in the meantime.
There's people all around me
There are others present in my surroundings.
People who have found me
People who have discovered my location.
Not very funny when I sing
My attempts at humor through song are not well-received.
A little song about the bad things
My song is about the negative aspects.
The weather can do
Events and conditions brought on by the weather.
People running everywhere
People are fleeing in all directions.
There's not a soul who'll stay out there
Nobody is brave enough to remain outside.
And I don't think there will be tonight
I doubt anyone will take the risk tonight.
But we've got to accept what's right
It's important to accept what's inevitable.
Thunder and lightning
Thunderstorms are approaching.
I'm trying hard to remember
Struggling to recall something specific.
Was it last November
Wondering if it happened in November.
When I got caught under a tree
Recalling a situation where they were stuck under a tree.
I stood there like a fool
Feeling foolish and helpless.
Without so much as a stool
Without even a simple stool to sit on.
That I could sit upon to comfort me
To provide temporary relief to ease the discomfort.
I shudder at the thought
The memory makes me uncomfortable.
However I got out safely
Luckily, I was able to escape unscathed.
Thunder and lightning
Thunderstorms are dangerous natural events that should be respected.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Sharpo
So glad these songs live on Youtube. So many great memories!
Paul Townley
Gilbert looks a lot like "Mayhem" from the commercials...
Brendan Laird
Thunder n lightening in Dublin now.