"You Were on My Mind" is a song written by Canadian singer and songwriter S… Read Full Bio ↴"You Were on My Mind" is a song written by Canadian singer and songwriter Sylvia Fricker in 1962. It was originally performed by Fricker and her then future husband Ian Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia. The duo recorded it in 1963 for their 1964 album, Northern Journey. They re-recorded the song in 1972 with as the band Ian & Sylvia & The Great Speckled Bird.

You Were On My Mind
Ian & Sylvia Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Got up this morning
You were on my mind
And you were on my mind
I got some aches and
I got some pains and
I got some wounds to bind

Went to the corner

Just to ease my pain
It was just to ease my pain
I got drunk and
I got sick and
I came home again

I got a feeling
Down in my shoes
It's way down in my shoes
I got to move on
I got to travel
Walk away my blues

Got up this morning
You were on my mind
And you were on my mind
I got some aches and

I got some pains and
I got some wounds to bind

Overall Meaning

The song “You Were on My Mind” by Ian & Sylvia is a poignant expression of lost love and the pain that lingers even long after it's over. The song begins with the singer waking up to thoughts of their former lover. They mention the physical discomfort and emotional pain that they still feel. The lyrics then describe the singer's attempt to find relief from their pain by going to the corner, getting drunk, and getting sick, but ultimately they come back home no better off.

The second verse of the song highlights the singer's realization that they need to move on from this heartache. They suggest that they must travel and walk away from the pain they feel. However, in the end, the first verse is repeated, emphasizing that the pain and memories of the lost love continue to weigh heavily on the singer's mind and heart, making it impossible for them to entirely move on.

Line by Line Meaning

Got up this morning
I woke up today

You were on my mind
I couldn't stop thinking about you

And you were on my mind
You were still on my mind

I got some aches and
I'm feeling some physical pain

I got some pains and
I'm also feeling emotional pain

I got some wounds to bind
I need to take care of myself and heal

Went to the corner
I went to a nearby place

Just to ease my pain
To try and lessen my discomfort

It was just to ease my pain
That was my only goal

I got drunk and
I drank alcohol

I got sick and
It made me feel physically ill

I came home again
I returned to my dwelling

I got a feeling
I have a sense

Down in my shoes
It's deep within me

It's way down in my shoes
It's really deep within me

I got to move on
I need to keep going forward

I got to travel
I need to journey somewhere

Walk away my blues
To try and escape my sadness

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: SYLVIA FRICKER

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Comments from YouTube:

@michaelpickersgill5665

33w↑4

Got to admit. Until tonight, I had not heard this, the original. Sylvia definitely needs more respect.

@coldlakealta4043

31w↑3

I heard this for the first time sitting on a crowded gym floor at a Toronto high school. Loved it then, love it now.

@seattlepainter

52w↑11

Such an amazing song! Ian & Sylvia were two of the most talented people in the history of music and their songs will be sung for many more years to come. The music today can't hold a candle to a song like this!

@vickieevenson9309

16w↑1

I always thought it was Crispan St Peters who was the original. I just heard this one for the first time yesterday. I love all three versions!

@annaritaranalli1791

3y↑3

Absolutely best version about ones i.'ve listened to

@Janetsfear

Sylva wrote this.

@graememacqueen8595

3y↑11

I loved this from the first time I heard it. Saw them perform it. Perfect version!!

@patsylynn2

5y↑6

Thank you Gary Larson for sharing. As a teenager in high school I grew up listening to Ian & Sylvia. Seeing all the pictures of their albums in the order they were released brought back SO many good memories. I would usually play them in that order. I had ALL of their albums. In their Vanguard days they were at their finest. Their first albums were even more folksy sounding than this one. Even my Mom loved them. Kind of disappointing when they split up. But then . . . Ian started his own brand of Cowboy Culture music. And it wasn't long before I fell in love with his solo music. Ian's tenor voice grew along with his writing talent.

@GaryLarsonRoots

Hi Patsy. Thanks for the nice comment. I'll have to post more of the vinyl versions of songs by Ian & Sylvia. I still remember a remark by a music critic in the old Stereo Review magazine who said that the two were not just good folksingers, but simply good singers. I did do a later revision of the video for this song which I think may do more justice to it with the name "Ian & Sylvia - You Were On My Mind [HD]+" - a "+" for first revision. I hope people check it out. Take care.

@winny1203

42w

Loved your vid of this great original song, only your spinning albums got me dizzy!!

@pgsawchuk

36w↑1

This song was composed by Sylvia Fricker alone. It is performed here by Slyvia Fricker and Ian Tyson...i.e. Ian and Sylvia.

@matchrocket1702

1y↑2

I remember playing this album back in the 60's. This song especially. It's my favorite version of it.

@reginalddunlop5749

1y↑1

I hear ya. Colvin & Earle is the only thing that comes close.

@charleskesner1302

3y↑6

Fond memories of this. Love their harmony and rhe autoharp. Thanks for sharing.

@squeakystool

1y↑1

RIP Ian, so sad to hear about his passing.

@dalebickham2666

2y↑4

Just a perfect and complimentary duo

@andrewjwheelerjr275

6y↑9

this is beauuuuuuutiful who ever covers it so lovely and sweet like miss Sylvia in these slides love this classic gem of a tune well known and respected by the we five who made it a treasure of their own style of music yet again still sounding beauuuuuuutiful by Ian and Sylvia I love them all so very much yes indeeedy😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂.

@davidwpinkston4226

130k views with 1k thumbs up tells the story

@gelliegelatina

25w

Great video work, for a healthy change!! And needless to say AN EXCEPTIONALLY EXCELLENT SONG ✌🏽✌🏿💗✌🏿✌🏽

@robertobrien9706

6y↑56

Thanks for posting this original version. It's nice to hear the mix of the 12-string guitar, the autoharp, and two of the richest voices ever recorded together.

@bazthehandyman

5y↑1

Well said Robert.

@bisonette5

Not the original version. Re-done. Original much better. I have ALL of their albums.

@GaryLarsonRoots

4y↑5

I missed this comment when it was made 4 months ago. This video version of the song was recorded from the original 1964 Vanguard Ian & Sylvia album "Northern Journey" (purchased in the 1960s). I don't believe there were any other Ian & Sylvia versions back then, but if you have any information on why that old Vanguard album didn't have the version you think it should have had, I'd be interested in any details.

@davidj.7779

4y↑1

@@bisonette5 Help me please!! Ian & Sylvia recorded an up-tempo song in French, in their usual close harmony that I really loved and listened to literally hundreds of times. Unfortunately, I do not speak French so never quite got the title down, maybe something like "Vla la bon vent" but probably way off. At one time in the 70s, I had just about every album they had released but I lost all my records in a move. This song is one I'd love to hear again, if I can ever track it down. Can you possibly figure out what song I'm talking about and reply with the title and the name of the album it was on?

@mikehillas

@@davidj.7779 Looking at an LP "The Best of Ian and Sylvia" (Vanguard # VSD-79269 (stereo) ), the title is V'La Le Bon Vent". So you nailed it. It originally appeared on "Four Strong Winds", Vanguard VSD-2149 (stereo).

3 More Replies...

@annaritaranalli1791

3y↑1

Gorgeous looking and talented pair.....and guitars are amazing

@rutabagasteu

20w

I used to have their albums, 3 of them, on reel to reel tapes.

@danieljackson654

How wonderful is this

@nemo-nb3gh

4y↑11

Thanks so much for the upload and the information !!! I did not know that Sylvia Tyson of Ian and Sylvia wrote this song back in 1962 . The pop group We Five recorded and gave it world wide exposure . If memory serves , I think We Five left out the lines I got drunk, I got sick , because their management probably thought that would prevent their recording from being a hit or would be censored on the mainstream radio stations . Its really great to hear this original . I hope Sylvia got her royalties , but doubtful , you know how greedy and thieving the entertainment business is....

@PHJimY

4y↑1

I'm sure that she did. Both versions were well known during the folk boom of the sixties. Every folkie knew that it was written by Sylvia Tyson.

@PHJimY

3y↑3

This was Sylvia's first composition. Four Strong Winds was Ian's first composition. Both amazingly strong beginnings.

@grimelisonkalman3318

3y↑3

I love this one!!!

@Bogframe

1y↑1

RIP Ian

@reginabirchall5160

1y↑8

Nanci Griffith does an excellent version on "Other Voices, Too." She was a student of folk history and brought many unsung troubadours their due respect.

@thekhakikid4311

WOW... 😯... Excellent...

@dennidendorfer4860

4y↑1

Klasse, die Originalversion. Danke!!!

@annecohen8927

2y↑1

This is a best as it gets. I have Northern Journey. I am hoping to hear something called Antelope, from Ian and Sylvia with Sylvia singing, before the next song Miriam, with Sylvia and the cellos and the piano. it's on the album of Ian and Sylvia, columbia Legacy record side 3. and of course Ian and Sylvia titled album cover of You Were On My Mind. And the last track on side three is Long Lonesome Road.

@stellaercolani3810

4y↑2

Love the video.

@robertorodriguez-re3je

1y↑1

This song was very popular in South America in the 60's in the version of L'equipe 84 (Italian: "Io ho in mente te") and the Spanish version of "Los Iracundos" (my mind in you). More cheerful danceable versions.

@roderickreilly3077

42w

Always preferred this "grittier" version with full lyrics.

@goldenfleecewarren

4y↑1

Beautiful

@vidiot9006

4y↑25

Having only recently discovering this original version, this is my favorite after having grown up with the well known pop version

@ViolettaD1485

4y↑1

The song never made sense before. The pop version is catchy, but too upbeat for the lyrics. It's a lament and an "F.O." song

@anthonyggood6102

ViolettaD1485 which pop version?

@ViolettaD1485

4y↑1

@@anthonyggood6102
We Five.

@anthonyggood6102

4y↑1

ViolettaD1485 Crispian St. Peter’s did a great sixties version

@jacksonmorganfroghin4815

4y↑2

After all this time, my favorite version of this great song are The Bangles. ....Because Susanna.

@francinegray9383

6y↑21

Just a straight folk version, mixing two beautiful voices. Why the criticism?

@josebelindo1641

5y↑2

Sylvia heard We 5s version on the car radio [ the intro sounds like Walk Right in Sit Right Down ]

@PHJimY

5y↑1

@@josebelindo1641 Did she like what they had done with her song? I'm sure she made a bunch of money from their rendition.

@TheMick777777

4y↑3

It was another time and people currently didn't see how music developed over 6 decades. I'm very grateful to hear this slower original version by the original artists.

@KRW628

I've only heard the We Five version. Never knew this existed. Wow!

@scottziegler4238

Well, Ian wrote it. Without this version, the We Five version wouldn't exist.

@KRW628

It is interesting to hear the original versions of so many Top 40 hits.

@antoniocandidomigueis6538

1y↑1

This version sounds like early sixties (has ,indeed, a similar sound like "I ll never find another you" to The Seekers) but my favorite version of this tune was perfomed by Cristian St. Peters.

@chariotdrvr14

6y↑15

Glad you posted this. I never heard the original. I like it. Both theirs and the We Five are equally great for different reasons. But the spinning album covers on the video were literally making me dizzy.

@TheScunneredMan

The transitions, as they are called, are too repetitive. Agree, make eyes boggles. Transitions: Handle with care.

@frafrafrafrafra

3y↑1

Check out the Italian version from Equipe 84

@ruf1980

Hard to believe this is the original one. Anyway the 1981 cover by english band the Barracudas will always be my favourite version, so raw and powerful.

@brotherthor8699

6y↑6

Sounds like early sixties - cool !!

@haroldfinz4863

5y↑5

Thanks for posting this. I've been wondering for a while about the We Five version, which seemed to come out of thin air. It's clear to me now -- brilliant creativity, embellished. I can give 2 other examples -- Dylan's Watchtower immortalized by Hendrix, and Carole King's "Will you love me tmw," which the 4 seasons reworked into something totally different. These aren't the uninspired covers of songs that only served to fill in the tracks of LPs.

@minnowpd

5y↑2

Patsy Cline re=worked Willie Nelson's "Crazy" did such a good job its still #1 on the juke-box.

@sportsmediaamerica

I thought The Shirelles did "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" They had a huge hit with it.

@PHJimY

6y↑9

Often people prefer the version of a song that they hear first. That's probably the reason that I prefer this version to We Five's. I was disappointed when I first heard We Five, but I'm sure that if you heard them before you knew who Ian & Sylvia were, you might prefer their version.
Where are We Five now? Ian and Sylvia are both still playing, often to sell out crowds (though no longer together).

@christinagould3792

6y↑5

Sylvia wrote this song. She can sing it however she likes as far as I'm concerned.

@billpranty9476

5y↑3

Absolutely. I heard We Five's version first, and it totally destroys this bland original.

@mickflaire

> Monday, 2/8/21, 1:04 pm: I just saw a Facebook post a few minutes ago about the back story of this song, which led me here. I had no idea before that!

@lebarosky

6y↑1

A great folk duo and a great song. I respect this music but it's just a wavering flame next to the roaring bonfire that is rock n roll. Covers in rock genre of this material are a good example.

@doccyclopz

RIP Ian.

@sportsmediaamerica

2y↑40

Mike Stewart, the We Five founder, did a fantastic job of elevating this simple folkie effort into a majestic pop anthem and one of the biggest hit records ever. He should've received a co-write credit but probably didn't. This original is fun to hear but the remake is worth listening to a hundred times over. Glad I finally heard this, though.

@ddwieland

2y↑13

Because of your comparison, I just listened to the We Five version. It's certainly much more heavily produced and of course has three more voices to harmonize. But I found it rather raucous and too "poppy" to be an improvement. To each his own, or course, but no interpreter of a song deserves to be considered a co-writer. I imagine Sylvia's grateful for the royalties from anyone who records her song though.

@reuireuiop0

2y↑5

Across the pond, We Five is only known by afficionados. It's Crispian St Peters all over, who scored another hit he again copped from an American duo, the Changing Times, " the Pied Piper".
Thus, we Europeans never think of a woman's voice in On my mind, but a rich baritone. Not unpleasant, I must say.

@coinneachmaclellan3121

2y↑3

I've always liked both versions much in the same way that the Byrds' version of "Mr Tambourine Man" stands on it's own as re-imagining rather than copy.

@theID2

1y↑3

a very nice way of saying this was garbage .... which it was.

@sambac2053

1y↑8

Arrangement is a different function and a different credit than writing. He certainly should have gotten arrangement credit if he arranged it, but he didn't write it.

12 More Replies...

@stratmen

5y↑18

My favourite version of this tune was performed by We Five.

@allisunwunderland8201

3y↑4

Understood.
However, this duo were the original artists. Sylvia wrote it in a bathtub in Greenwich Village. I believe they are both good but different!

@pcno2832

@@allisunwunderland8201 The Crispian St. Peters version is also good, but different still. It's good to have all three.

@davidleigh443

3y↑1

We Five had Beverly Bivens so it would be an unfair comparison.

@MatteoCroceteknoraver

Bellissima

@e.b.gilligan7423

3y↑5

I had more appreciate for Ian Tyson's later solo career before seeing the duo in the film Festival Express. They had undeniable chemistry, including their songwriting, in their early days together.

@BegToDiffer99

How very cool.

@benjaminbarrera214

6y↑3

Very much like Mitch and Mickey from 'A Might Wind', especially with that autoharp.

@PHJimY

They were obviously doing a take-off on Ian & Sylvia.

@ghostspirit52

6y↑2

I would like to amend my last post, from 2 months ago. Sometimes you need to listen to a song a few times, or more like 20, in this case and you start to appreciate the song and it's artists. So I can honestly say, I truly enjoy the song. They actually did a great job. However I still think the group. 'We Five', have the song more of an upbeat 'Tempo'! Thanks for the post and comments... The ever sincere... Ghost!!!

@simone9707

4y↑3

Great song - thanks for uploading. But those spinning images give me a headache.

@timothyfoleyjr2796

4y↑8

It’s hard to criticize two great singers and songwriters. This original version is nowhere near as dynamic as the covered version by ‘The We Five’, but it is head and shoulders more poignant . The line “I got drunk and / I got sick and / I came home” turned into “So I went to the corner / just to ease my pain / just to ease my pain “ . . . This song was totally reconstruct to make it more ambiguous, to get by the censorship that was prominent on and in American Broadcasting. It was also heavily layered, in production; which was routinely done, in the studio, to give the sound that “wall of sound” feel. Nevertheless, ‘The We Five’ version was and is a classic and went to #3 on the Billboard 100.

@sidgysoho1960

2y↑1

Well you have made 1 old dude ( 63 ) very happy by providing a relevant, informational back story. I too am I big fan of the San Fran group " We Five " version and the recording style known as the " wall of sound " or " California Sound " as I was told in '72. I was living in the " Motown Sound " that year in Windsor across from Detroit. And then there was the " Philly Sound " & the Swamp Sound of Muscle Shoals. Phil Spector hatched the Wall Sound at Sunset Sounds and created many tunes and recordings that will live in infamy. Check out " California Dreamin' " School of Rock version for an updated classic. If only I had know what i was hearing in 1962 and had the vision to know where it was headed. Peace Brother.

@gt40mk21

I never heard this original until years after the Wee Five cover, which was such a big hit. It was certainly L-A-ified for pop radio, though a good example of that. But the original I find much more interesting as a simpler folk tune, and as timothy foleyjr has said, really more emotionally raw. Their harmonizing and the Leadbelly-style of Ian's twelve-string give it a more genuine feel.

@steviesevieria1868

@@gt40mk21 “genuine feel” certainly lacking from your pretentious post. It’s just a style of music, that folk music style was just as carefully constructed as the wall of sound.

@gt40mk21

@@steviesevieria1868 I didn't write the post. I wrote the reply which is in keeping with your feelings about it.

@steviesevieria1868

@@gt40mk21 no I don’t think so, I’m agreeing with the original post and disagreeing with you. Folk music is pretentious crap. We five was much better.

@reuireuiop0

Intro & guitar accompanying makes me think a lot of Walk Right in by the Rooftop Singers.
Don't know which came first though.

@PHJimY

2y↑1

Good question. Sylvia wrote this in 1963 and it was released in 1964.
The Rooftop Singers' cover of Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In" was releasedin 1963 and was many folks' introduction to the sound of the 12-string guitar.
In the early sixties, Ian often played the 12-string and owned a very early Gibson B45 12-string with sloped shoulders and extra long headstock. Later versions of the B45, like Gord Lightfoot played, had square shoulders.
I believe Ian's B45 was stolen soon after Northern Journey came out.

@kristinehatkinson7323

12w

You need to hear more of Ian's guitar. His deep thrumming was a signature. This was before everybody went electric, remember...

@mrob1960

4y↑8

This is such a fine song, I love all versions, but for me Cristian St Peters just shades it.

@Autostade67

5y↑10

It's true - though it's hard not to like the We Five version, it's a mid-60's 'go-go' arrangement of what was always intended as a folk/folk-country/folk-roots 'hard livin' song. To say the We Five version is better is a little irrelevant (and irreverent), and to admit that it is what it is: a pop song (no crime there)...for what it's worth, Ian and Sylvia carried on well into the 70s (at least here in Canada) with successful careers. I'm not sure what happened to We Five after about 1966...

@Storel79

All Music Guide says We Five were not quite one-hit wonders -- they had a second single in 1966 that barely made the top 40 -- but they broke up in 1967.

@davidlenander

28w

@@Storel79 However, the band was reconstituted (but I think without lead singer Bev Bivans) for several more albums, and they toured some with different line-ups for some time, later. There are two albums from that original line-up, and several more on Apple Music and probably the other services. Though one of those maybe old home recordings of the band from before they recorded their first album.

@johnabramson1031

Who is playing second guitar? Danny Kalb?

@rpmhart

2y↑1

It seems a shame that nobody's remixed this to bring her voice up in it. She's buried in the background, and it seems like it'd be a stronger song if that were done.

@redcan5254

Ian Tyson:

🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖👖🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁🏁

January 3 2023 (0136 hrs)

@mauriceheter735

Sylvia wrote it

@Charon58

Ian Tyson was a great songwriter and I guess Sylvia Fricker wasn’t bad either

@markmarkofkane8167

4y↑2

I prefer this version to We Five's.

@annaritaranalli1791

3y↑1

I agree
...and it is also much better than italian cover

@andrewhanson5942

29w

I can see why this arrangement didn't make quite the hit that the We Five version did. Just being honest here.

@kristinehatkinson7323

12w

"Arrangement" ! If I&S hadn't done this, We Five were nowhere.

@andrewhanson5942

12w

@@kristinehatkinson7323 Didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings. Just not the kind of recording to appeal to a large audience.

@lanceadcox2376

3y↑1

Has a similar sound to The Seekers “I’ll Never Find Another You”

@ihatedinonuggets

I can hear that a little

@joycerichardson1810

10w

Love the Seekers. "I'll Never Find Another You" is a gorgeous song written by Tom Springfield.

@Marcel_Audubon

6y↑1

listening to this makes me appreciate just how perfect the We Five arrangement of the same song was!

@foureyedchick

6y↑4

I like the version by We Five better.

@ThePEAnderson

4y↑2

Sylvia Tyson nee Fricker wrote it.

@mrob1960

4y↑3

In my opinion Cristian St Peters Uk no 2 version is the stand out recording of this song.

@eyeshandy

He looks like Peter Serafinowicz

@59Alaskan

3y↑5

I like the The 5's version so much better!!

Good vocals here tho...

@deanharvey7556

6y↑26

In my opinion We Five certainly did a much better version.

@lynneceegee8726

6y↑3

And Crispian St Peters had the no 1 in the UK with it, probably around 1966 or so.

@terrihenricks4160

6y↑3

We Five certainly came up with a more commercially appealing version. "Wounds to bind" hardly stands out here but was made an unforgettable line by We Five.

@christinagould3792

6y↑4

If you like pop music. Sylvia, the author of the song, does it best in the classic folk style. I personally can't stand the pop version.

@stevew3879

6y↑2

Dean Harvey What you say is true, but then it's probably because we are most used to the We Five version. I actually like the more folk version that this one is. That's not to say I don't think that We Five version is better. I do. But if this is the original, it sounds like we five did an excellent interpretation of it. This one seems to be more folk music style, whereas we five is more pop/rock

@mattmarzula

@@stevew3879 is double talk and pandering fun for you? Stick to your damned guns man! If you like it more and think that it's better then just say so.

1 More Replies...

@TheZeevik

folklore

@user-ks3ol3lw3b

37w↑1

I just learned of this original version. It's a different genre, but the We Five version is head and shoulders better. You need to stop and think about the role of the producer in recording. A song doesn't turn itself into a record - someone has to decide the instrumentation, the vocal style, the tempo, the exact arrangement of parts played. This version is jumpy in an odd way, and bare bones - folk singer-songwriter style, and if you like that, there's nothing at all wrong with it. But the We Five pop version caught the Beatles-inspired spirit of the mid-60s perfectly. More rhythmic, more enthusiastic, more rock & roll. The change of production in the We Five version really did make the song, which is weak here. Opinion, goes without saying - except I have to say it anyway.

@davethebarber62920

6y↑13

Sylvia looks like Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years.

@annaritaranalli1791

Very beautiful and photogenic brunette....and underrate singer

@PHJimY

2y↑1

@@annaritaranalli1791 She still performs to sell out crowds in Canada. I wouldn't call her underrated.
Did any of the We Five have a crreer that's still active?

@annaritaranalli1791

Not ,i.didn't

@annaritaranalli1791

Who is winnie cooper?

@davethebarber62920

@@annaritaranalli1791 She was a character on a show called The Wonder Years played by Danika McKellar.

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@Marcel_Audubon

5y↑2

amazing that We Five could find their magnificent song buried deep in this crapfest about getting drunk and sick !!

@MrMusicguyma

4y↑3

Marcel, apparently unlike many young people, you have never gotten drunk and sick. It can be a learning experience that one is not anxious to repeat. So you miss the point entirely. Further, without this song, there would be no We Five song, capish? If you could write a better song than this "crapfest" as you term it , where can we hear it?

@PHJimY

4y↑2

Where are We Five today? Did they ever do anything after covering Sylvia's song?
Ian and Sylvia both still have loyal followings and manage to sell out venues.

@TheMick777777

4y↑1

@@MrMusicguyma Amen brother. Many do not realize the gratitude they/(we) owe original art and artists.

@scottziegler4238

Lots of hate from dumbass boomers who only care about pop music.

@billhaywood3503

Ian died and I started to re-listen to ian and sylvia songs-- I never listened to the we five who embodied 70's mediocrity before the 70's --they took a lovely song and turned it into manufactured schlock. What appalls me about their version is how manufactured it sounds --typical of the 70's (though it predates it by 5 years) --the we five destroyed a great song and in doing so reveald how "singing" was changing even during he 60's I had not realized that by 1965 the rot was setting in--one can almost hear the corporate maneuvering behind it.

@tubularbill

3y↑1

The original Mitch & Mickey...lol

@bodensick

5y↑1

We Five did a better version...Sylvia wrote it. She recounts hearing We Five version on the radio not realizing that it was being covered. Hope she got a check from the record company.

@PHJimY

4y↑1

bodensick - A more accurate statement from you would have been, "I like We Five's version better." That doesn't mean it IS better. People who were into the pop Go-Go scene would have preferred We Five. People into the acoustic folk scene would prefer Ian & Sylvia's.

@bodensick

4y↑1

Hey, not knockin' Ian & Sylvia or folk rock, but I do prefer We Five's version. Michael Stewart's arrangement took the song places that folk music wouldn't allow it to go (just ask Dylan, he knows what it's like to take folk to another level).

@PHJimY

@@bodensick Right. . .another level, not necessarily a better level. Somelike their music poppy, some prefer more rootsy. It's all relative and one isn't better than the other.
Granted, folk music won't make as much $$$ as pop. If that's what you mean by "took the song places that folk music wouldn't allow it to go," then you're right,but money isn't the only reason to play music.

@coolwyld

I feel embarrassed for liking the WeFive cover better

@coolwyld

also the lyric change, i feel more the i got drunk bit

@scottziegler4238

You should be.

@samuelmatz

34w↑1

No disrespect, but the We Five version was much better. 😢 to this recording.

@edwardskaggs8746

6y↑4

We Five did it better...

@PHJimY

5y↑3

Different. . .not better. Better is subjective.

@user-dc6mg2rk8p

43w↑1

We Five is better imho.

@BMWLDRider

30w

Meh

@buxxbannerspov30

33w↑1

Thank God the We Five saved this song ...what an abomination here....

@ghostspirit52

6y↑1

Didn't like it. They shouldn't have changed.

@Marcel_Audubon

6y↑2

they didn't change it, this was an earlier version - We Five was smart enough to drop the bit about getting drunk and sick

@frankschornagel1623

6y↑4

This song was written by Ian and Sylvia. This may not be the most popular version, this is however how they intended it to be performed.

Having said that, I happen to like both versions

@Marcel_Audubon

doesn't matter who wrote it, the American version was far, FAR superior in every respect.

@frankschornagel1623

6y↑4

Marcel Audubon I disagree, it does matter who writes the music and lyrics of a song. In this case Ian and Sylvia had a specific story in mind to tell. This recording is true to that story, the version by We 5 is not.

Like I said earlier, I like both versions.

Which version is better is a matter of subjective opinion.

@BrockenSpecter

6y↑2

Frank, you are 100% correct. I also like both versions. The We Five version is more polished, but this original is wonderful for its rawness and folky quality, and the fact that it tells the story properly. You get the full story from this, in that there is a breakup and the person drowns their sorrows by getting drunk (and subsequently sick) and then decides to take off. The We Five version leaves you scratching your head a bit at the reference about going to the corner, and then just repeating the troubles and worries part.

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