Every Moment Has A Song

Badfinger: “Meanwhile Back At the Ranch/Should I Smoke” (1974)

And speaking of Badfinger…

Sooo many stories associated with this song. First, it’s from an album, Wish You Were Here, from which promotion was withdrawn by Warner Bros. due to money that was stolen by Badfinger’s manager, Stan Polley. For years the album was unavailable, even into the CD era, and the music never got the recognition due it. It was just one more tough break for a band who had more than anyone, leading eventually to the suicides of two of its members. The story of this band is one of the most heartbreaking in all of pop music.

The song itself was created by stitching together parts of songs by Pete Ham (“Meanwhile…”) and Joey Molland (“Should I Smoke”), a tactic that had previously proven successful, to say the least, when Ham had written the verses and Molland the chorus of what would be a monster hit by Harry Nilsson, “Without You”.

Ham’s lyric was inspired by an affair he was having with the wife of a band roadie, and the condemnation he received for it.