40,000 Headmen

About 40,000 Headmen

"Roamin' Thro' the Gloamin with 40,000 Headmen" (album title: "Forty Thousand Headmen"), written by Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi, was first recorded by Traffic in 1967 or 1968. It was initially released as B-side to the "No Face, No Name, No Number" single in 1968 and also appears on their second album Traffic. Blood, Sweat & Tears also recorded it on their 1970 album, Blood, Sweat & Tears 3. The protagonist of the song, a profane demi-god, follows the eponymous headmen across the sea, on foot, to a hidden cave where they have stored up a large treasure. Taking as much as he can carry, he travels to a shrine only to find that the headmen have followed him; they open fire, wounding the protagonist but not killing him, and he decides to flee. The dream-like story seems to start and end with his confrontation with the headmen, as if he's experiencing his life in a closed loop. The lyrics were inspired by what Capaldi refers to as "a hash fueled dream." He also described them as "a loon". They have been described as being "an evocation of a dream state". Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi's 1998-99 "40,000 Headmen" reunion tour took its name from this song, despite the fact that Mason had no involvement in the original recording of the song. An album of highlights from this tour has been released. more »

Year:

1970

4:44

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Forty thousand headmen couldn't make me change my mind
If I had to take the choice between the deaf man and the blind
I know just where my feet should go and that's enough for me
I turned around and knocked them down
And walked across the sea.
Hadn't traveled very far when suddenly I saw
Three small ships a sailin' towards a distant shore
So lighting up a cigarette I followed in pursuit
And found a secret cave where they obviously stashed their loot
Filling up my pockets even stuffed it up my nose
I must have weighed a hundred tons between my head and toes
I ventured forth before the dawn had time to change it's mind
And soaring high above the clouds I found a golden shrine.
Laying down my treasure before the iron gate
Quickly rang the bell, hoped I hadn't come too late
But someone came along and told me not to waste my time
And when I asked him who he was he said "Just look behind"
So I turned around and 40,000 headmen bit the dirt
Firing twenty shotguns each and man it really hurt
But luckily for me they had to stop and then reload
And by the time they'd done I was heading down the road.
Heading down the road,
Forty thousand headmen on my trail

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Blood, Sweat & Tears

Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles. What the band is most known for, from its start, is the fusing of rock, blues, pop music, horn arrangements and jazz improvisation into a hybrid that came to be known as "jazz-rock". Unlike "jazz fusion" bands, which tend toward virtuostic displays of instrumental facility and some experimentation with electric instruments, the songs of Blood, Sweat & Tears merged the stylings of rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band, while also adding elements of 20th Century Classical and sma… more »

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