Garden Party (Rick Nelson song)
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"Garden Party" was a 1972 hit song for Rick Nelson from his album Garden Party. It tells of his being booed off the stage at Madison Square Garden, seemingly because he was playing his newer, country-tinged music instead of the 1950s-era rock that he had been successful with earlier, and his realization that "you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself".
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[edit] The concert
On October 15, 1971, a Rock 'n Roll Revival concert was given at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The playbill included many greats of the early rock era, including Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Bobby Rydell. Also included was Ricky Nelson, who had dropped the diminutive of his youth and now preferred to be called Rick.
Nelson came on stage dressed in the then-current fashion, wearing bell-bottoms and a purple velvet shirt, with his hair hanging down to his shoulders. He started playing his older songs "Hello Mary Lou" and "She Belongs to Me", but, then, he played the Rolling Stones hit song "Honky Tonk Woman" and the crowd began to boo. While some reports say that the booing was caused by police action in the back of the audience, Nelson took it personally and left the stage. He watched the rest of the concert backstage and did not take his final bow for the finale.
[edit] The song
The song, released the next year, reached #6 on the charts and earned a gold record. The song tells of various people who were present, frequently in an oblique manner ("Yoko brought her Walrus"), with a quietly defiant chorus:
"But it's all right now, I've learned my lesson well.
"You see, you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself"
One more reference in the lyrics to a particularly mysterious and legendary audience member was his nod to Bob Dylan, using Howard Hughes as a reference point for Dylan's Cold War-style disguise. "Mister Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes, wearin' his disguise.".
[edit] Charts
The song reached #6 on the Billboard charts. Coincidentally, this was at the same time when two other '50s rock legends were on the charts. Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling" was at #1 and Elvis Presley's "Burning Love" at #2.
[edit] Covers
Country singer Johnny Lee recorded a version of the song in the late 1970s, entitled "Country Party", with slightly altered lyrics.
