Nuggets II: The Bitter Thoughts Of Little Jane by Timon

Able to play the fiddle and sing at the same time, Timon’s best known for his collaborations with Joe Strummer.

The Bitter Thoughts Of Little Jane—Timon

• Track 90, disc 4
• Year: 1967
• From: London, England.

9/10

More about Nuggets II

Credits

4/9. THE BITTER THOUGHTS OF LITTLE JANE – Timon (U.K.)
(Timon Dogg)

PERSONNEL/TIMON DOGG: vocals * [plus unknown session musicians – but reportedly Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones]
Produced by JOHN SCHROEDER
Recorded in London, England
Pye single #7N-17451 (1967)

Timon Dogg

Stephen Murray grew up in Liverpool, playing at the Cavern at 15. He was only 18 when he released ‘The Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane’.

Nuggets spells his name as Timon Dogg, but he’s usually known as Timon or as Tymon Dogg.

The Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane

Tymon Dogg taught himself to sing and play fiddle simultaneously, giving his later solo work a more rogueish, rootsy air. This debut single is baroque pop. It’s similar to The Left Banke or playful Paul McCartney, although Timon’s voice is less polished.

John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page also played on this single. It’s a terrific record, even if Dogg would shortly go in a different direction.

The wistful melody, nursery-rhyme lyrics, and oh-so-precious vocal on “The Bitter Thoughts Of Little Jane” tag it immediately as pop-psych lite, but there’s a much darker side here. Sweet, solitary, tight-lipped little Jane keeps her hatred all balled up inside, and while the other children blissfully play with their toys, she dreams of the day “she’ll find a head to pound on.” It could easily be the soundtrack to one of Edward Gorey’s morbid, Victorian-obsessed comic strips.

Mike Stax, Nuggets II liner notes

The Aftermath

Dogg’s career never kicked on – he recorded tracks for The Beatles’ Apple Records, which were never released. Recording sessions with The Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward resulted in the single ‘Now She Says She’s Young’.

But Dogg broke away from baroque pop – he later told Ian Anderson that “I took off on my own. Completely, from 1970. I was like hiding out from anybody I had a contract with. I met up with these students who were a bit intrigued because they were all in college, St Martin’s and that, so I used to just crash on their floors.”

Tymon Dogg fell in with the next generation of musicians. He squatted with Joe Strummer – the pair busked together, and Dogg appeared on The Clash’s Sandinista! ‘Lose This Skin’ was Dogg with The Clash as his backing band. He also flatted with The Slits.

Dogg eventually released a debut album in 1976. He’s best known for his collaborations with Joe Strummer in The Mescaleros from 1999 to 2002.

Read More

• Nuggets II Song by Song
• 1960s Album Reviews

[the-post-grid id=”59701″ title=”More Nuggets”]