Lazy Sunday by Small Faces

Album: Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake (1968)

Charted: 2

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Songfacts®:

This Steve Marriott-penned song has a traditional East End of London Music Hall sound. Keyboardist Ian McLagan recalled to Uncut magazine: "When Steve came in with this it was slower. We started taking the piss out of it while he was out of the room. The 'Root-ti-doo-ti-di-day' thing stop and he laughed when he came back in and heard us. So we cut it like that. It was a piss take!"
Marriott sung much of the song in a greatly exaggerated cockney accent. Drummer Kenney Jones told Uncut: "Steve had been a child actor, he was the first Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart's Oliver in the West End. He brought back that theatricality to this."
Marriott was against his manager Andrew Loog Oldham's decision to release this as a single and that was one reason why he left the group shortly afterwards. Jones recalled to Uncut: "We were on tour in Germany, picked up Melody Maker and this was a hit! Andrew had released it without our knowledge, like 'My Mind's Eye.' So this dragged us back into poppy-land. We wanted to be known for being as good as the Claptons of this world. We wanted a tougher image. It wasn't a fair representation of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake.
The song features various sound effects including crowd shouts, chirping birds, surf, and church bells. If you listen closely, you can hear a loo being flushed just after Marriott sings, "while you flush out the moon."

Comments: 8

Rob from BrisbaneI liked it in '68 and 56 years later I still do.
Mark from GeelongI'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet. The magic "F" word appears loud and strong in this song. Immediately after the lines "They stop me from groovin', They bang on me wall", you can hear "f--k the neighbours". There's all this racket going on and it just sounds like it's part of it. It's not sung. It starts loud and fades toward the end. Somebody lip-synced it for me, and once you hear it, it's obvious.
Chris S from NorfolkOn page 123 of the excellent book 'All or Nothing' by Simon Spence there is the reference 'Marriot's yell of "Fxxk the neighbours" was disguised but still audible on the finished record'
Peter Doyle from Bray, Co. Wicklow, Irelandsuss out the moon is a euphemism for taking care of the elimination of your body's solid waste. suss means to to take care of something and moon is the buttocks or bottom both cockney slang expressions. If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of a toilet flushing.
Kris from UkIt's definitely "suss out" not "flush out" the moon. Though what it means, the mind boggles. Probably nothing at all. It just fits the music. This is the thing with song lyrics. They don't 'mean' anything, it's just an accompaniment to the music.
Tony from Uk"To sing in your karzi while you suss out the moon" - 'karzi' is cockney slang for 'toilet'.
Max from OxfordNot 100% sure the words are 'flush out the moon', instead 'to sing in your bathroom while you suss out the moon' would fit far better into the Happiness Stan theme of the album.
Max from Oxford"Gor blimey 'allo Mrs Jones, How's your Bert's lumbago? (Now mustn't grumble...)". Who else would get away with a line like this is into a song? I suspect very few vocalists could - possibly Ian Hunter. Marriott (bless him) was a master at singing in a cod Cockney accent and this comes to the fore on "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" where certain phrases are embellished with an exaggerated Cockney flat 'a' sound at the end of a sentence. (Pronounced as the 'a' in 'at'). Example: in 'Rene' he sings 'love is like an 'ole in the wall-a, a lineup in the warehaase, no trouble at all, and if you've got the munnee, you'll have a ball... she'll 'ave yours-a' etc.

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